Unit Central Questions:
What do primary and secondary sources teach us about the characteristics of “everyday life” of individuals living in Deerfield at the three turns of the centuries? What do these characteristics reveal about changes in the town since its beginning as an English settlement?
Key Content Ideas
The residents of Deerfield built modest homes and owned basic household goods, clothing, and tools. The roles of men and women were different. Many men worked mostly outside clearing land, farming, and cutting firewood. They also worked as blacksmiths, carpenters, lawyers, doctors, potters,shoemakers, and tavernkeepers, among other jobs. Those aged 16-60 were required to serve in the militia. Women worked in and near the house, cooking, sewing, washing, tending the kitchen garden, and rearing the children.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Understandings:
Students will understand:
- That while many basic needs were met by the community itself, nearly everyone supplemented their farming income through selling or bartering specialized skills (e.g. blacksmithing, carpentry, hunting, joinery, sewing, weaving, shoemaking, etc.). Goods and supplies were imported from Europe via Boston and the Connecticut coast and were brought to Deerfield by wagon or by boat up the Connecticut River.
- That architecture and artifacts can teach lessons about daily life.
Skills:
Students will be able to:
- Read, analyze, and interpret a home and artifacts of the 1680-1720 period.
- Observe and draw artifacts.
In Preparation for Teaching
- Essay: The Wells-Thorn House
- Optional- for schools near Old Deerfield- arrange a fieldtrip to Historic Deerfield’s Wells-Thorn House. If not taking a fieldtrip- copy and distribute to students the room photographs and floor (“restoration”) plans
Activities
- Instruct students to take notes in their social studies notebooks as they follow the directions below.
- Ask them to notice the outside of the back of the house. Ask them to describe the box-like shape, windows, chimney, and the asymmetry of the plan.
- Explain that historians can use inventories and wills to help them determine what people owned in a previous time period. Explain an inventory and a will. [There is a description of an inventory in the essay: The Wells-Thorn House. The essay for the lesson titled Will of Ebenezer Wells includes a description of a will.] This house belonged to Ebenezer (1691-1758) and Abigail Wells (1691-1772). Ebenezer was a farmer and they had no children. They enslaved two Africans- Lucy Terry and Caesar.
- Have the students examine the kitchen (but don’t mention its use). How do they think this room was used? Note the fireplace in detail, the storage bin and basket, and the hanging bags.
- Note the door to the cellar, and discuss the well and the storage of vegetables and other foods throughout the house. (Refer to background essay)
- Look at the pictures of the “hall.” Discuss different definitions of that word. What we call a hall today was called a passageway or “spaceway” in the 1700s. Instruct students to inspect this room, noting the use of wood, and the items found in the room. Ask students to list what they might do in this space.
- Explain that four things were helpful to keep house, but not everyone had all of them:
- table
- chairs
- bedframe
- chest
- Instruct students to sketch examples of these items in the Wells-Thorn House and write descriptions of them.
- Ask: How was this room used? How do they know? (Discuss how the furnishings support their conclusions. In the 1700s, a hall was an all-purpose space for cooking, sleeping, and working.)
- Be sure students understand that although some household items such as sewing needles, linens, sugar, and cloth were imported from England, most items had to be made or processed by hand within the household or produced nearby.
- Discuss the following:
- What building material was used in making this structure? (Wood- it was the most readily available.)
- What might people have done at the table? (It was used for eating, writing, chores, etc. and it could be moved as necessary.)
- How many chairs and stools are there? (this room has three chairs and a stool. Some rooms had only one chair for the male head of household, and some had none.)
- What are the two most important pieces of furniture in this room? In this time period, the bed, followed closely by the chests, were the most valued pieces of furniture. Point out the bed and discuss that it was called a bedstead, rope, or cord bed because intertwined ropes supported the mattress, which was stuffed with straw or feathers. This bedstead also had curtains around it, which were considered part of the “furniture of the bed,” and provided warmth and privacy. Ask the students what they might have put in the chests (clothing and flat textiles). One is a 1694 six-board chest of pine and the other dates to 1720 and is painted with a design of swirls to look as if it were made of burled walnut. This kind of decorative painting is called “graining,” and it was used to make furniture look expensive and imported.
- Which items do you think were made in this country? (furniture, spinning wheel, basket) Which were imported? (looking glass (mirror), candleholders, fabric)
Homework Assignment
Instruct students to make a clean, readable copy of their notes about the Wells-Thorn House, which they will be using in a future assignment. Ask them to include descriptions of objects.
Follow-Up
- Instruct students to pair off to read each other’s notes, and to point out any inconsistencies or disagreements found.
- Discuss these areas with the whole class.
- With students, answer questions on the poster from Activity 1 and ask them to add these to their social studies notebooks.
- Determine whether there are any questions not answered or new ones brought up during the activities.
Assessments
social studies notebook entries and artifact drawings
