Womens lives during the sixteenth century colonial America - Essay Example

?The socio-historical studies on women’s lives during the sixteenth century colonial America were monumental in shaping the status that women of the modern world today enjoy. From the twentieth century-woman perspective, it must have been an extremely difficult and daunting to live in that period. And we have our women ancestors to thank for what they have to endure and how it was able to shape the socio-cultural construction of womanhood. This essay will basically tackle the different experiences as survived by women during the historical colonization of Europe in the Americas. To begin with, the sixteenth century woman could be considered as someone who existed to uphold the domination of Europeans conquistador, even when they are unaware of it or even when they have exerted much effort to resist the colonizers mere presence in their lives. As women took the essential role of reproduction, whether slave or master, they were seen as a key factor to maintain the system of patriarchy as well as the continuation of its bloodline. In the case of Spanish borderlands, women slaves were almost always subjected to sexual abuse by their masters. These women slaves themselves were not any given any rights to retaliate or file a cause against their perpetrators, except for the few lucky ones1 who were given certain privileges to live freely after servitude. And the product of these sexual abuses paved way to a second generation of hybrid children. These children, though born from a slave, had actually acquired with them a benefit not enjoyed by their mothers. These children were accepted in the master’s family and treated as part of the kin where they are given equal rights, a privilege they will never have being a slave. Patriarchy then is underscored as this circumstance displays the following characteristics: (1) the male as being reproductively potent and is able to procreate, and (2) the man’s ability to sustain the needs of his nuclear and even these additional and extended families. This more often than not violent relationship of masters and their women slaves have actually mutually benefited both parties. Without their full consciousness, masters have ensured for their women slaves economic benefits for their children while simultaneously these women slaves have ensured for their masters the persistence of his bloodline. Another case where women have more than just a reproductive functional role was in Chesapeake Bay. Women (and men) were imported as indentured slaves due to the lack of manpower to sustain the area’s tobacco production. They are then to serve their European masters while at the same time given the responsibility to toil the fields during planting and harvest periods. In this case, women were forced to double-hat various functions so they could acquire what was deemed as their prize for being slaves – freedom. By securing themselves trans-Atlantic passages and little property after the period of enslavement, these slaves were given power to ultimately take control of their lives anew. This new kind of power was an advantageous mechanism for them as they have already adapted and adopted the lifestyle and even the culture of their masters. Their agency allows them to subject themselves to servitude with the end goal of acquiring power through independence. With freedom being prized, it is almost wrong to say that these women are not empowered. Power was within their capacity in fact, but it was not naturally obtained. Certain efforts had to be exerted and many sufferings had to be endured for the end goal of achieving freedom. New England women, on the other hand, because of the nature of Puritanism, were never allowed to inherit the properties of their departed husbands in contrast to Chesapeake women who have the full autonomy over their husband properties upon being widowed. The Church was made the new and automatic owners of properties of widowed women. Looking at the picture, it would seem to us that Chesapeake women had the upper hand over the New Englanders. But dissecting further the bigger picture, it would be appropriate to say that this strategy of the Church is somewhat beneficial to women of New England. To prove this, New England women enjoyed much lower mortality rate in pregnancy because its Puritan laws defended the integrity of marriage by keeping their interests and properties in line with the principles of the Church. Upon being wed, the woman (her physical and social being) and her properties are automatically turned over her to husband, therefore delineating her rights to think for herself. In retrospect, this would seem like powerlessness and gender inequality. But this allows for a subsequent and latent kind of power held specifically to the woman. With the domestic domain as her primary area of responsibility, she is given the capacity to influence decision-making which pertains to household matters on top of providing resources to augment the family’s sustenance. Since women were allowed to take on the husband’s role in his absence, she is vested a secondary and latent kind of power going farther beyond the household. Moreover, the woman carries much of the weight to rear and nurture healthy and ethical children for a successful nuclear family; which is central to achieving a harmonious society. Because of the specific position a woman holds, she is in fact vested a powerful function that is not necessarily observable given the dominant structure of patriarchy. A failure to uphold the responsibilities of these roles in the domestic areas will yield to bitter and unwanted social consequences. The case of slave Indian women on the other hand differs drastically with that of New Englanders. Unlike the Puritans, the Iroquois had a culture that accommodated women into important functions of the society. Just as the case of Eunice in the description of his father John Williams as recounted in the book of John Demos’ “The Unredeemed Captive”. Being a father and an unadulterated Puritan, he made it a mission to redeem his beloved daughter from the captivity of the Indian Iroquois. By redeem, he means he would free his daughter from any harm and distress she experienced while at the hands of her captors. But we saw that in his account, his view of Puritan redemption was not necessarily present in the new life adopted by his daughter. In the community of Eunice’s captors, the women were treated well and would have the choice to become a naturalized citizen or return to their homeland after doing years of service. While men slaves were taught to do manual labour and often are given a doze of punishment upon failure to live up to the mater’s whims, women are, on the other hand, treated less harshly. Just as how Eunice have developed to be healthy and well treated as accounted for in his journal. At a young age, it is also a factor that she was able to learn easily not only the language but had also been able to acculturate herself with Indian values and lifestyle without much difficulty. This acculturation provided her (and other captive women) an option for the naturalization of her (their) citizenship. This gave her a certain kind of special relationship to her captors. Instead of being seen merely as a captive or a slave, Eunice (and other women) was “redeemed” and considered as an ally, as somebody who can provide a means for negotiation among the French’s business transactions with the Indians. It must be considered also that Eunice was to be married to an Indian man who her Puritan family considers as truly savage. Her marriage spelled out for her not only her ticket to being fully adopted by her captive community, but also for them to integrate her fully and treat her as a kin. From Eunice’s experience, we can surmise that women during their time have inherent power in them despite the fact that their respective social statuses were that of slaves. Their power resides not in the fact that they are able to manipulate their situation with a distinguishable and/or observable strategy. Rather, their power resides in their inherent influence of their very situation to serve their own needs. This can be considered as Steven Luke’s third dimension of power, where power is exercised without necessarily invoking violence and challenging the dominant power. To further prove this point, women are generally seen as the weaker gender even up to this day, but this is not necessarily always the case. Women are not readily accepted to hold key positions in the community. And when they do, it is almost always responded with doubts and criticism. For women in the period of colonial America, they do not have to challenge this thinking at all. In fact, they don’t see the need to defy it and make reformations because though it is most of the time oppressive, it serves them also with quite a number of benefits, without them being necessarily conscious of it. For instance, since it was established that women are physically weaker than men, they are delegated the lesser laborious tasks such as those that are limited in the domestic sphere. Much like the Puritan women in New England or generally those in Chesapeake Bay or even those enslaved by the Indians, they were subjected and limited to these spheres only with varying degrees of punishment everytime they are unable to live up to the standards of their role. But this doesn’t mean that they are all the time powerless. By influencing the domestic sphere, they are also subtly influencing the whole of the community. Without the woman’s child-rearing capacity as well as domestic abilities would mean degradation of the basic core unit of the society, the family. Generally, women have been accounted for different experiences over time. Though generally different in context, these women also shared communities in this diversity. For instance, male and female are all social constructions to distinguish social responsibilities coupled with its identity. And these constructions were brought about by the different challenges that these characters played out during their time; and more shaped by the political, socio-cultural, economic, and even ideological endeavours during colonial America. References: Berkin, Carol. "Bibliographical Essay." In First Generations: Women in Colonial America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996. Brooks, James F. “This Evil Extends Especially to the Feminine Sex: Negotiating Captivity in the New Mexico Borderlands." Feminist Studies 22 (Summer 1996): 279-309. Demos, John. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. New York: Vintage, 1994. Lukes, Steven. Power: A Radical View. London: Macmillan Press, 1974. Morgan, Jennifer L., "Some Could Suckle over Their Shoulder:" European Depictions of Indigenous Women, 1492-1750 Read More