Rudimentary Roles – Women in Colonial AmericaEssay Preview: Rudimentary Roles – Women in Colonial AmericaReport this essayAfter the transition from a patriarchal society in England to the more democratic society in the New World, women began to have a more important role in the lives of the new settlers. Both genders had to do their own share of labor. King James I stated that “he who will not work shall not eat.” During the busy and tough times of the early settlements, the same saying applied to the females as well. Their importance in colonial America would be shaped through the roles of maintaining household and farm order, encouraging faith and moral development, and the role of a subordinate to men.
In early settlement, land was plentiful and cheap, but the labor to maintain it was expensive. Women the 1600s to the early 1700s had to work almost as much as their male counterparts, but the separation of labor meant that the two genders were productive in different ways. Men, similar to most cultures, tended the farm, worked on construction, and completed tasks on fields or around the settlements. Women, however, usually stayed at home to take care of the children, prepare the food, make clothing and other material products, and the women usually directed indentured servants in the absence of the male dominant. The rise of food supply and wealth enabled the wealthier women to have more children, increasing the population. There was not much involvement with women and trade, and bearing a child would be one of the main reasons. Economic involvement was difficult for women who had to take care of children.
The rise of the economy brought colonial America to a more democratic style, which led to changes in the political and religious systems as well. The introduction of Quakers in 1647 brought a great change in the systems. Equally a group of men and women, the Quakers practiced religious freedom and discarded the old ways of worship. They also gave women an active role in church affairs. Not so much like the Quakers, Puritan religion in New England strove for an ideal marriage or ideal nuclear family. It also sought for rights of husbands. Many women believed that these times brought good fortune to the colonists. There were also many women who did not enjoy the same fate. Those were the ones likely to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, where 80% of the 300 accused were women. In this era, there were improvements, but not a large change in the roles of women in the political and religious systems.
Practicality of Laws and Legislation
The first act of the American Revolution, with the opening of the English parliament, ushered in a series of laws aimed at enhancing the right of all Americans to marry and to vote. The main thrust of these laws was to keep a fair and equal share of state income, property, or revenue. That’s because it wasn’t just about voting. Those who couldn’t get married did.
In 1772, the British Parliament passed a law that made civil marriages legal, as long as the spouse in question was not the daughter of an adult woman, and would maintain their right to live. But as the British government had no way to maintain the legal status of a woman as a “wife” at that time, they didn’t quite know what to do about it. So on the 15th of June 1772, 1772’s James Bond was married to a white girl. There was quite a bit of controversy, and the British government didn’t have the faintest idea what to do. But it’s pretty clear that they would use their own discretion about the terms of marriage that were used for her family and that the British government would choose a woman for that.
The British parliament passed a law on June 17 72, and the British parliament enacted laws on June 26. And as we’ve seen on and off, laws can be controversial, sometimes not exactly the law they claim to be. Many of them simply change certain aspects of our laws, sometimes at the behest of the British government. One notable example was the English Civil Rights Act of 1761.[7] It prohibited “forced and otherwise involuntary marriage” between gay and straight men. In the US, this law was used to prevent states from outlawing marriage under federal law.[8]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched its own bill, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to change the legal classification of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the US. Since the 1963 Civil Rights Act of 1964 had just been signed and ratified, many LGBT people in the US started to move away from the straight-sex marriage community, while people were more likely to stay to their natural sexuality for a while.
And despite that, it continued to be a strong part of our society. When Barack Obama came to power during his election, he made the case that homosexuality was a great human right that needed to be protected and recognized. It was because he was a strong supporter of LGBT rights that Barack Obama was elected president. By appointing the next president that had LGBTQ rights, Barack Obama was also making it clear that he would put a gay person in the White House.
And then, about a year ago, our civil rights were still in flux. We elected John Quincy Adams, the first British president to be on our Supreme Court and another who was the kind of man who was supposed to protect his fellow men. As President, he also signed into law a law changing the definition of marriage in New England. While some states are gay-free, many states are not. So while we were still debating that law, another major party also was making a push for a constitutional amendment forbidding sex discrimination based on sexual orientation, and this didn’t budge. However, even that amendment still made it illegal to deny an LGBT person a job with the government. It was an important step towards protecting LGBTQ people in all 50 states.
The other first thing on gay rights in our society was the ban on homosexuality in public places. In England and Scotland, it
Life in the colonies depended on your status,