Blog # 2

1. Given the enormous variety among Native American women, are there any generalizations we can draw about their experiences in the era of conquest?

There are some generalizations that we can draw about the experience of Native American Women in the era of conquest. Native American women’s lives were very harsh, complex, full of violence, and painful. Native American women were a big part of all kind of economic activities. They were good at agriculture, hunting, fishing, fur trapping, farming, planting, harvesting, handing and preparing food. “…[Native American] Women had more power and more sexual equality than most European women of their time”(p. 6 ). The Native American women were the ones doing very hard physical activities; the kind of activities that the Europeans were shocked by. The Europeans assumed that lazy husbands of Native American Women were making their women to work just like slaves: in a routine and unimaginative way. When it came to hunting, most of the time the men hunted rather than farming, and the women would skin the animals and prepare the food.


2. What is the meaning of the statement, "Whether they were slave-owners or not, white women's lives were inextricably tied up with slavery" (page 22)?

The meaning of the following statement is that even if the white women were slave-owners or not, their lives were jointly engaged with slavery at one time. The reasons that their lives are equally related to slavery are that they used to be part of slavery before. The largest part of the white woman immigrants were servants. In 1620 and 1621 150 white newcomer women were sold just like slaves. Men bought white women with 120 pounds of tobacco to serve them sexually and by physical hard work. The lives of these white servants were very hard. Women servants were often sent to the tobacco fields, punished, brutally beaten by their masters. “The biggest change in the lives of white women of all classes was the growth of slavery”(p.21). The wealthy people started buying African slaves as their servants, so the number of white women servants got smaller. Some white women even became slave-owners, but their “lives were inextricably tied up with slavery” because they had gone through all that difficulties.

3.What were the most significant differences among European women colonists?

“Between first and second-generation settlers, there were major differences in quality of life, especially in the southern colonies” (p.37). The newcomer European women were mainly servants and hard working labors. In established community, the European women were mostly doing household chores, cooking food, and taking care of their children. Some wealthy European women that had slaves for the chores, dedicated their time to other activities. They studied, played music, did needlework, and so on. Some of them even started to be part of politics and economy. So, the most significant differences among European women colonists were the quality of their lives. Also, there were religious, cultural and regional differences among European women colonists.