Children in Colonial America / / ed. by James Marten.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Adin, Mariah,; Bell, J. L.,; Diptee, Audra Abbe,; Estrada, Dorothy Tanck de,; Fryer, Darcy R.,; Greven, Philip J.,; Hemphill, C. Dallett,; Kattner, Lauren Ann,; Marten, James,; Navin, John J.,; Pacholl, Keith,; Romero, R. Todd,; Wall, Helena M.,; Wickham, Parnel,
• TeilnehmendeR: Greven, Philip J.
• HerausgeberIn: Marten, James,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2006]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Language: English
• Series: Children and Youth in America ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

The Pilgrims and Puritans did not arrive on the shores of New England alone. Nor did African men and women, brought to the Americas as slaves. Though it would be hard to tell from the historical record, European colonists and African slaves had children, as did the indigenous families whom they encountered, and those children's life experiences enrich and complicate our understanding of colonial America.Through essays, primary documents, and contemporary illustrations, Children in Colonial America examines the unique aspects of childhood in the American colonies between the late sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries. The twelve original essays observe a diverse cross-section of children-from indigenous peoples of the east coast and Mexico to Dutch-born children of the Plymouth colony and African-born offspring of slaves in the Caribbean-and explore themes including parenting and childrearing practices, children's health and education, sibling relations, child abuse, mental health, gender, play, and rites of passage.Taken together, the essays and documents in Children in Colonial America shed light on the ways in which the process of colonization shaped childhood, and in turn how the experience of children affected life in colonial America.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I Race and Colonization -- 1 Indian Children in Early Mexico -- 2 Colonizing Childhood -- 3 Imperial Ideas, Colonial Realities -- Documents -- “The Younger Sort Reverence the Elder” -- “I Have Often Been Overcome While Thinking on It” -- Part II Family and Society -- 4 Sibling Relations in Early American Childhoods -- 5 “I Shall Beat You, So That the Devil Shall Laugh at It” -- 6 “Improved” and “Very Promising Children” -- Documents -- “A Dutiful and Affectionate Daughter” -- “A Most Agreeable Family” -- Part III Cares and Tribulations -- 7 “Decrepit in Their Early Youth” -- 8 Idiocy and the Construction of Competence in Colonial Massachusetts -- 9 “My Constant Attension on My Sick Child” -- Documents -- “I Had Eight Birds Hatcht in One Nest” -- Part IV Becoming Americans -- 10 From German Catholic Girls to Colonial American Women -- 11 “Let Both Sexes Be Carefully Instructed” -- 12 From Saucy Boys to Sons of Liberty -- Documents -- “Though I Was Often Beaten for My Play” -- “A Bookish Inclination” -- In Search of the Historical Child -- Suggested Readings -- About the Contributors -- Index