The Pilgrims and Puritans did not arrive on the shores of New England
alone. Nor did African men and women, brought to the Americas as slaves.
Though it would be hard to tell from the historical record, European
colonists and African slaves had children, as did the indigenous
families whom they encountered, and those children's life experiences
enrich and complicate our understanding of colonial America.
Through essays, primary documents, and contemporary illustrations,
Children in Colonial America examines the unique aspects of
childhood in the American colonies between the late sixteenth and late
eighteenth centuries. The twelve original essays observe a diverse
cross-section of children--from indigenous peoples of the east coast and
Mexico to Dutch-born children of the Plymouth colony and African-born
offspring of slaves in the Caribbean--and explore themes including
parenting and childrearing practices, children's health and education,
sibling relations, child abuse, mental health, gender, play, and rites
of passage.
Taken together, the essays and documents in Children in Colonial
America shed light on the ways in which the process of colonization
shaped childhood, and in turn how the experience of children affected
life in colonial America.
