Family Life

A plantation family might consist of the planter, his wife and one or two children. If he prospered he might acquire indentured servants and later possibly enslaved labor. During their first year in the Chesapeake, almost all newcomers became sick from exposure to new strains of diseases to which they had no immunity. Among men, life expectancy for new colonists at age twenty was only another twenty years or so and almost three quarters would die before reaching age 50.

These facts, combined with a shortage of women and the fact that indentured servants were not allowed to marry until their contracts were completed, put limits on family formation. Men and women married late and died young so they had few children, and nearly half of those died before reaching maturity. Most children lost at least one parent before coming of age, and a great many lost both parents. Orphaned children were often bound out by the county courts to other families to earn their support. Given the shortage of women, widows remarried quickly, creating new and more complex family structures.