Children and Puritanism: The Place of Child Life and Thought in the New England Churches, 1620-1847. Sandford Fleming

1934 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 480-481
Author(s):  
W. W. Sweet
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Child Life

THOMAS COBBET'S DISCOURSE ON THE RAISING OF CHILDREN

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-279
Author(s):  
Herbert C. Miller ◽  
Mary T. Miller
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Child Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time

THREE HUNDRED years ago there appeared in New England a book on how to raise children—almost certainly the first of its kind to appear in this country. The fact that it was the forerunner of what in recent years has amounted to a spate of books and articles on the same subject is noteworthy enough. More interesting is the fact that it was written at all. Books on any phase of child life were rarities in those days. Individually, children 300 years ago were undoubtedly as important to their parents as they are today, but children collectively and their special problems had not loomed large in the public conscience. Here, perhaps, for the first time, the American an conscience is speaking out on the subject of children—through a minister whose parishioners approved what they heard from the pulpit and urged that it be set down in print. Because Thomas Cobbet deemed them worthy subjects, we can now catch a glimpse of children of early New England and compare their behavior and what Puritan New England thought about it with children and parents of today. The comparisons are made doubly interesting since our present culture is still heavily indebted to Puritan thought. Not much is known of Thomas Cobbet, the author.1 He was born in 11 Newbury, England in 1608. He attended Oxford but left on account of the plague. He was a nonconformist and chose to emigrate to avoid persecution. Cobbet arrived in Massachusetts in 1637 with Davenport, and was a colleague to Mr. Whiting of Lynn until 1656 when be became the pastor of the first church in Ipswich, where he remained until his death in 1685.

American Children Through Their Books

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-366
Author(s):  
ERNEST CAULFIELD
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Child Behavior ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Child Life ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Major Conclusion ◽  
Early National ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
American Children ◽  
The Devil

This is not only a book about children's books, but it is also a comprehensive survey of various aspects of child life in America during the colonial and early national periods. Miss Kiefer's major conclusion is that the American Revolution marked the beginning of the American child's emancipation, and that by 1835 one finds the child emerging as a distinct personality not only in respect to religion but also in education, manners, health and recreation. The chapter on "War with the Devil," in which is discussed the gruesome theology of early New England and its effect on all phases of child behavior, is skillfully handled with both respect and delicate irony.

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