Maryland+In+The+1700s

If you lived in the 18th century in Maryland, you would probably want to be the son or daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. You would have had many privileges that other children might not have. You would live in a large plantation home with your brothers and sisters. You might also have some servants or slaves living in the house with you. These people would be responsible for cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the house. Other slaves would have different jobs on the plantation. Your father would own a large amount of land. You couldn’t imagine sometimes how far his land stretches. You would not go to the edges of the plantation very often. Those are the areas where the tobacco is grown. Slaves work in the tobacco fields. Those slaves live in cabins near the fields where they work. Slaves might also work to take care of animals, or work as blacksmiths or carpenters. Your father would have to travel beyond the plantation quite often. He might be a member of the Assembly, the group that makes laws for the colony. He also might have to go to court to help to decide how to punish people who have broken the law. Your father might be away quite a lot of the time. Your mother would stay home, though, to watch after the plantation and the children. //What would children do on the plantation?// You don’t have to work outside. You have other things to keep you busy in the house. Some of the day is taken up with lessons. You might have a tutor to teach you or you might go to a small school with other children in the area. Boys learn to do math and to read many different languages, including Latin. Boys might also learn about navigation and science and about geography. They are taught everything that they will need to know to run a successful plantation of their own some day. Eventually, the boys might be sent to college, like the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where George Plater III and other colonial leaders went to school. They also might have the opportunity to go to England for more education. When they finished their education, these boys were expected to become leaders in the colonies like their fathers.
 * Life on an 18th-Century Plantation**

One game that was very popular throughout the colonial period in Maryland was a board game called nine man’s morris. This game was played by adults and children. It is similar to playing tic tac toe. It is a very easy game to learn. You can even play at home. All you need is to draw a board on a piece of paper, just like the one in the picture above. Then, you need two players and nine markers for each player. The markers can be beans or stones, but just make sure that you can tell the difference between the two players’ pieces. The object of the game is to try to get three of your pieces in a row as many times as possible. Play starts with one player putting a piece on the board at a spot where two lines cross. The players take turns putting one piece on the board at a time. Both players try to get three of their pieces in a row while blocking their opponent from doing the same thing. Every time that a player does get a line of three pieces, he gets to take one of his opponent’s pieces off the board. This piece is then out of play for the rest of the game. Once both players have all nine of their pieces on the board, the players take turns moving their pieces, one space at a time, still trying to get three in a row. The game is over when one player has only two pieces left. The other player is the winner! Girls learned very different things in the 18th century. They would be taught to read and write and to do simple math. Other than that, they learned how to be ladies. They would be taught to dance and to play musical instruments. They would also spend hours practicing their fine sewing skills. They would learn to embroider on small pieces of cloth called samplers. They would sew letters or patterns into the sampler to practice what they had learned. Eventually, girls would marry, probably to the sons of other wealthy landowners, and become the mistresses of their own houses. When not working on your lessons, you might have some time for play. You might play with board games in the house. Outside, you might enjoy a game of nine pins, a type of lawn bowling, or rolling a hoop with your sisters and brothers to see who could go the fastest. The clothes you wear would look very much like the clothes that your parents wear. Girls would wear something called stays under their dress. Stays were pieces of bone sewn into cloth and laced up under the jacket, or bodice, of a dress. They made certain that girls stood up straight and tall. Boys would wear pants called breeches and long, heavy coats. Babies would wear lose-fitting dresses called frocks. On their head they might wear something called a pudding cap. A pudding cap padded the baby’s head like a helmet in case they fell while learning to walk. You might have several different outfits. Some would be special clothes that you would wear when your parents were entertaining guests. People would come to stay at your plantation. Sometimes, they would stay for quite a long time. For very special guests, your father might have a party or a large dinner. Some of your neighbors might come for this occasion, as well. You would lead a very comfortable life. Not everyone in 18th-century Maryland was so lucky. Most children did not live on a large plantation with slaves to work for them. There were children on small plantations that probably had to help with chores around the house and in the fields. There were also enslaved children. These children would have to work the rest of their lives for someone else and would never have any control over their situation.