SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE 1640s

In an effort to set the scene for the upcoming 5th Generation of Cushmans in Plymouth, I think it will be helpful to read a little about what was going on in those times that helped shape the colony in which our ancestors lived. 

Setting the Scene

The signers of the Mayflower Compact had agreed to and complied with rules that regulated the communal division of work and food in the Plymouth Colony. However, after a few years, that participation began to erode. Hard-working men resented having to pick up the slack for men who couldn't, or wouldn't, share the workload. And women, who would have welcomed working beside their men — clearing fields, planting crops, building homes, etc. — resented cooking, cleaning and laundering, not for their own men, but for other men who had no wives — as if that was all they were qualified to do. 

But around 1640, all that began to change. Another compact was reached whereby the Pilgrims would be rewarded based on the quantity and quality of their efforts. In the 1640s, Governor William Bradford recorded this change in his history, Of Plymouth Plantation. Although it was not thought of as a basic change in gender roles, its enactment nurtured and rewarded female participation in areas hitherto prohibited to them. 

The Cushman men and women of New England were, it seems, in the right place at the right time to establish and cultivate the gender roles and the communal spirit that would be the foundation of a new nation. To be sure, marital subordination was still the norm within the family group — total equality of women was still 3+ centuries away — but it was a baby step in the right direction.

The Dutch Were Way Ahead Of Us

When I was researching my maternal grandmother's Ryckman line, I learned that they were among the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (later renamed New York), founded in 1625. Unbeknownst to the Pilgrims in New England, Dutch people had, from the get-go in Holland, considered it a right and privilege of all their citizens, male and female, to jointly make decisions for their households, their neighborhoods, and their cities. This practice actually placed greater responsibility on the shoulders of women, while most of the men were away, earning their living by hunting, trapping, and trading. The men would sometimes be gone for several days, even weeks, at a time, confidently leaving their women to care for and protect the home front.

Dutch women may have perfected the art of decision-making, but to others they sometimes came off as bossy or know-it-all. There's an old poem, the last 2 lines of which are: "Yes, you can always tell a Dutch girl / But you cannot tell her much."

Guess I owe the Ryckmans for that trait. :-)

I'm about to post the Fifth Generation of Cushmans. Look for it in a day or two.