The laws were amazingly strict and would never be submitted to in these times. To illustrate: a watchman in Hartford rang a bell every morning as notice to all adults to rise from their beds. Massachusetts had fourteen and Virginia seventeen offenses that were punishable with death. Some of the minor punishments were unique. If a woman became a common scold, she was placed near her own door, with a gag fastened in her mouth, that all might see and beware of her example. For other offenses, a man was ducked in water or put in the stocks. A stock was a strong framework, through which the feet or both feet and hands were thrust and held fast, while the pillory was a framework through which the head and hands of a criminal were imprisoned. Besides the disgrace attending such punishment, it was very trying. The whipping-post was quite common long after the Revolution, and it is still occasionally used in Delaware.
AMERICAN STAGE-COACH OF 1795, FROM "WELD'S TRAVELS."
(Probably similar in form to those of the later colonial period.)
Men and boys dressed much alike, and the fashions for women and girls were similar. The breeches of the men suggested the present style of knickerbockers, the rich making quite a display of silver buckles and buttons. The breeches of the poorer people were made of coarse cloth, deerskin, or leather, the object being to obtain all the wear possible. The wealthy used velvet, and the men and women were as fond of display as their descendants.
In the earliest days, all the houses were made of logs, and oiled paper took the place of glass for windows. Carpets were an unknown luxury. Often the floor was the smooth, hard ground. The cooking was done in the big fireplace, where an iron arm called a crane was swung over the fire and sustained the pots and kettles. Coal and matches were unknown, a fire being started by means of a piece of steel and flint or with the help of a sun glass.
Coffee and tea were great luxuries, but nearly every family made its own beer. Rum and hard cider were drunk by church people as well as others, the only fault being when one drank too much. The important cities and towns were connected by stages, but most of the traveling was done on foot or horseback. Since most of the settlements were near the sea or on large rivers, long journeys were made by means of coasting sloops. When a line of stages in 1766 made the trip between New York and Philadelphia in two days, it was considered so wonderful that the vehicles were called "flying machines."
Regarding the state of religion in the colonies, Prof. George F. Holmes says:
"The state of religion among the people differed greatly in the different provinces. The Church of England was the established religion in New York, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In Maryland, the population remained largely Roman Catholic. In New England the original Puritanism was dominant, but its rigor had become much softened. A solemn and somewhat gloomy piety, however, still prevailed. The Presbyterians were numerous, influential, and earnest in New Jersey. There, but especially in Pennsylvania, were the quiet and gentle Quakers. In Carolina and Georgia, Moravians and other German Protestants were settled, and Huguenot families were frequent in Virginia and South Carolina.
"Everywhere, however, was found an intermixture of creeds, and consequently the need of toleration had been experienced. Laxity of morals and of conduct was alleged against the communities of the Anglican Church. In the middle of the eighteenth century a low tone of religious sentiment was general. The revival of fervor, which was incited then by the Wesleys, was widely spread by Whitefield in America, and Methodism was making itself felt throughout the country. The Baptists were spreading in different colonies and were acquiring influence by their earnest simplicity. They favored liberty in all forms and became warm partisans of the revolutionary movement."