Domestic life in New England in the seventeenth century

The lecture reconstructs daily life in colonial New England homes during the seventeenth century, using estate inventories, court records, surviving houses, and illustrations to describe architecture, room functions, furnishings, clothing, food, and household labor. It highlights contrasts between poverty and material comfort, the presence of imported luxury goods alongside simple dwellings, and common building practices that favored plank-framed houses rather than log cabins. The account also treats family organization, apprenticeship, and the ways religious and legal norms shaped domestic behavior and community standards.