children+in+rural+New+England+ksr


 * **Title** || **All Work and a Little Play: Children in Rural New England** ||   ||
 * **Author** |||| **Jack Larkin** ||


 * Today, the realms of work and childhood are sharply separated. But in early rural New England, work was still seen as virtually continuous with life itself. Children's work was needed in a rural economy with few labor-saving devices, and virtually all parents believed that idleness was a source of moral evil **.

Now-a-days kids don’t work as they did back in New England in early 19th century, kid’s back then works for a living because the towns needed it, most of the parents in the 19 century thought that not doing work was a sin and it caused devils hands.

** In the countryside, the work of the farm and the life of the family were so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. There was such a range of necessary tasks to be done that small and unskilled hands could have just as much to do as older and more knowledgeable ones. From the ages of six or seven on, farm girls and boys were indispensable members of the family labor force. Children began with simple chores like shelling corn or weeding the garden, and took on increasingly difficult tasks as they grew up. Young girls worked along-side their mothers and older sisters learning how to sew, cook, wash, and tend to the dairy. Boys labored with their fathers and brothers in the fields and around the ba ** rn.

Work on the farm and family life was so connected that you could not tell it apart. There were so many chores to do that the kids with no skill did just as much as the adults did to work. Girls and boys from the age of 6 to 7 were members of the family and did just as much labor. The small kids started off with simple jobs like shelling corn or weeding the garden. As they grew up the girls worked with their mothers learning how to sew, cook, wash, and take care of the farm animals. The boys worked with their fathers in the fields and worked around the barn as well.

** The pressure of work on children was greatest among poorer families, who often "hired out" their offspring to neighbors. Working for a few cents a day, boys picked stones out of fields or hauled firewood, while girls did housework and cared for children. Susan Blunt of Merrimac, New Hampshire, remembered spending a week keeping house for a neighbor when she was ten years old. She worked "like a little spider" and got 15 cents. But even among better-off families, the discipline of work was almost never absent. Center village children, whose fathers were ministers, lawyers, printers, or storekeepers did not have a full range of farm tasks to do, but they too recalled that ****
 * their parents kept them bus ** ** y.

The poorer your family was the more work the kids had. The kids worked for other people for a few cents a day, the boys had to pick stones out of fields, haul firewood. The girls did housework and cared for the younger kids. Susan blunt of Merrimac, New Hampshire, recalls spending a while keeping the house up for a neighbor when she was only ten, she work well and got 15 cents. Some village kids who had fathers that were ministers, lawyers, printers, or storekeepers, did not have much farm work but they as well were busy.

** Some social commentators in the 1830s were concerned that as rural society changed, New England children might actually have less work to do than was good for them. But reminiscences of growing up during this period tell us that these alarmists had little to fear; the era of childhood leisure was still far in the future **.

Some people in the 1830s were worried that when the rural New England changed the kids would have less work to do then what was good for them. But people still think and are afraid that the time of child resting time was in the near future.

** The work experiences of early nineteenth-century children have few counterparts in today's middle-class society; but play provides a link across the decades. Over a long span of time, one generation of children has passed its games on to the next through oral traditions that have allowed plenty of room for regional, local, and neighborhood variation but have also preserved many things intact. The rules of marbles and the game of tag, for example, have changed little. Like their counterparts today, early nineteenth-century New England children played fantasy games, told scary stories, hiked, skated, sledded, and jumped rope. Some once-popular pastimes like rolling hoops or playing "The Graces" have faded from memory. Others have been dramatically reshaped over time; the New England game called "town ball" or "rounder" is the ancestor of the present game of baseball **.

In the early 19th century kids have few things in common with today, the main thing that was common was play. The traditions in the past have passed down from one generation of kids to another, this allowed regional, local, and neighborhood character. The games like marbles and tag have changed back then in New England the kids played make believe games, told scary stories, hiked, skated, sledded, and jumped rope. The New England game called town ball and rounder is the present form of what we call baseball.

** The material world of childhood, toys and other possessions, is immensely more abundant today. Toys in the early New England countryside were few and were simple, homemade contrivances; store-bought, shop-made ones were rare. An average American child's possessions today would have astonished even the wealthiest girl or boy of the 183 ** 0s.

The belongings of a kid, toys, and other items, that is way more then what we have today. The toys back then were simple they were homemade contrivances; store-bought, shop-made ones were not common. The average middle-class kid's today belonging would shock even the riches girl or boy in the 1830s.

** Time for children was different as well. Nowadays play is what children are expected to do; it fills the hours not spent in school or on homework. In early rural New England play was an afterthought, taking a very distant second place in adult minds to work routines and responsibilities. Children of the New England past may have enjoyed play all the more, of course, for that very reason **.

the days spent was not the same too, now kids play is what we do everyday when we want after school, but, back then play was not thought about as much, kids back then had more responsibilities then kids now. That is why kids of the 1830s in New England loved play more because they did not get to do it as much.