3. Our home in Plymouth Colony
By the time I arrived in Plymouth, in June 1623, Francis had his own land and had built his own house. Francis is a carpenter and skilled with the knife and hammer. He can make fine clapboard. Our tiny one room home is built with logs from the forest. Francis made wattle by weaving sticks together to make the inside walls. He mixed clay, water, and straw together to make daub plaster to cover the wattle and to keep the cold winds from coming through the cracks. He gathered reeds and wild grasses to thatch the roof to keep the snow and rain out. The floor is hard packed dirt. The chimney is made out of daub and wattle. Francis has made all of our furniture except for the old chest of drawers which I brought from home and a few other items which Sarah and Dorothy brought with them.
We use the open hearth for heating the house and for cooking. Most of our life takes place in our home around the hearth because the fire provides us with heat and light. We work, play, teach the children to read, teach the children a trade and worship in our home. My main job is to care for our children. I grow the food and cook it for my family and I preserve a lot of food for winter.
I make all of our clothes and carry the water to keep them clean. Sometimes I make more candles than I need and my friend makes more soap than she needs so we trade but most of the time I make all of our own candles, soaps, and other basic household items. Once a week I go outdoors to the community ovens to bake our bread.
We spend a daily time in prayer. Francis is the head of our house. He makes all of the decisions and earns a living to provide for us. Francis is a fine carpenter so his skills are always needed by someone here in Plymouth.
A wooden fence around the house outlines our property. We carefully divided the yard into small raised rectangular beds with a dirt path between the beds. The garden beds are just wide enough so that I can weed them easily from either side. We gathered rocks and planks from the shore to raise the garden beds. Before I left England Mother helped me gather seeds and a few live plants to bring to my garden. Most of the live plants didn’t survive, but the seeds did. Every fall I collect more seeds. Dorothy had planted a garden before she died so there are some of her plants here too.
I have several different kinds of plants in the garden which I can use for food, for flavor and some for medicines. I save all the vegetable scraps, and human and animal waste from our home. I work the waste carefully into the soil so my garden grows very well. It has taken long hard work over these years for my garden to finally flourish, but it has been worth it. This garden feeds our family until the main field crops are harvested. When I first came to Plymouth I didn’t know how to grow food. The weather is so much colder here than back home.
The Indians around here are very friendly. Years ago they taught us how to plant their corn and how to organize the garden so we use as little space as possible and grow the most food as possible. First I dig a lot of holes about six inches deep and throw a dead fish into each hole and cover the fish with dirt. Then I plant a few corn seeds in each mound. When the corn sprouts are about hand-high I plant climbing beans around the corn. When the beans grow they climb up the cornstalk. Then I plant squash and pumpkin seeds around the outside of the mounds. The squash grows around the beans and corn and I don’t have many weeds growing under those plants. By fall I have a beautiful patch of corn, beans and squash growing in the same space. My garden also has things like cabbage, parsley, carrots, radishes, spinach, and lettuce as well as parsnip, thyme, sage and other seasoning. I use the leaves of the house leek, which looks like an old hen and her little chickens, to smooth the cracked skin on my rough dry hands. Francis uses the house leek sometimes to patch holes in the thatched roof. I also grow elecampane to treat the phlegm of the deep cough and blessed thistle to help settle upset stomachs.
All of our farm animals like the hogs, chickens, goats, cattle and sheep have to be brought from England, too. We are always grateful to get more animals. We are even more excited when the animals have new babies because it means fresh milk and butter and later meat. We shear the sheep, spin the yarn then weave or knit warm clothing. We always need more farm animals.
When people get sick there is so little we can do for them and we don’t really know how to care for them except try to make them comfortable. I do have my herb garden but it is not much help when someone is really sick. Most of us women have a baby every couple of years. We loose so many babies and mothers in childbirth. The children who live often get sick and die before they can grow up. You have to be very strong to survive in this world. It was the same way in England. Francis was only seven years old when his four brothers and sisters died of a sickness. Actually there is some terrible sickness going around Plymouth Colony now and our friend Peter Browne, who came on the Mayflower with Francis, has recently died. Francis has the disease and has been ill for several months.
Francis acquired several acres of land during the past twelve year but we had to sell some of our land in order to pay people to work for us. Francis has been so sick and now we are far behind in paying the men to work in the field for us. Right now, Francis is unable to do any of the farming and can’t work at his carpenter trade either. Several men have helped us such as Mr. Fuller, Web, Rich Sparrow, Mr. Billington, and Thomas Prence. We do not have the money to pay them now. Last year Francis sold four acres of our land to Edward Winslow and thirty-two acres to William Brewster.
I keep telling Francis he should write down what is to be done with his property and belongings if he dies, but he won’t think of it. He has one cow and a calf, two hogs, fifty bushels of corn, a white hat and a black hat, boots, saws, hammers, and adze, square, augers, a chisel, boards, fishing lead, and some kitchen items. Francis owns our house but I am afraid we may have to sell the house soon. If Francis doesn’t get well I don’t know what will happen to me and our children. Samuel is twelve, Rachel is seven and Benjamin is five years old. Mr. Bradford says that our baby
Christopher is an “ideote” but I love him even though he will never be able to take care of himself. I know we will survive, but it is hard to think about the future without Francis to care for all of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment