Leisure Activities
Though work was very important to the survival of the colony and it's people, many leisure activities existed in daily life. The colonists of Pennsylvania found ways to make their labor easier and faster as well as fun.
Bees were very popular and aided in getting more work done; they had quilting bees for women, and corn husking bees, and chopping bees were everyone got together and cleared a lot for new settlers.
The Germans introduced house and barn raising; a barn/house frame was raised in one day while the women prepared a large feast. At the end of the day everyone danced on the new barn/house floor. 
Younger children played with dolls and marbles, and played games like tag, blindman's bluff, stoolball(similar to cricket, a game like baseball), but cardplaying was disapproved of by the Puritans. Not only did children play games but also adults; they played a blowing like game where egg shaped balls were rolled down a lane of grass into a white ball called a 'jack', a game similar to backgammon called "tick-tack" and billiard "pool". Animal oriented blood sports such as horse racing, cockfighting, and bull baiting were very popular at the time also.
(left) A barn-raising.
Cockfighting; two roosters are put in a ring called a cockpit, both specially bred gamecocks have congenital aggression towards members of their own species. Both gamecocks attack each other and the outcome of the fight is wadgered on. The birds are conditioned like athletes between shows and events and given the best care up to the age of 2 to increase their stamina and strength. The sport is illegal in the United States and most of Europe because the sport is considered animal cruelty and is a form of gambling. Before legal issues were brought up by animal activists the sport was very main stream, even during colonial times.
Bull baiting; A chained bull is worried and tormented by dogs, the dogs then bite the bull to incapacitate the bull and even kill it. The blood sport is used for entertainment and gambling and is illegal in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Food
Food for the colonists in Pennsylvania was plentiful because of fertile soil and climate. Food had to be constantly being cooked to prevent spoiling because they lacked refrigerators, and the meat went bad even if it was smoked and salted and dried. The Native Americans taught the colonists how to make corn mush which became a staple in their diet. Corn mush was made into cakes or eaten w/ milk, fruit, molasses, or syrup. Corn mush was eaten for lunch and dinner every day.
The colonists hunted deer, rabbit, and birds and raised pigs, cattle, and chicken. They perserved the meat by salting, smoking, and drying it. Spices were still used to mask the taste of bad meat. An English tradition was to simmer for 24 hours in large iron pots with vegetables, spices, and herbs until it had the same consistency of the corn mush they ate. Vegetables were also thought to be unhealthy, especially if eaten raw which added to the tradition of cooking their food till it was mush.
Types of berries they ate are; huckleberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and grapes. Native pumpkins, turnips, carrots, and onions were also harvested during certain times of the year. They also made bread from the local grains.
Religion
Pennsylvania was founded on the promise of freedom of religion for the colonists by the leader of the Quakers, Willaim Penn. The Quakers believed in equality for everyone, not paying taxes to their king, and the Church of England.
At the start of the colony only the Quakers inhabited the colony, later on Puritans, Angelicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Morvians, Scot-Irish, and Baptists began to appear in the colony. Soon even more religions began to arrive in America for religious freedom.
Friction and persecution occurred between the religious groups caused by the Puritans quest for domination of the colonies. The Puritans wanted to make everyone worship the Puritan way which meant that all nonconformists were fined, banished, whipped, and even imprisoned for not conforming to the way of the Puritans. The persecution of noncomformists ended when other religious groups started to appear in Pennsylvania.
A church in Colonial Pennsylvania
Comments (3)
Aneesa said
at 12:37 am on Sep 13, 2009
Does anyone have any images for this page? And I think we should all proof-read each others writing for quality and accuracy, k?
Mikaila said
at 8:16 pm on Sep 14, 2009
you can put pictures of the type of food that they eat...or a field. ill look.
and if you want, youc an put a picture of a church. .. . . .
or ill do it. haha
Aneesa said
at 8:25 am on Sep 15, 2009
Do what you want, Mikalia. Yo, Brandon, what are you doing?
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