Sturbridge+Village

= = = Topic........................... The family's work. =


 * Example 1:** The father of the family would be the main worker and would usually own a big business like a farm.

//Pri Source evidence:// My father's history is necessarily connected with that of his brother, Ebenezer, as they were partners in business for some twenty five years, and for a considerable portion of that time owned all their property in common, carrying on a farm and his brother after the printing. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=987


 * Example 2:** The children would help out a lot on the farm, inside the house, or even be lent out to neighbors for money.

//Pri Source evidence:// 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 barn. 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. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=577


 * Example 3:** If your family was lucky enough to have a tavern the father would mainly run it. It was another great way to produce money for the family as that is what the fathers did.

//Pri Source evidence://. For about fifteen years he and his family fed man and beast, and poured barrels of rum and brandy for thirsty travelers and fellow townsmen alike in his establishment on the Sturbridge common. Today only a few definite things can be said about him, based on public records and his surviving daybook. We can conjecture from the few facts that are known to us, however, that he was an affable host, competent businessman, and loving husband and father, who like many of his contemporaries experienced both boom times and business setbacks, personal joys and tragedies in the precarious society of ante-bellum Massachusetts. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=1934


 * Example 4:** The mother would mainly spend her time making cloth from sheep's wool.

//Pri source evidence:// Before the coming of the factory, cloth was made entirely by hand. Every yard of woolen or linen cloth represented many hours of work, from the raw processing of sheep’s wool and flax*, through the washing, combing and carding of the fibers, to spinning and weaving. In New England, women did the bulk of this work, particularly the central processes of spinning and weaving. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=1107

= Topic... Holidays. =


 * Example 1:** New Year's Day.

//Pri Source evidence:// It was acknowledged by exchanging New Year’s greetings and sometimes settling accounts with trading partners. Less frequently, presents were exchanged or a New Year’s Ball was attended. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=1104


 * Example 2:** Independence Day

//Pri source evidence:// July the 4th, was one of the two most important and widely celebrated holidays in early nineteenth-century New England. It was celebrated with church services, patriotic orations, processions, public dinners for the men followed by toasts, and dances in the evenings. Picnics with cold meat, bread, and cheese, were popular but the most common reference is to Independence Cake. Similar to a modern day coffeecake, and like the Election Day cake, it was made with flour, yeast, spices, and currants or raisins. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=1104


 * Example 3:** Thanksgiving Day

//Pri Source evidence:// It was the most important annual holiday in New England. Every year, a day of thanksgiving was proclaimed separately by the governor of each New England state. Thanksgiving was always on a Thursday, but its date varied between late November and early December. (Thanksgiving was not a national holiday until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a holiday of thanksgiving.) Thanksgiving was celebrated with church services in the morning followed by feasting the rest of the day. Since this is the ultimate food holiday, many traditions about Thanksgiving foods started in the early nineteenth century. Roasted turkey, chicken pie, turnip, squash, onions, bread, plum pudding, mince and pumpkin pies were traditional foods. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=1104


 * Example 4:** Washington’s Birthday

//Pri source evidence:// It was an increasingly observed holiday, often marked by orations, balls and formal dinners where men drank toasts to political leaders and causes. Washington Cake was traditionally served along with various punches. http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=1104


 * Conclusion:**