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Searching for Primary Sources to Tell the Story of 18th-Century Children's Lives!

To track down original words which help reveal the story of children's lives during the colonial period, historians research diaries, reminiscences, legal documents, published materials, and a variety of other primary sources. Twenty-first-century researchers find most of these resources in libraries and archives, but they sometimes find them on the Internet as well.

Even a small selection of quotes from 18th-century sources, such as the writings of a Virginia tutor, the recollections of an enslaved man, a letter of instruction from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter Martha, and the letters of a young gentry boy, offer important information about the variety of schooling, work, and recreation that was considered to be appropriate training for young people in the 1700s. The following quotes have been selected for what they reveal about the daily lives and training of enslaved children, apprentices, and children of the wealthy gentry class:

An Enslaved Boy's Work:

"Stayed in the laundry. Isaac toated wood for her (his mother); made fire & so on. Mrs. Jefferson would come out there with a cookery book in her hand and read out of it to Isaac's mother how to make cakes, tarts & so on."

Source: The Memoirs of Isaac Jefferson, http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/collections/tj/memoirs.html.

The Education of Enslaved Children:

"I am desired by a Society who call themselves The Associates of the Late Dr. Bray (the Objects of whose Attention are the Conversion of the Negroes in the British Plantations founding Parochial Libraries & other good Purposes) to acquaint You that they lately agreed to open a School at Williamsburgh in Virginia for the Instruction of Negro Children in the Principles of the Christian Religion. They earnestly request that You, Mr. Hunter, Postmaster & the Minister of the Parish will be so kind as to assist them in the Prosecution of this pious Undertaking, & that You will with all convenient Speed open a School for this purpose: & As 'tis probable that some of Each Sex may be sent for Instruction, The Associates are therefore of opinion that a Mistress will be referable to a Master, as She may teach the Girls to Sew knit &c. as well as all to read and Say their Catechism. They think 30 Children or thereabout will Sufficiently employ one person, & therefore wou'd at present confine their School to about that Number…
(first shipment of books to open school in Williamsburg)
50 Childs first Book
40 English Instructor
25 Catechism broke &c
10 Easy Method of instructing Youth
3 Indian instructed
2 Preliminary Essays
5 Bacons 4 Sermons
5 Bacons 2 Sermons to Negroes
10 Christian Guide
3 Church Catechism with text of Scrip.
12 friendly Admonitions
70 Sermons before Trustees & Associates"

Source: Letter from Rev. John Waring (London) to Rev. Thomas Dawson (Williamsburg), Feb. 29, 1760. Extracts from the records for the Bray School, funded by a British society called the "Associates of the late Dr. Bray," a charity school for black children that operated in Williamsburg, Virginia from 1760 until the death of its mistress, Mrs. Anne Wager, in 1774.

An Apprentice's Agreement:

"The Said John Richardson doth bind and oblige himself his Heirs &c to teach or cause to be taught his said Apprentice in the Arts and Mystery of Carpenter and Joiner in the best manner he can and to read and write and likewise to provide for his said Apprentice Meat Drink Washing and Lodging and Aparell fitting for such an Apprentice during the term of his said Apprenticeship."

Source: Six-year apprenticeship agreement between John Whitoe Sprulock, an 18 year old mulatto, and John Richardson, York Town, Virginia, Aug. 21, 1753. York County Deeds and Bonds Book, Vol. 5, pp. 558-559.

A Gentry Boy's Formal Education:

"Dear Mamma June 20, 1786
You see I have not forgot the injunction laid on me of writing to you by every opportunity. I have not written to Papa because Colonel Innes told me he was gone to Norfolk. Cousin Beverley Cousin Patty and Cousin Lucy are all in town but I have not seen them yet. I have left off Latin and devoted myself entirely to greek and French until the boys have finished virgil & the long expected time will come when I shall begin Horace. Mr. Maury has made the steward usher & says he finds him as well acquainted in Latin & Greek as he is himself, he is beloved by the whole school. But we don't like the Englishman at all. He is perpetually making a disturbance tho' he has nothing to do with us only on a writing day. He takes our paper to make our copy books and takes half of our paper and quills. We have just had a violent quarrel the subject of which was whether I should burn a candle in my room or not although the candle was my own in which (although I gained my point after he had gone to Mr. Maury) the candle burned almost out and I have but the snuff to write by. Give my love to all the family and be assured I remain your most affectionate son,
  John Randolph
Pray send me by the first opportunity my Greek grammar and fables, the fables are in the old room closet, & I would be much obliged to you for some shoes & money as I have but one pair of shoes and no money at all, having spend all in bearing my expenses down---Tuesday Night. 11 o'clock----
I have just seen uncle Bannister's Stephen by whom this letter is carried although no opportunity offered when I wrote it."

Source: Letter from John Randolph, Walker Maury School, Williamsburg, Virginia., June 20, 1786, to his mother Francis Bland Randolph Tucker (wife of St. George Tucker), at Matoax, near Petersburg, Virginia. (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 43, pp. 47-49.)

Instruction of Young Girls:

"…Also (I teach) five Girls between five & fourteen years Old. The Girls all dress in White, & are remarkably genteel. They have been educated in the City of Williamsburg in this Colony-The two eldest are now learning Music, one to play the Harpsichord; the other the Guittar, in the practice of which they spend three Day in the Week…."

Source: Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774, Hunter Dickson Farish, ed., (Williamsburg, Va., 1957), p. 36.


  Annapolis Nov. 28. 1783
"My Dear Patsy  
The acquirements which I hope you will make under the tutors I have provided for you will render you more worthy of my love; and if they can not increase it, they will prevent its diminution. Consider the good lady who has taken you under her roof, who has undertaken to see that you perform all your exercises, and to admonish you in all those wanderings from what is right or what is cleaver, to which your inexperience would expose you: consider her, I say, as your mother, as the only person to whom, since the loss with which heaven has pleased to afflict you, you can now look up; and that her displeasure or disapprobation, on any occasion, will be an immense misfortune, which should you be so unhappy as to incur by any unguarded act, think no concession to much to regain her good-will. With respect to the distribution of your time, the following is what I should approve.
From 8 to10 o'clock practise music.
From 10. to 1. dance on day and draw another.
From 1. to 2. draw on the day you dance, and write a letter the next day.
From 3. to 4. read French.
From 4. to 5. exercise yourself in music.
From 5. till bedtime read English, write, &c.
Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson, and if she approves of it pursue it. As long as Mrs. Trist remains in Philadelphia cultivate her affection. She has been a valuable friend to you, and her good sense and good heart make her valued by all who know her and by nobody on earth more than me. I expect you will write me by every post. Inform me what books you read, what tunes you learn, and inclose me your best copy of every lesson in drawing. Write also one letter a week either to your Aunt Eppes, your Aunt Skipwith, your Aunt Carr, or the little lady from whom I now inclose a letter, and always put the letter you so write under cover to me. Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelt, and if you do not remember it, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. I have placed by happiness on seeing you good and accomplished; and no distress which this world can now bring on me would equate that of your disappointing my hopes. If you love me, then strive to be good under every situation and to all living creatures, and to acquire these accomplishments which I have put in your power, and which will go far towards ensuring you the warmest love of your affectionate father.
  Th: Jefferson
P.S. Keep my letters and read them at times, that you may always have present in your mind those things which will endear you to me."

Source: Letter from Thomas Jefferson to his daughter, Martha Jefferson, Annapolis, Maryland, Nov. 28, 1783.


This article was written by Frances Burroughs, Associate Producer–Educational Media, Department of Education Outreach, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.