Chapter 3

Summary:

Colonial families:
• Households consisted mostly of a mother, father, children
• Usually a household would start out with 6-7 children. Due to high infant death rates a household would shrink in size, and there would be a big age difference between children.
• Each family was labeled as “a little commonwealth”

Duties:
• All family members would participate in running the family business
• School
• Vocational institute
• Church
• House of corrections
• Welfare institute

Sexual relations:
Bundling would occur when a young couple was dating and the distance was too long to travel home. So the young couple would sleep in the same bed. However, there would be a piece of plywood to separate the two.

• Women still had babies out of wedlock.
• If the women would cheat on their husband, then the women would get scrutinized for their discretions through an ad in the local paper.
• If men would cheat on their wife, they would not get scrutinized for it, and it was considered normal behavior.

Husbands and Wives:
• They both would work together
• Men had more authority over the women.
• Women had little rights
• The women would take care of others
• Men took care of the children while women were in the fields
• If the women were widowed or the husband left them, they would turn their home making skills into a business, or they would take over the husband,s business.

Children’s Lives:
• Lived in unsanitary conditions
• Everyone worked together to keep the children well disciplined
• Boys received more education than the girls

American Indians:
• They were in the United States first
• Women had more power than the men
• Different tribes had different marriage rituals
• Newly weds could live with there family’s or they could live on their own
• Divorces were as simple as the women leaving the man’s things outside their house
• Children were often well behaved. If the children did misbehave, they would be disciplined with old tribal stories that would scare the kids.
• The French, Spanish, Portuguese, and British were the main reason that the Native culture was destroyed

African Americans:
• Had very little rights
• They often did not marry because they would be separated in slave trades, the plantation they were working on had a different mixture of age, and other plantations were too far apart
• Women had more authority in the house hold
• African American women would work hard long hours and then come home and take care of their family


Mexican Americans:
• They were in the United States first
• They were hired for lower end work, worked hard, and they would make very little in wages
• Family house holds would consist of extended family members as well
• Women worked out side the home and cared for the family
• Women also cared for their culture
• Men were the authority figures
• Mexican American culture was not destroyed as badly as the Native American culture. However, they did suffer loss of land and jobs due to the European industrialization

The Great Depression:

The “Great Depression” occurred when the stock mark crashed in 1929. This was the beginning of hardship for many. In 1932, millions of people lost their jobs. Banks were unsuccessful and caused people to lose there entire savings. People were hungry and loosing their homes.

World War Two (1939-1945):

• World War Two was a turning point in the working world. Workers were scarce due to men going off to war.
• 1942 Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor and organized women’s groups help get employers to start to fill many nontraditional jobs with women (Nontraditional to women)
• Divorce rates were high after World War Two. Some reasons for divorce at that time were due to veterans becoming drunks, and women enjoyed making their own income.
• However, things changed quickly. Veterans needed jobs, and due to veterans needing jobs, women were no longer allowed in the work place.

Interests/ Unusual Items Learned:

Chapter 3 has been my favorite chapter thus far because I learned from the reading more about families from the Pioneer days up to the Great Depression. This information was new for me, and the chapter reviewed many historical facts regarding The Great Depression.

Additionally, I did not know that Mexican Americans were one of the first people in the United States, I enjoyed learning about the different ethnic groups, how they lived their lives, and how they shared actual stories in each ethnic section.

Discussion:

During the sixteenth and seventeenth century when European explorers and settlers invaded North America, they invaded the natural habitat of the Native Americans and Mexican Americans.

In my personal opinion they hurt many people as they invaded the land. These people had no regard for how people were living. It seemed as though it didn’t matter to the invaders. I want to know why more is not done for the Native Americans. It seems that the people who invaded the land did not consider the Natives to be human. They thought it would be easier to send them to a part of land and just forget they existed. The invaders took their land, and their culture was destroyed.

Besides the Native Americans, I would also like to have a better understanding of why Mexicans are considered illegal immigrants when then come to the United States? As the United States is part of America, weren’t they here first?

Natalie Sebula