Child Life In Colonial Pennsylvania

Author : Percy Burdelle Caley
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781333863753
Total Pages : 74 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (637 download)

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Download or read book Child Life in Colonial Western Pennsylvania (Classic Reprint) written by Percy Burdelle Caley and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Child Life in Colonial Western Pennsylvania In such a situation children were much to be desired, if for no other reason than to provide a labor supply. For, isolated as they were, where land could be had for the taking, few if any men could be hired as laborers even if the father could have found the wherewithal to pay them. Under such conditions the sons became the helpers of their fathers, both in hunting and farming; while the girls aided their mothers in gardening, spinning and other household duties. But the most important part played by children in the frontier days was not in the role of laborers. They were rather the incentives which spurred their parents on to de sire better conditions. In the first place, more land had to be claimed and cleared to provide nearby farms where sons and daughters might live when grown. In the second place, the old cabin had to give way to a bigger, better and more comfortable log-house to shelter adequately their yet small brood. In the third place, a desire was created for safer surroundings for these children: the Indians had to be driv en back to parts where they would cease to be a menace to these new communities; and the Law had to be called in to deal with the roysterers of the border. In the fourth place, better communications had to be established with the out side world in order that the children might learn to know more of the country to which they belonged, and that cer tain comforts might be brought in to vary the monotony of their lives. And lastly, parents became impressed with the need for the establishment of some means of education, so that sooner or later there appeared that characteristic feature of American life, the school. Thus, in the course of a few years, the aspect of the community was changed. Around the group of old log cabins and the stockade fort where traders and hunters had stopped to rest, swap tales and drink healths, there grew up a peaceful and substantial farming community, with less of the passing nature about it. With the coming of the children, therefore, the frontier, as such, gradually moved farther westward while in its place a quiet and law abiding countryside appeared. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.