With the rising population and increasingly Atlantic economy in New England came social pressures that strained the religious piety envisioned by John Winthrop and the first Puritan settlers. Husbands and wives formed teams of production, with children adding to the number of workers. Once families formed, they worked together to prosper. Arranged marriages prevailed in the north, in part because there was a rough balance in the number of men and women living in the area. The healthy northern climate encouraged far longer life spans than existed in the south both men and women in the north expected to live, on average, into their seventies. Eventually traders and bankers emerged to handle the manufacturing and shipping, and northern port cities like Boston became the central trading areas for the British in the Americas. As shipping grew as an industry, ship-construction increased in importance, too. The manufacturing allowed a merchant class to form, enlarged by the shipping that sailed into northern ports. Ample water sources made the creation of mills possible, where grain, cloth, and lumber could be milled by water power. Skilled artisans migrated to the northern colonies, creating home industries that eventually resulted in a manufacturing base. Those who did not farm the land turned to the seas, harvesting fish for themselves and to sell.
These hard-scrabble farmers also raised cattle, swine, and sheep. Typical crops grown in the North included barley, oats, and wheat. Additionally the weather was too cold and harsh to support large-scale market crops, so northern colonial farmers sought to be self-sufficient, raising foodstuffs for their families and selling any extras locally for cash to purchase the goods they could not produce themselves. Learn more about Martha Ballard.īecause the land was stony, sloped, or heavily forested (or often all three), most land owners held only small farms, which they worked with their families and perhaps one or two servants or slaves. For the next twenty-seven years she recorded the events of her life, including activities associated with her medical and midwifery practice (she delivered nearly a thousand babies). Want to learn more about life in the colonies? Martha Ballard began keeping a diary of her life in 1785.
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