Patrick Goodwin 3/4/13
HIS 202-840 Essay #1
Demos’s argument throughout the book is about how the lives of the first colony are similar to today’s society in relation to family, property, childhood, and other things. He states that the purpose of his study is was first, as a seminar paper, but then as a pamphlet for the Plimoth Plantation. Demos wants to give a portrayal of the Plymouth Colony that is more about psychology, or psychohistory, meaning that he wants to talk about the things that people did and why they did them. He uses court records to state his case for all of his findings, as well as using some inference into the scenarios that he reads in the court records themselves. The structure that the book uses is that it is broken down into three overarching categories. The categories that he uses are the physical setting, the household, and individual development. He goes through each of these categories using subcategories that are more detailed and give more information about individuals that he found in the court records and other firsthand materials that were uncovered at the Plymouth Colony. The book is organized in such a way that you first see the life of the original colonists in Plymouth, and then it moves on to later stages of the colony. He does this in each chapter to make sure that he shows the different transitions throughout the time of the colony. Demos’ uses court records, firsthand accounts; physical remains, other authors work, and use some of Demos’s own inferences. While making his arguments about how the Plymouth Colony lived, he uses the primary sources to evaluate and infer exactly what he thinks is going on in the colony in terms of psychological findings. He shows this multiple times throughout the book, for example, the wives of the colony are allowed to separate from their husbands if they see that the relationship was unhealthy. There are also multiple other instances that show how women have some power over their own lives. There are also other sources that he uses to show how the people lived. He uses physical remains of the Old Colony to tell us how the people lived. A demo also uses all of the sources as tools to help him develop a more psychological understanding of the people of Plymouth. Demos is an intelligent man who has been working on studying the psychology or psychohistory of groups of people for a long time. He uses the records that have information about certain individuals to make inferences about the colony as a whole. He knows that one cannot take a few instances and make a complete judgment about an entire group of people, but understands that it could be a possibility. The material that he is looking at are just basic court documents with written accounts of some of the proceedings that took place. Also, there are Wills that he looks at that show how the father gave away his land and home to his son. After reading through the material he makes conclusions that the father is the head of the house and that things are not much different than they are today. He tells of how the process of becoming a man is much different than it is today. Demos shares with us the records about how the parents are to punish the child until they are no longer stubborn or rebellious. This idea of beating a child to keep them in line is completely different today. However, he makes the inference that the reason that the parents do this is to show the child what is right and wrong, or to form good habits. The ideas that are shared by Demos are seen throughout the book, some are similarities to our current time and some are vast differences. Some that things that are most interesting would have to be the way that women were treated and how different history made it sound. The women of the colony were not treated as poorly as I once thought. I knew that women were not seen as equals, but I