Colonial children received basic education through hornbooks, primers, and one-room schoolhouses. Their days consisted of school, chores, and play with few toys. Manners and obedience were strictly enforced. Society was divided into classes like gentry, merchants, farmers, slaves. Healthcare was rudimentary, relying on home remedies, bloodletting, and apothecaries. Disease and accidents resulted in high infant mortality and short life expectancy.

1. Colonial Life
Children & Medicine
By Mr. Casey

2. AGENDA
Vocabulary
A Child’s Life
*Education
*Clothes
*Fun
*Chores and Manners
Colonial Life

3. hornbook
(noun)
● A horn book consisted of a piece of
parchment usually pasted onto a small
wooden board with a handle, and covered
with a thin plate of transparent horn from
where the name of 'horn book' was derived.
● The horn book was durable and inexpensive.
The horn book displayed the alphabet in
both small letters and capital letters. The
Lord's Prayer in English was also included
on the horn-book together with the mark of
the cross.

4. primer
(noun)
the first educational textbook of the
colonies. It had the alphabet, spelling
lessons, Bible passages, and lessons
for being moral and obeying your
parents

5. mortar and pestle
(noun)
a pestle is a club shaped, handheld tool
used to crush or grind things inside of
a bowl called a mortar

6. EDUCATION
What is a child’s education like in the modern
world?
Is it the same everywhere?

7. Colonial Education
Colonial Education of the Upper Classes
Wealthy families had private tutors that would come to their home to teach. These children would
often pursue higher education at a university in Europe.
Colonial Education of the Middle Classes
Middle class kids, the sons of merchants, ministers, doctors and lawyers, attended dame schools,
elementary schools and grammar schools. They would sometimes attend college.
Colonial Education of the Lower Classes & Indentured Servants
Lower class children would receive very little education. They would often participate in the family
business- sometimes they could get an apprenticeship
Slaves
Slaves had no education and in the Southern colonies slaves were forbidden by law to learn how to
read and write

8. Colonial Education
Most working class children would go to school until age 7-
10. Then, they worked on the family farm or became an
apprentice, learning a trade and working for free.
One room schoolhouse or Dame school
Children of all ages learned together
Hornbook, Slate, and Primer were classroom tools
Punishment could be handed out by teachers-What kind of
punishments are handed out today?

9. Colonial Education

10. A Day in the Life-
Colonial Children
What is a typical day like for
you? What are some things
you do?
Do you think colonial kids did
anything similar?

11. Colonial Day-Children
Children were expected to attend school (sometimes it
was all day, six days a week) and then complete
whatever chores were set aside for them. They had very
little free time.
GIRLS: homemaker skills like knitting, cleaning, cooking,
weaving, sewing (sampler)
BOYS: their father’s trade (farming, blacksmith, etc.) as
well as taking care of the animals

12. Colonial Day-Games & Toys
Children would often be left alone for long periods of time while their
parents were away working. They would do their chores, play, or hunt.
GAMES & TOYS
Blind Man’s Buff
Stilts
Rolling Hoops

13. COLONIAL MANNERS
What are some examples of manners you are supposed
to have around adults and teachers?
Do you think you have more rules than a colonial kid?

14. Colonial Day-Children (manners)
Children were expected to have a certain set
of manners and respect elders.
Children were to be seen and not heard.
For Example: They had to have strong legs...
They would often be served last at a meal, eat
quickly and not speak. They often didn’t have a
chair and would not eat at the table.

15. Colonial Day-Children (manners)
George Washington created a list of manners called the
“Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company
and Conversation”
http://colonialwilliamsburg.org/Almanack/life/manners/rules
2.cfm?s=1

16. CLASSES OF
SOCIETYDoes the United States have a class system?
Are there still official or unofficial class systems in parts
of the world?
Have we learned about other societies that had class
systems?

17. Colonial Social Classes
1. Gentry-wealthy landowners, merchants, and financiers
2. Middling-tradesmen and professionals (lawyers, doctors)
3. Farmers-owners of a small family farm
4. Free Blacks-free black men and women with a wide range of jobs, but not the same
rights as white citizens
5. House Slaves-these slaves worked in the house under the watchful eye of a master
(they had to be available at all hours of the day)
6. Field Slaves-slaves working in the fields; sun up to sun down, six days a week

18. COLONIAL MEDICINE
What do your parents do when you get sick? Do you take
medicine or get treatment?
What are some medical advancements we have today
that were not available during colonial times?

19. Colonial Medicine
Doctors were hard to come by in Colonial America and they were expensive.
Most treatments and remedies were natural or home remedies given by the
woman of the house.
Most medicines were made from animals, plants, and minerals.
Apothecary
Provided medical treatment
Prescribed medicine
Trained apprentices
Performed surgery

20. Colonial Medicine
Common Treatments in Colonial Medicine
Bloodletting: This was to relieve inflammation: redness, swelling, pain, and heat.
Chalk: Heartburn
Calamine: Skin irritation
Cinchona bark: Fevers
Rosemary and Vinegar: Headaches

21. Colonial Life-Death Rates
Disease, malnutrition, and accidents took the lives of
many colonists.
On average, women had seven to ten children.
❏1 in 10 children would die before their first birthday (more than a
50% death rate for slaves)
❏4 in 10 children died before age
Most marriages only lasted around 12 years and combined families were
very common
The average age of death of a man in the colonies was about 48