Things That Puritan Women Made

Children

• Puritan women made one important element of Puritan life exclusively: children. Most Puritan women had many children, though there were also many infant and childhood deaths in Colonial times. One 17th century grave in Vermont indicates a woman who had had 14 children, all of whom died either in infancy or childhood. Since most Puritan women spent their adult lives taking care of babies and raising children, this was often their primary job in the household.
  
  

Food

• The average Puritan woman spent her days preparing food for her family. Women would rise in the mornings to prepare foods such as bread, boiled puddings, stews, succotash and beans with pork. Puritan women often created dishes that mixed traditional English with Native American food, which featured the liberal use of maple syrup. Puritan women also canned and dried food in storage for the long New England winters.
  
  

Household Items

• Puritan women created most household items that involved needlework, such as clothing and bedding. Sheep (usually raised by the family) provided wool. After carding (which prepared the wool) and spinning, Puritan women wove the wool threads to create cloth. Unless the family was very wealthy, all clothes and bedclothes were woven and sewn by the women in the household. Other household items such as candles and soap were also made by women in the family.
  
  

Decorative Crafts

• Most Puritans didn't have time for any decorative crafts and the Puritan religion discouraged use of ostentatious, or fine, decorations. There is some proof that wealthy Puritan women made decorative quilts, but most families didn't have enough money to spend time making purely decorative crafts.