Essay Sample on Family as a Basis of Social Hierarchy in the Developing United States

Introduction

Throughout the 16th to 18th century a family formed the basic unit of the society, and the expectations of the community were anticipated to be reflected within the family. Matters related to politics, wealth and inheritance, social issues, employment, and procreation were considered a fundamental responsibility of each family. These responsibilities also varied depending on race, sex, and status. Families played an extensive role in establishing the social hierarchy in the developing United States; however, the dynamics and functions assigned to each family member to create a stable social structure differed from across Indians, English and African Slaves.

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In the Indian households, the roles assigned to men and women differed significantly as the men were famously known for hunting while the women carried house chores. However, women were given priority in ownership of property as the belonging of their men once reached the household ownership was shared. Additionally, the standard values taught to the children was a task assigned to women even if the parents were divorced. The Lenni Lenape further practiced freedom of choice with both men and women sharing this freedom. The men and women in Indian society also shared complementary roles in political and economic matters thus considered to be of equal social standing (Caffrey). After marriage, the new couples were allowed to stay with their friends until they erected a hut of their own thus being fully recognized as an independent family unit. Family roles were the central unit of Indian society, and they used these roles to guide the expectations of their English captives of the frontier warfare (Little, p.93). The English men in captivity thought they could use the family roles in Indian society to establish economic and political control over the Indians. For example equality between men and women in Indian society was viewed as a weakness by the English.

In New England, the colonists regulated the actions of various members of the society using the family which upheld their marital and sexual reproduction lives. The family order was the basis of all order in the society and men (like Adam) for the Puritans of New England were tasked with controlling the actions of women, children, and slaves. Family's fitness to rule was based on its economic production, as schools for moral and intellectual development, religious and vocational instruction (Little, p.95). Thus the images of a family could be manipulated for social or political gain. The hierarchy was challenged by English women who rebelled through outbursts airing their dangerous religious and political views in public. An act that embarrassed their husbands who punished them physically by beating or emotionally by having affairs and bastard children.

Moreover, not all the youth of New England Puritans were devout to the church; however, most who accepted Evangelical views were guided by their parents in matters considered vital by the society. For example, parents were given the obligation to select and approve potential spouses for their children (D'emilio and Estelle, p.21). The youth, in turn, were expected to marry after which they were allowed to engage in marital sex resulting in procreation, thus, satisfying the ultimate societal goal. In as much as reproduction was encouraged by the devout colonists, racial-mixing resulting in procreation was considered an abomination by some of the colonists. Agnes Tailor was sent by the court to be whipped in front of the slaves for defiling her body by having a child with an Afro-American (D'emilio and Estelle, p. 27). With regards to the family structure, the colonialists considered women weak concerning mastery of their passions. Thus, they had to be controlled. Sexual institutions relied on families in upholding the morality established by testifying against illicit sexual activities. Fathers in families were held in high status by the society as the rape of a daughter or wife was not considered a crime against the woman but a violation of the property of the man (D'emilio and Estelle, p. 31). However, the harshest penalties for such crimes applied to black men compared to the white. As fathers were economic unit of the family which eventually translated to a productive society, having "bastard" children was punishable as they threatened the stability of the society.

In the Afro-American households, the men and women of old age who had worked for their masters for long were the heads of their kinfolk where he or she had a 36-38% chance of blood ties as they were children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, grandchildren's spouses and children-in-law (Kulikoff, p.64). Thus age and loyalty to the masters determined a family's hierarchy. Marriages between the relations of each leader of the kinfolk further extended the ties as they judged each other based on the kinship reciprocal relations that bound them together and encouraged them to protect each other from their masters. Since the masters separated the men from the women children lived with their mothers (Kulikoff, p.66). Therefore, in as much as there is no vast information as regarding the family structures of the black families mothers were dedicated to raising the children and could call upon the help of their kin within the same plantation to help in the task. The smaller children were left home with their age mates as their parents went to work in the plantations. Parents and older siblings taught the young ones their trade and how to avoid the wrath of the masters. However, communities played a more vital role in establishing social hierarchy when compared to individual families as all slaves' nurtured children, lived and cooked together. In the 1750's where women lived with their parents' marriage only signified the rite of passage but having a child meant moving to another level in the society, and the women had to move out of the parent's house.

Conclusion

Families played an extensive role in establishing the social hierarchy in the developing United States; however, the dynamics and tasks assigned to each family member to create a stable social structure differed from across Indians, English and African Slaves. Indian society strived to create an equal society with women roles considered a vital component in social matters. Valuing women and giving them higher standing was considered a weakness by the English colonists who emphasized on family structures dominated and controlled by men. The notions and expectations of the family were imposed on the Afro-Americans by their English masters; however, the slaves used their kinship and societal relations to protect their families from the actions of the masters. Similarly, in both Indian, English and Afro-American households' marriage acted as a rite of passage from one level in the society to another.

Works Cited

Caffrey, Margaret M. "Complementary Power: Men and Women of the Lenni Lenape." American Indian Quarterly 24.1 (2000): 44-63.

D'emilio, John, and Estelle B. Freedman. Intimate matters: A history of sexuality in America. University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Kulikoff, Allan. "The beginnings of the Afro-American family in Maryland." Law, Society, and Politics in Early Maryland (Baltimore, 1977) 189 (1977).

Little, Ann M. Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/lagcc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3442052. Created from lagcc-ebooks on 2018-09-10 10:54:23.