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Essay on American Family History
Historically the family was considered both a private and a public institution. It was also sought as the basic political, religious, social, and economic unit in society. It cultured the young, supplied the first level of government, and nurtured the sick, the elderly, and the hindered. Any family that we depict here in Williamsburg was concerned in one or all of these essential functions.
Their precise ideas about families and their customs of family life differed with each cultural group--African, European, or Native American. The customary model of family structure that British immigrants brought to Virginia was a patriarchy; where the father figure held a place of supreme power over his wife, children, and all other dependents living in the household. This notion of authority and dependency shaped a comprehensive classification of the family. Thus, anyone subject to the influence of the householder was considered a member--immediate relatives, dependent kin, employed help, tenants, indentured servants, trainees, and slaves. Patriarchal authority provided the dynastic aspirations of some wealthy Virginia planters by perpetuating the power and influence of their house and ancestry.
Most imperative was preserving intact the possession of family lands. The civilization of primogeniture (bequest by the eldest son) and entail (lawful banning against the sale or grant of land outside the lineage) bared the dynastic goal of the gentry. The right of fathers to will ground to their sons when they came of age or married toughened the patriarch's authority. Daughters' heritage and marriage gifts typically took the form of slaves and livestock rather than land. Whether as large as a family dynasty or as unpretentious as a tradesman's household, the patriarchal system simulated the structure and reinforced the authority of the state. A father's job and errands in the family reflected in small the patriarchal affiliation of a sovereign to his people......
