stration: BIBLE BROUGHT OVER IN THE "MAYFLOWER" IN PILGRIM HALL,
NEW PLYMOUTH.]

But while Great Britain has always been immeasurably above Spain in her
treatment of her American subjects, she was almost as foolish, because
she chilled the loyalty that had been proven in too many instances to be
doubted. The mother country was laboring under the weight of burdensome
taxes, and, since the colonies had always been prompt in voting money
and supplies as well as men to assist England, Parliament thought she
saw a way of shouldering a large part of this burden upon the Americans.
Her attempts to do so and the results therefrom properly belong to the
succeeding chapter.

HOME LIFE OF THE COLONISTS.

A few facts will assist in understanding the events that follow.
Slavery, as has been stated, was legal and existed in all the colonies,
but climatic conditions caused it to flourish in the South and decline
in the North. All the colonies were Protestant, though religious liberty
was permitted everywhere.

The laws were amazingly strict and would never be submitted to in these
times. To illustrate: a watchman in Hartford rang a bell every morning
as notice to all adults to rise from their beds. Massachusetts had
fourteen and Virginia seventeen offenses that were punishable with
death. Some of the minor punishments were unique. If a woman became a
common scold, she was placed near her own door, with a gag fastened in
her mouth, that all might see and beware of her example. For other
offenses, a man was ducked in water or put in the stocks. A stock was a
strong framework, through which the feet or both feet and hands were
thrust and held fast, while the pillory was a framework through which
the head and hands of a criminal were imprisoned. Besides the disgrace
attending such punishment, it was very trying. The whipping-post was
quite common long after the Revolution, and it is still occasionally
used in Delaware.

[Illustration: AMERICAN STAGE-COACH OF 1795, FROM "WELD'S TRAVELS."
(Probably similar in form to those of the later colonial period.)]

Men and boys dressed much alike, and the fashions for women and girls
were similar. The breeches of the men suggested the present style of
knickerbockers, the rich making quite a display of silver buckles and
buttons. The breeches of the poorer people were made of coarse cloth,
deerskin, or leather, the object being to obtain all the wear possible.
The wealthy used velvet, and the