A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (Paperback)

by John Demos (Author) "Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven, who had..." (more)
Key Phrases: edward jenkins, Mayflower Descendant, Old Colony, New England (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The customary modern image of the New England Puritans is a dark one: the Puritans, religious dissenters who valued propriety and order, are seen as a witch-hunting, suspicious tribe, and their very name carries connotations of grimness and primness.

Thirty years ago, at the outset of his career as a historian, John Demos decided to reexamine that view in light of the evidence. Among the findings that he reports in A Little Commonwealth is the surprising discovery that the Puritans were not so, well, puritanical. They were not, Demos argues, especially consumed by ideology, and in their daily lives, "religion seems to figure in a somewhat haphazard and occasional way." The Puritans, he continues, had no unusual objections to sexuality or fun-seeking, except where such activities endangered social harmony--and the Puritans were indeed fiercely protective of group stability. Demos examines such documents as the transcripts of divorce proceedings to suggest that Puritan women enjoyed, if not equal rights, then better consideration than most women in other English colonies in the New World. He looks closely into the material culture of the Puritans, which shows some odd discrepancies: for instance, although few households possessed more than a single chair (usually reserved for the elderly), many contained elaborate wardrobes--for, Demos writes, "clothing was not only a good investment for a man of some means; it was also a way of demonstrating his standing in the larger community and of confirming his own self-image."

In questioning the view of the Puritans as a plain-dressing, plain-living, haunted, and repressed sect, Demos provides a close and intriguing look at the New England past. Reissued on the 30th anniversary of its first publication, A Little Commonwealth deserves a wide audience today. --Gregory McNamee

Review
"[A Little Commonwealth makes] our forebears come alive, not as cute, little democratic wind-up toys useful for indoctrinating children and Fourth of July speeches, but as irascible, intolerant, undemocratic, but real and fascinating human beings."--Commonweal

"Demos writes with great charm, his easy, relaxed style having much muscle underneath."--National Review

"One of the finest pieces of local history that I have read in years....Because Demos writes clear, terse, flowing prose, his book will be a delight to the general reader as well as the scholar....[His] portrait of family life is captivating."--Saturday Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (September 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195128907
• ISBN-13: 978-0195128901
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #288,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting reading; Concisely speaks of colonial life, August 7, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (Galaxy Books) (Paperback)

A Little Commonwealth starts with a brief history of the Plymouth Colony, beginning in England through to its end in 1691. The author begins by discussing the physical setting in which the colonists lived. He continues with the structure of the household and follows with a look at development of people during this period, from birth to old age. He finishes with the thought that perhaps the colonial family of Plymouth colony is not so different than our own. As the book opens we learn that the Plymouth colonists were from a Puritan community that had left England because of persecution and resettled in Holland. However, after about ten years they decided to move again, this time to the New World. It took a lot of negotiations and work, but they finally struck a deal with Thomas Weston for transportation aboard the Mayflower to form a new colony. The new colonists arrived shortly before Christmas and found life extremely difficult. By spring nearly half of the c! olonists were dead. It was at this time that they were befriended by Indians, who advised them on the ways of the land. During all of this they were setting up their government, which consisted of freemen, a General Court, and a governor. The church was active at this time also, hiring ministers, conducting services and punishing its wayward members. There was also trouble with the Indians, until they were defeated during King Phillip's War. Then there were the sweeping reforms by the British Crown, ending with the annexation of the Plymouth colony by Massachusetts. In short, colonial life was anything but easy. The colonists lived in simple homes, typically one room, with a large fireplace, perhaps a loft for sleeping and a lean too at the rear of the house for storage. The houses were made of oak timbers that were covered with planks and a thatch roof. There were homes that were larger, but these belonged to the wealthier members of the colony. The furnishings were as s! imple as the home. There were a few cooking utensils, a tab! le for eating and a bed for sleeping. There were also large chests for storing linens, clothing and the like, which also served as tables or seats if the need arose. As their life was simple, so was their clothing. They used wool, linen and leather for their clothes, and like homes, clothes were an indication of social standing in the community. Household members included a husband, wife, children and sometimes a servant. Each had not only personal but shared responsibilities to the household. As the author continues, he tells us that households may have had up to nine children but typically there were only three to five in the house at a time. This is due to the spacing of the births, where an older child may be getting married and leaving the home while another is breast-feeding. The husband and wife were expected to live together, maintain a peaceful relationship and not engage in adultery. The author tells us that children were expected to "honor thy father and m! other" and that upon attainment of the age of sixteen were subject to laws which enforced this principle. Parents for their part were responsible for raising their children in a Christian manner, providing for their basic needs, such as clothing, food, shelter and education, and for teaching them a lawful trade. And sometimes the children were sent to live with another family as a servant, to learn a trade or get an education. We also learn that as children grew and left home, the circle of kin grew ever larger as some sons left the colony for the open lands of the frontiers. The author next addresses the life cycle in the colony, from precarious birth, through the idyllic first year and into the psychological molding of the child by the parents, between the ages of two and six. At the age of six or seven the child began to be treated as a little adult. They were dressed like their parents and the boys began to work with the fathers and the girls with the mothers, le! arning about life and households. As the children progresse! d into adolescence they began the process of courtship, leading to marriage and the starting of their own families. As the children left the home the parents continued to work, for they had little idea of retirement and in later life perhaps the husband went into politics and if he was elected to an office, he would most likely finish out his life in public service. The author concludes with the observation that perhaps family life in the Plymouth colony is not so different from ours today, an adult couple with children, making up the core of the family. Yet the author points out some startling differences. Colonial families were self-sufficient and acted as the school for the children, both educational and vocational. There was the obligation of family worship and there were times when the home was a "house of correction", having idle or criminal persons sentenced to them as servants. John Demos closes by telling us that the story of the family forms a part of! our history, the story of traditions, values and institutions brought by these first settlers to a new land.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Relevant History, September 4, 2000

By	Donald J. Boudreaux (Burke, VA United States) - See all my reviews

In this compact book, John Demos paints a superb and informative picture of everyday life in early colonial Massachusetts. I'm delighted to see that a new edition has been issued.

Demos shatters many of our impressions of 17th-century Puritans - for example, the impression that Puritans were sexually repressed. More interesting, though, is Demos's compelling demonstration of just how difficult life was for early Plymouth colonists. An example: privacy within the home, of the sort that we today take for granted, was not enjoyed by Plymouth's settlers. (The reason for this fact is that the houses of the settlers were quite small, their families quite large, and most of each person's life was spent very close to his or her home.) Also, by today's standards, childbirth was incredibly dangerous: it killed one in five women. Infant mortality high, too, at about one in ten. And the wide choice of occupations that we moderns enjoy was unavailable to the Plymouth's settlers.

This book is well-researched and well-written. To read it is to learn more about life in early colonial North America. But reading it also provides important perspective for evaluating the immense material prosperity that the institutions bequeathed to us by these settlers - most importantly, private property - have made possible. We today are indeed fortunate.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Study that Redefined the Pilgrims, December 29, 2005

By	Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I first read this book while in graduate school during the late 1970s, and I am glad it has been reissued in this new edition. John Demos was one of a group of "new social historians" in the latter 1960s that made colonial New England his domain and reinterpreted what we know about the Puritans "from the bottom up." Including Kenneth A. Lockridge ("A New England Town," 1970), Philip J. Greven ("Four Generations," 1970), and a few others, these historians employed the analysis of legal documents, especially wills and probate records, to uncover the past of the more "ordinary" New Englanders. Concentrating on small units in their study--Demos on Plymouth, Lockridge on Dedham, and Greven on Andover--they also employed, for the first time, material culture analysis of buildings, the accoutrements of everyday life, and findings from historical archeology and anthropology to understand better the nature of colonial New England.

Previously, historians had relied heavily upon letters, diaries, sermons, autobiographies, and other writings to construct their portrait of the Puritans of the seventeenth century. Almost by definition, this documentary record skewed the account toward telling the story of New England's social and political elites. The use of these new materials transformed our understanding of this time and place in American history. It may be hard to appreciate how exciting this approach to American history seemed at the time. These historians, using both the tools of social science and measured statistical analysis, rescued from obscurity the everyday lives of the rank and file who settled New England. William Bradford, Cotton Mather, John Winthrop, and other elites remained significant, but the story was now so much broader and interesting. It was such a breath of fresh air! Many of us in graduate school at the time embraced their lead and sought to apply at least some of their methodologies to our own work.

"A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony" is one of the best of these "new social histories." John Demos unearthed, in some cases literally through archaeological excavations, the style of life present at Plymouth Plantation. In the process he transformed our understanding of these religious separatists. He makes some startling revelations, destroying many old myths about marriage, family, and lifestyle. The basic organizing unit, according to Demos, was the nuclear family. He inferred this from probate records, but he also noted that the small size of the houses forced the exclusion of extended families under one roof. He was criticized for this conclusion, but subsequent research seems to support much of what he wrote. He also found that children married later than had been previously believed, between 23 and 28 years, starting their lives apart from their parents after greater maturity. He also found that the typical family numbered between seven and ten children, had an infant mortality rate of one in ten, that twenty percent of women died in childbirth, and that a man aged 21 could expect to live until 69.2 years but a woman at age 21 had a life expectancy of only 62.2 years.

By far the most path-breaking part of "A Little Commonwealth" deals with Puritan childrearing and the formation of the child's character. During the first year, Demos argues, a baby would receive much nurturing and support. Tranquility was the objective. In the second year, the child was weaned, usually had to deal with a younger sibling, and most interesting underwent an effort to break the spirit and bend it to the will the parents. Taking place in a crowded house, this experience was traumatic to say the least, and Demos asserts that it led to a set of psychological issues that revolved not so much around sex as a "tight cluster of anxieties about aggression" (pp. 134-37). Demos makes the case that fear of aggression, conflict, and loss are the dominant themes of Puritan life in the seventeenth century. At the same time, the Puritan family could be warm and supportive, and joy and fun was also part and parcel of their existence.

Equally important, Demos helps overturn the longstanding stereotype of Puritans. H. L. Mencken once said that the definition of Puritanism was "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Demos pretty much destroys this idea in "A Little Commonwealth" as well. They liked to dress colorfully, have parties, dance, sing, and drink. Despite their traumatic upbringings, he thinks they were not so nearly repressed as previously believed.

This is a very important benchmark in the history of early America and still deserving of serious consideration 35 years after its first publication.