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What did the New England colonies do in their free time?
While dancing, horse racing, cock fighting, and music were among the most popular entertainments that the colonists enjoyed, and ones that could be found throughout the New World, from the meanest tavern on the Pennsylvania frontier to the wealthiest homes in Boston, a host of other diversions sustained early American …
What did the New England colonies do in their daily life?
New England’s economy depended on the environment. Its location near the Atlantic Ocean along a jagged coastline determined how people made a living. People in New England made money through fishing, whaling, shipbuilding, trading in its port cities and providing naval supplies.
What did colonists do for fun in the middle colonies?
In winter, in the Middle Colonies, kids had fun skating. In all the colonies, kids played with balls and bats and marbles and dolls. They played tag. In the south they played lawn bowling.
What was the religion like in the middle colonies?
The middle colonies saw a mixture of religions, including Quakers (who founded Pennsylvania), Catholics, Lutherans, a few Jews, and others. The southern colonists were a mixture as well, including Baptists and Anglicans.
What religion was practiced in the New England colonies?
Puritans
The New England colonists—with the exception of Rhode Island—were predominantly Puritans, who, by and large, led strict religious lives. The clergy was highly educated and devoted to the study and teaching of both Scripture and the natural sciences.
What did the early colonists do for fun?
Colonists often had contests, worked together in spinning or quilting bees, played the fiddle, and danced to music. Many colonies had common areas where residents gathered, much like a park. Most of colonial life was spent doing work, but colonists did have some time for recreation.
What kind of games did people play in colonial times?
When families gathered, the children played games that included marbles, hopscotch, tag, and hide and seek. Theaters became popular in colonial times, as well as attending horse races. Cribbage boards were popular for colonists, and card games such as whist and loo were played.
Why did people want to live in the colonies?
Living in the American colonies exposed the hopeful settlers who made their homes there to unexpected hardships. They often chose lives in the colonies to escape poverty and persecution. They found freedom, but they also found dangerous wilderness living conditions and harsh winters.
What kind of music did the colonists listen to?
Colonial music defined the people who came to America to create new lives, according to the Colonial Music Society. Music drew on inspiration from other countries, including England, Ireland and Scotland. It included ballads, minuets, folk songs and sonatas. Violins were the most popular instrument, and colonists also played flutes.