How did the daily lives of women change from the colonial era up to the civil war?
Women were vital to the survival of the early colonists. The Virginia House of Burgesses, petitioning in 1619 that women as well as men be eligible for grants of free land, wrote “It be not known whether man or woman be more necessary.” They were so desperate to get women to come to the colonies, that young women willing to go were offered free passage and a trousseau. When they married, their husbands had to reimburse the company with 120 pounds of good leaf tobacco. Women were responsible for producing the clothing and foodstuffs necessary for survival. they would spend hours every day spinning wool or flax into thread to make clothing. The cloth shortage was so accute in New england that law suits were fought over a missing blanket, or a hole burned in handkerchief. Flax was spun on a spinning wheel sitting down, but wool was spun on a much larger wheel and women stood to do the work. In a full day of spinning, a woman could walk over twenty miles. Women brewed the beer which was dr
