GenMassachusetts-L Archives

From: Warren Wetmore <>
Subject: Re: [GM-L] More pirate stuff - now Bradish
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 16:18:04 -0500
References: <8c.25f48d0.2621dfd8@aol.com>

wrote:

> I don't understand why a girl would be apprenticed to a carpenter and
> shipbuilder. (She was only two when her mother died. I wonder if this might
> have been more of what we'd call a foster care situation?)

Orphans had a tough time back then, girls probably more so
than boys because girls were excluded from most trades
(though some probably sneaked in).

Children, orphans or from destitute families, were "put
out" to other families -- and put to work. The girls
might do agricultural work -- sowing, weeding, hoeing,
picking -- since most families back then had at least
vegetable gardens, but I suspect their main use was as
domestic servants.

Cheers,

Warren

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