rpanons | [D] Hold still

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Ok the fandom probably maybe is obvious by now but let's avoid spoilers just in case.

There's this guy that lived during the early 1600s in the USA. Could someone tell me some general idea of what it was like then? He's a teenager - did he already have things like hunting duties or anything? Were there colonies still? (not american here)

Well, the colonists had only just started arriving right around 1600 so they were probably still there.

Is your character European, or are they a native?

For the looks of it, he's a native.

I hate to sound SJW about this, but as a Native American, I feel somewhat uncomfortable with the character being referred to as simply "native", with European used for "white".

Sorry, anon, it didn't cross my mind. I understood the anon's question as in "did he arrive on a ship or is he from the USA?", nothing to do with races. He's white, actually, but born in the colony.

So yeah, sorry if it sounded wrong.

Like I said, I hate to sound SJW about it, and I'm not mad! I just figured it was something that wouldn't occur and I like to let people know rather than let someone else flip out on someone about it in a much less civil way later. :)

smiley is genuine and not pa, I promise

That's not at all what I meant, which I figured would be clear from the fact that I used the common noun form of native, but I guess not. Thanks for assuming the worst of me!

To be fair, I thought this was for that new Assassin's Creed protagonist (or related some how) so I misunderstood it as, "Is your character of European or Native descent?" I think it was a pretty honest mistake, anon.

Early 1600's, anon.

I confused myself with dates really badly for a moment, sorry. :(

I took a course in Colonial America focusing on New York, so might I know a few things. The colonial era lasted until 1776, when the US officially declared independence from Great Britain. Do you know what colony they lived in and if they lived in the frontier, in an agricultural area or a city? The life style of a Puritan in New England, is different than the life of someone who lives in what would become New York, and that's different than the life of someone who lives the Carolinas. Not to mention, that in the 1600s, some of the colonies were owned by the Netherlands and the Swedish.

In general the economy was based off of agriculture, large plantations in the southern colonies, all the way to small subsistence farms in rural New England. Hunting for meat wasn't much of a thing, because you had a farm for meat and animal products, unless you were hunting for furs to sell, but the rich hunted for sport. He most likely would work the fields, tend to the animals.

This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States also might get you started with the basics.

We don't have a lot of info about his life then, that's why I asked for a general idea in case there's something important from his everyday life I need to know (for example, hunting would mean he knows how to handle a weapon or traps). About your question, apparently the place is Pennsylvania, and it's definitely not a city. It's a small town, pretty rural.

But anyway, thanks a lot for the info! Tending the animals makes sense now I think about it (connecting it to certain canon detail haha). I'll check that link out.

Going to say a disclaimer here: I'm more of a Revolutionary USA person but I do have some background knowledge, even if it does get hazy the further back I have to go. I'm also from the South and while I did learn a bit about the Middle Colonies, I confess that most of my schooling consisted having the differences between North and South beat into me so if anyone wants to add more or correct something I said, come at me because I'd love to learn more.

THAT SAID…

The Province of Pennsylvania (PA) was founded by William Pen in 1682. It was founded as a predominately Quaker colony and it showed in how things operated. Compared to the rest of the colonies, it was much more religiously tolerant and it didn't even have an army until the French Indian War in the mid-1700s. PA also didn't have very many taxes. The quakers also didn't believe in social ranks. You can check out more on how government worked in PA here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_of_Government_of_Pennsylvania

Considering a lot of settlers were leaving Britain to escape religious persecution and find wealth in the Americas, this made PA really appealing to immigrants. On top of that, the state had very rich and fertile soil so it could easily feed itself.

That said, you have an interesting mix of people in PA. I think big things you'll want to look into is aspects of the Quaker religion and the significant Pennsylvania Dutch population in the area. Keep in mind, Pennsylvania Dutch isn't Dutch; it's actually southwestern German. They were mostly situated in Germantown in 1683. You also have a ridiculous mix of other religions and nationalities like Lutherans, Baptists, Anabaptists, Irish, Swedish, Scottish, etc.

An important document called The Charter of Privileges (1701) played a significant role in how the European settlers dealt with Native Americans. the CoP called for "fair dealings" which promoted a respect for the Native Americans as well as allowing Native Americans to serve on juries with settlers. The Quakers in PA also refused assistance in wars against Native Americans in New England. How well this worked out, you'll want to poke around and do your own research because I honestly don't know much about tribes outside my home state but I remember this really Romantic style painting of William Penn signing a treaty with Native Americans in PA.

I'm aware that 1701 is a good time away from the early 1600s but I think its kind of important to note because it sets the tone for what sort of people settled there.

I suggest taking a look at some of the Native American tribes that were in the area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Native_American_tribes_in_Pennsylvania

I don't really know what the significant tribes in that area would be but it looks like the Lenape and Susquehannock were the ones the colonists dealt with in their Charter of Privileges.

Uuuh, let me think of other things…

Being in the New World, the colonists had a lot to worry about. In the early 1600s, there were failed attempts at colonization (the most famous failure being Roanoke settlement). Even Jamestown fell apart with less than a hundred settlers surviving the first year out of several hundred.

The British kind of haphazardly charged into the whole colonization deal. Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and even Sweden were getting a piece of that New World land and the British wanted it to. Colonies were founded with documents called charters and Britain expected to make some serious money from the colonies, never mind sending settlers over at bad times of the year, making it almost impossible for the earliest settlers to grow crops in time for the winter.

Honestly, it's like the colonists were given a charter saying "take some weapons, here are some supplies, now go! make us money!" And the colonists stumbled around, fearing Native Americans, the Spanish, and French until they finally got their foothold. And honestly, the colonies were pretty much "do what you have to do on your own" up until the Revolutionary Era.

Philadelphia might be a "big city" (colonial standards, here) but the capital of the colonies would have been Jamestown until 1699.

Farming was a really, really, really big thing because of the earlier mentioned rich soil and valleys. Considering the colonies were all allowed to be founded for economic reasons, its safe to assume there was a fair amount of mercantile/trade jobs. I couldn't find anything on hunting but it looks like fur trade was profitable. Lumber and shipbuilding industries were successful due to the abundance of forests. In fact, Pennsylvania comes from Penn (William Penn) and Latin 'sylvania' (forest land).

As for things going on in other colonies… PA was one of the middle colonies which was the bread basket of the American colonies. It had was fairly balanced as far as agriculture and industry went but not nearly as industrialized as the north would be.

The Southern Colonies were mainly agricultural and known for tobacco, cotton, and rice. Jamestown is in the south.

The New England colonies in the north was a religious mess of Puritans and then some. New England was more industrial compared to the other colonies, especially compared to the south.

Slavery was also an institution back then and depending on your character's religious background and nationality, they might have different ideas about the slavery. For example, if they were Quaker, they would most likely be against it.

Sources:
http://www.usahistory.info/colonial/customs.html
http://www.usahistory.info/colonies/Pennsylvania.html
http://www.usahistory.info/colonies/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Pennsylvania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies#Province_of_Pennsylvania
http://www.usahistory.info/southern/

oh my god that was a ridiculous amount of TL;DR.

I'm sorry, anon, I JUST REALLY LIKE HISTORY A LOT.

don't worry I love you for it <3 History nerds are the best.

I hope it helps, anon!

Also I figured out what canon you're talking about and yeah, like anon said, tending to animals would have been a thing.

PA was the bread basket and was where a lot of grain/wheat came from back in the day. There were fertile rivers, rich valleys, and plenty of land to graze on. Tending to animals will always be a difficult job but it couldn't get much easier in PA as far as taking them out and making sure they were fed.

Also, like I said, I don't know much about hunting but I suggest looking up 17th century fur traps and rifles/pistols. Keeping in mind that many guns would have been ridiculously unreliable due to being smooth barreled as opposed to spiral barreled (which would have put a spin on the bullet).

Oh dear all that delicious tl;dr THANK YOU SO MUCH have lots of e-cookies

And don't worry about the hunting - it was a random thought that crossed my mind but it has zero references. Farming actually makes LOTS of more sense so I'm going with that when it comes to his duties in the family and stuff.

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[D] Hold still

Question for history lovers out there

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