Child Life in Colonial DaysAt the end of the 19th century, after Americans had endured thirty years of tremendous change due to rapid industrial growth, social upheavals, and the excesses of the Gilded Age, they began to look back with increasing fondness to their own past. The Colonial Revival in architecture was one fruit of this nostalgia; another was the insightful chronicles of social history in earlier days written by Alice Morse Earle. Following the success of her book "Home Life in Colonial Days," Alice Morse Earle wrote a detailed and fascinating account of American children and their lives from the very earliest settlers to the first decades of the new republic. Covering everything from dress to toys, schools to play, discipline and religion, she described in highly readable prose a child's life in the days before the railroad and telegraph. Her book has endured for a century, enthralling readers and inspiring scholars to new research into the field. |
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Page viii
... beautiful to read and to know . The quotations from manuscript letters , records , diaries , and accounts which are here given could only have been acquired by precisely the method which has been followed , a constant and distinct ...
... beautiful to read and to know . The quotations from manuscript letters , records , diaries , and accounts which are here given could only have been acquired by precisely the method which has been followed , a constant and distinct ...
Page 2
... beautiful day in June , " with a smell on the shore like the smell of a garden , " and these happy children had gathered sweet wild strawberries and single wild roses . It is easy to picture the merry faces and cheerful laughter . Scant ...
... beautiful day in June , " with a smell on the shore like the smell of a garden , " and these happy children had gathered sweet wild strawberries and single wild roses . It is easy to picture the merry faces and cheerful laughter . Scant ...
Page 11
... beautiful to behold . I never knew any to come into the world with the least blemish on any part of the body ; being in the general observed to be better- natured , milder , and more tender - hearted than those born in England . " John ...
... beautiful to behold . I never knew any to come into the world with the least blemish on any part of the body ; being in the general observed to be better- natured , milder , and more tender - hearted than those born in England . " John ...
Page 23
... beautiful cross - stitch . It is distinctly Oriental in appearance , far more so than is indicated by its black and white representation here . Another beautiful silk christening blanket was quilted in an intricate flower pattern in ...
... beautiful cross - stitch . It is distinctly Oriental in appearance , far more so than is indicated by its black and white representation here . Another beautiful silk christening blanket was quilted in an intricate flower pattern in ...
Page 38
... beautiful . The first child's portrait in this series is one of extraordinary interest . It is opposite page 4 , and has never before been given to the public . It is the reputed miniature of the Pilgrim Father , Governor Edward Winslow ...
... beautiful . The first child's portrait in this series is one of extraordinary interest . It is opposite page 4 , and has never before been given to the public . It is the reputed miniature of the Pilgrim Father , Governor Edward Winslow ...
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Common terms and phrases
ALICE MORSE EARLE American Anna Green Anna Green Winslow baby beautiful Bible Billey born Boston boys called Catechism century chil child childish church colonial days color Connecticut Cotton Mather cradle dancing daugh daughter delightful diary dolls dren dress Dutch early Elizabeth England English Essex Institute facing father flowers given Goody Two Shoes Governor hand hath hornbook Isaiah Thomas James Janeway John John Quincy Adams Judge Sewall juvenile Lady lesson letters little books little girl lived maid married Massachusetts master mind minister Miss mother never Noah Webster old-time painted parents picture play portrait pretty primer printed Puritan Quincy religious rhyme Robert Gibbs Salem Sampler says scholars seen Shoes silk sister spelling taught teacher teaching tell things Thomas tion to-day told town toys verses whipped William words writing written wrote young youth
Popular passages
Page 257 - A crime it is, therefore in bliss you may not hope to dwell; But unto you I shall allow the easiest room in hell.
Page 113 - They braced my aunt against a board, To make her straight and tall ; They laced her up, they starved her down, To make her light and small; They pinched her feet, they singed her hair, They screwed it up with pins; — Oh, never mortal suffered more In penance for her sins.
Page 111 - Who the painter was none may tell,— One whose best was not over well; Hard and dry, it must be confessed, Flat as a rose that has long been pressed; Yet in her cheek the hues are bright, Dainty colors of red and white, And in her slender shape are seen Hint and promise of stately mien. Look not on her with eyes of scorn,— Dorothy Q. was a lady born! Ay! since the galloping Normans came, England's annals have known her name; And still to...
Page 367 - Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite...
Page 20 - And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty : why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me...
Page 181 - Puerilis,' got by heart almost the entire vocabulary of Latin and French primitives and words, could make congruous syntax, turn English into Latin, and vice versa, construe and prove what he read, and did the government and use of relatives, verbs, substantives, ellipses, and many figures and tropes, and made a considerable progress in Comenius's Janua; began himself to write legibly, and had a strong passion for Greek.
Page 409 - Yon rising Moon that looks for us again — How oft hereafter will she wax and wane; How oft hereafter rising look for us Through this same Garden — and for one in vain!
Page 254 - Or, Some Examples of Children, in whom the Fear of God was Remarkably Budding before they Died; in several Parts of New England.
Page 234 - ... thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could be found. Thirdly; as necessitie was a taskmaster over them, so they were forced to be such, not only to their servants, but in a sorte, to their dearest children...
Page 380 - Though mangled, hack'd, and hew'd, not yet destroy'd ; The little ones, unbutton'd, glowing hot, Playing our games, and on the very spot, As happy as we once, to kneel and draw The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw...