Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

by George Francis Dow

Pastor Higginson of Salem wrote enthusiastically of the natural abundance of the grass that "groweth verie wildly with a great stalke" as high as a man's face and as for Indian corn—the planting of thirteen gallons of seed had produced an increase of fifty-two hogsheads or three hundred and fifty bushels, London measure, to be sold or trusted to the Indians in exchange for beaver worth above £300. Who would not share the hardships and dangers of the frontier colony for opportunity of such rich gain?

But the housewives in the far-away English homes were more interested in the growth of the vegetable gardens in the virgin soil, and of these he wrote: "Our turnips, parsnips and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England. Here are stores of pumpions, cucumbers, and other things of that nature I know not. Plentie of strawberries in their time, and pennyroyall, winter saverie, carvell and water-cresses, also leeks and onions are ordinary." Great lobsters abounded weighing from sixteen to twenty-five pounds and much store of bass, herring, sturgeon, haddock, eels, and oysters. In the forests were several kinds of deer; also partridges, turkeys, and great flocks of pigeons, with wild geese, ducks, and other sea fowl in such abundance "that a great part of the Planters have eaten nothing but roast-meate of divers Fowles which they have killed."

These were some of the attractive natural features of the new colony in the Massachusetts Bay, as recounted by the Salem minister. Of the hardships he makes small mention, for his aim was to induce emigration. There was much sickness, however, and many deaths. Higginson himself lived only a year after reaching Salem. The breaking up of virgin soil always brings on malaria and fever. Dudley wrote "that there is not an house where there is not one dead, and in some houses many. The naturall causes seem to bee in the want of warm lodgings, and good dyet to which Englishmen are habittuated, at home; and in the suddain increase of heate which they endure that are landed here in somer ... those of Plymouth who landed in winter dyed of the Scirvy, as did our poorer sort whose howses and bedding kept them not sufficiently warm, nor their dyet sufficient in heart." Thomas Dudley wrote this in March, 1631. He explained that he was writing upon his knee by the fireside in the living-room, having as yet no table nor other room in which to write during the sharp winter. In this room his family must resort "though they break good manners, and make mee many times forget what I would say, and say what I would not."

But these hardships and inconveniences of living which the New England colonists met and overcame differ but little from those experienced in every new settlement. They have been paralleled again and again wherever Englishmen or Americans have wandered. In a few years after the coming of the ships much of the rawness and discomfort must have disappeared, certainly in the early settlements, and comparative comfort must have existed in most homes. If we could now lift the roof of the average seventeenth-century house in New England it is certain that we should find disclosed not only comfortable conditions of living but in many instances a degree of luxury with fine furnishings that is appreciated by few at the present time.

Of the early days following the settlement Roger Clap, who lived at Dorchester, afterwards wrote as follows:

"It was not accounted a strange thing in those days to drink water, and to eat Samp or Homine without Butter or Milk. Indeed it would have been a strang thing to see a piece of Roast Beef, Mutton or Veal; though it was not long before there was Roast Goat. After the first Winter, we were very Healthy: though some of us had no great Store of Corn. The Indians did sometimes bring Corn, and Trade with us for Clothing and Knives; and once I had a Peck of Corn, or there abouts, for a little Puppy-Dog. Frostfish, Muscles and Clams were a Relief to Many."

When Governor Winthrop landed at Salem in June, 1630, he supped on a good venison pasty and good beer, while most of those who came with him went ashore on Cape Anne side (now Beverly) and gathered strawberries. That was a fine beginning, but when winter set in many of them were "forced to cut their bread thin for a long season" and then it was that they fully realized that "the Ditch betweene England and their now place of abode was so wide.... Those that were sent over servants, having itching desires for novelties, found a reddier way to make an end of their Master's provision, then they could finde means to get more; They that came over their own men had but little left to feed on, and most began to repent when their strong Beere and full cups ran as small as water in a large Land.... They made shift [however] to rub out the Winter's cold by the Fireside, having fuell enough growing at their very doores, turning down many a drop from the Bottell, and burning Tobacco with all the ease they could."[38]

Lacking bread they lived on fish, mussels and clams. The rivers supplied bass, shad, alewives, frost fish and smelts in their season, also salmon, and corn meal could be bartered for with the Indians and shortly raised from seed.

"Let no man make a jest at Pumpkins, for with this fruit the Lord was pleased to feed his people to their good content, till Corne and Cattell were increased," wrote Johnson. Later (by 1650) the goodwives served "apples, pears and quince tarts instead of their former Pumpkin Pies," and by that time wheat bread was no dainty.