Houses in Colonial America

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

Although most people in colonial America lived in small one room houses or log cabins, more prosperous land owners would have nicer homes. Here's a list of the styles of homes people built in colonial America.

Wattle and Daub homes were built in Jamestown when the English settled there. When the Pilgrims came to America, they also opted for wattle and daub designs. These houses had wood frames and were filled in with sticks and daub made from clay, mud, or grass. They generally had thatched roofs, wood floors, and one room.

Later, land owners built plantation style homes with more than one room. These houses were French Colonial style. They had two stories, multiple rooms and fireplaces, and glass windows. Creole homes were a smaller version of this style. They had French doors and wrap around mantels and were made with heavy wood timbers and had columns to support the roofs.

Georgian Colonial homes were the houses we think of when someone mentions a Southern colonial. In the 1720s, these houses became popular all over the colonies. These homes had large square rooms with a center hall where the stairs were located and were known for pedestaled doors, porticoes, and a symmetrical floor plans. The style originated in England and was adapted according to the resources available in the colonies.

Architect Robert Adam came up with the federalist style which became a mainstay shortly before the Revolutionary War and for the early years of our nation's history. The style was inspired by classic Roman architecture, but it used some of the style features in Georgian homes. Because of the patriotic fervour of the time it was coined "federal" although it was also called Adam's style. The main colors were yellow, white, and red. The floor plan was basically a box with symmetrical rooms, two or more deep. The front door had pilasters or columns on either side. The windows had small panes, lined horizontally and vertically in groups of seven, five or three.

The log cabin is usually the home you think of when talking about American architecture. This style home was built when people moved into wilderness areas because they didn't have the resources to mill the wood. Instead they would cut down the trees and use the unmilled logs as their building materials. These homes were rustic 12 by 16 foot square homes with dirt floors. Windows were cut into the walls and covered with wood or animal skins. Log cabins were usually meant to be temporary homes until the family could arrange for something nicer to be built. 

Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures. She loves to write historical fiction set in the United States because there are so many stories in American history. There are strong elements of faith, romance, suspense and adventure in her stories. She has received 2^nd place in the NOCW contest, 3^rd place TARA writer’s contest, and is a finalist in the Frasier Writing Contest and has other novellas in print. She’s been married for 38 years to the love of her life, Rick, and has two married adult children and two grandchildren. Tamera has two novellas in print: A Christmas Promise and Resurrection of Hope. Her first full length novel, Alice’s Notions, was released this month.

The Man Who Changed Schools in Colonial America

The Man Who Changed Schools in Colonial America

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

In the 1700s, punishments for students in school were severe. Teachers of that day normally relied on fear and beatings to keep children in line and to make sure they learned their school lessons. Christopher Dock, a schoolmaster in two Mennonite schools in Pennsylvania began to change all of that.

Dock immigrated to America in 1714 from Germany. He became a school teacher and developed his own style of teaching based on encouragement. His desire was to build character in his students using positive peer pressure and persuasion.  Although he disciplined poor behavior and attitudes, his methods of discipline were more likely to consist of making a child sit alone for a while. He also had a policy of considering each child with understanding.

He would reward students with illustrations of birds or flowers in chalk drawings on their hands and urged parents to reward their children for good school work by giving them praise, pennies, and fried eggs. His motto was "Different children need different treatment."

Christopher Sauer, a printer in Germantown, noticed Dock's results with the students when his children attended one of Dock's schools. He encouraged Christopher Dock to write a manual on school management. Dock completed the manual in 1750 but wouldn't let Sauer print it until after his death. He didn't want the book to be a monument to him, but he did let Sauer print a few of his articles including A Hundred Necessary Rules of Conduct for Children and A Hundred Christian Rules for Children.

Christopher Dock died one evening at the school where he taught. He was found on his knees in prayer. Soon after that Saur's son published Dock's book called School Management on August 3, 1770. It was the first book of its kind in the United Colonies and influenced the management of schools for years to come. Years later, the Mennonites named a high school in Lansdale, Pennsylvania after Christopher Dock.