Anne Orthwood's Bastard Sex And Law In Early Virginia Summary

Throughout American history, there are different stories of how the colonies were founded, by whom they were founded, and what became of them once they were founded. With all these stories historians, have been able to come up with a very close timeline to when the events occurred and how they occurred, although with every founding of a new land comes a series of myths. Four myths that are commonly perceived as true with the founding of America are (1) everyone who came to America was coming so they could practice their own religious beliefs, (2) the earliest settlers came with their families and from the middle class of the English society, (3) the class system was forgotten in America, it was indeed the land of the free where everyone has
A way that readers can differ between myths and reality is by reading local historical documents, from the time. A prime example that can be used is the novel, Anne Orthwood’s Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia by John Ruston Pagan. Pagan examines the early life of colonial Virginia through the story of Anne Orthwood, a bastard child who moves to the colonies from England. Anne’s story helps readers learn about how the American colonies functioned in the 1600's. This paper will review each myth from above and prove how it is only a myth and not the
During the early 1600's it was very uncommon for families to move to the colonies. A majority of the people who moved where young men and women and a large number of them were indentured servants. Mainly men migrated due to the influx of agriculture, craft, and trade jobs in the colonies and many women moved to the colonies in the false hope of being married soon after they arrived. Many ports recorded a register of the number of how many indentured servants migrated. The port of Bristol recorded from 1654 to 1686, about three-quarters of the indentured servants male and one-quarter female. The main goal for many young men and women was to move to the colonies, work, and in turn, gain economic wealth to then be able to raise a family or be able to marry and start a