Title: Daily Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony | Meredith Allard
Headings: Daily Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Daily Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
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Content: Puritans attended church at least two times a week, and all church members had to pay tithes. Select men were chosen to vote and make decisions for the church, and the Puritans’ daily rituals were controlled by the ministers and the town patriarchs. The Puritans believed in living simply and peacefully, but woe to those who did not agree with them or follow their directions. Those who did not obey the laws would suffer punishments such as being banned from the colony, whippings, cutting off of ears, sticking head and arms through a stockade while being left to the whimsies of those looking for entertainment, and hangings. The punishments were doled out publicly—think of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter wearing her beautifully embroidered A on the scaffold for the whole village to see. The punishments were meant as public teachings. You do not conform, you do not heed our laws, and you will suffer the consequences. This person hanging from the tree could be you if you do not do what is expected of you. Some men were farmers, but they might also be ministers, coopers, millers, tanners, furriers, or surveyors. The lives of most colonial women, especially those living in rural centers like Salem Village, were centered around farming chores.