Women, Native Americans, and the Foundations of North America
Within the daily grind of early southern life, free women processed food, managed basic medical care, sewed clothes, and cared for children
Although Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage famously altered global history, he was hardly the first European to glimpse North American shores. Around 1000 CE, the Viking Leif Erikson briefly landed there, though he established no lasting settlement and left little impact on European awareness of the continent. It took another half-millennium for the Florentine navigator Giovanni Caboto—better known as John Cabot—to stumble upon North America in 1497. Like Columbus, he was searching for a western route to Asia, only to find something altogether different.
Spanish explorers soon followed. Beginning in 1513, Juan Ponce de León ventured into Florida, while others probed inland territories, such as Hernando de Soto exploring the Southeast between 1539 and 1542. Though the Spanish briefly occupied areas like St. Augustine (founded 1565) and Santa Fe (settled 1610), they found fewer valuable resources in what they called “La Florida” and in the Southwest. Their principal interest rested in extracting gold, silver, and other riches from Middle and South America, where indigenous empires like the Aztec and Inca could be subjugated. Still, Spain maintained a foothold in Florida and the Southwest, influencing North American developments with a distinctly different colonial model than that pursued by the French or English.
A crucial, though often overlooked, detail: the Spanish crown did not initially plan on sending large numbers of colonists—much less women—to these northern territories. An exception was Francisca Hinestrosa, who arrived in 1539 with her soldier husband on Hernando de Soto’s expedition. Likely the first European woman in North America, she died tragically in 1541 in conflict with indigenous peoples along the Mississippi Valley. This early episode points to a reoccurring pattern: colonization brought foreign men, who often depended on indigenous communities for supplies and support. The scarcity of European women among Spanish expeditions shaped colonial dynamics, marriage practices, and cultural exchange in ways that would echo throughout colonial history.
Spanish and French Expeditions
While the Spanish thrust into the Southwest and Florida, the French looked to North America’s northeastern reaches. Giovanni da Verrazano explored the Eastern Seaboard in 1524. A decade later, Jacques Cartier ventured into the St. Lawrence River, constructing a settlement near present-day Quebec. French Basque fishers, meanwhile, traded with indigenous groups such as the Abenaki in Maine, who coveted European fabrics and metal tools.
By the early 1600s, more formal French colonization efforts sprouted along the St. Lawrence. In 1609 Henry Hudson sailed the river that now bears his name, while a few years later, French Jesuits established missions aimed at converting indigenous peoples. Basque and French traders formed alliances for the fur trade—primarily beaver pelts that were prized in Europe—shaping how indigenous communities adapted their economy and social structures to accommodate new markets.
However, the French did not simply trade; they also endeavored to build permanent communities. The French presence in North America grew significantly by the mid-seventeenth century. Settlers, including women of modest means such as foundlings from asylums, arrived under the supervision of religious orders or the direct financial support of the monarchy. Some women in New France found relative freedoms uncommon in Europe: property rights, the ability to participate in small-scale commerce, and less stringent punishments for perceived moral or religious infractions than their female counterparts in New England or Brazil. Still, the Catholic Church held formidable authority, and the colonial economy—heavily reliant on fur—remained closely aligned with Crown interests.
The English Arrive: Roanoke and Jamestown
Of all European powers to explore North America, the English were among the latest to act decisively. Initially motivated by the desire for a base to antagonize Spain, Queen Elizabeth I dispatched Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh to found a colony. Though Gilbert perished in the attempt, Raleigh set up a fort on Roanoke Island (off present-day North Carolina), naming the area “Virginia” in honor of Elizabeth, the “Virgin Queen.” In 1587, Raleigh sent ninety-one men, seventeen women, and nine children to Roanoke. Among them was Eleanor Dare, who gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World. When John White, Eleanor Dare’s father, returned to England for supplies, a protracted war between England and Spain delayed his return. Upon his arrival at Roanoke in 1590, the colonists had vanished without a trace, becoming the infamous “Lost Colony.”
It would be another generation before England tried again. In 1605, a group of merchants and aristocrats formed the Virginia Company, which sent 144 men and boys to establish a settlement. This band founded Jamestown (named for King James I) in a swampy area of Virginia in 1607. Ill-suited to the new environment, plagued by disease, and unprepared for the work required, the colonists nearly starved. Native communities offered assistance, providing food and knowledge of local crops. Nevertheless, suspicion and aggression characterized English–Native relations, leading to raids on indigenous villages and, in some instances, burning of critical food supplies.
Significantly, no women arrived among Jamestown’s initial group. Only in 1608 did two women, Anne Forrest and her maid Anne Burras, join the colony. Burras soon married laborer John Laydon, marking the first English wedding in any North American colony. Despite these modest beginnings, the population of Jamestown continued to rise, bolstered by wave after wave of new arrivals—many of them indentured servants seeking economic opportunity or fleeing hardship in England.
Native American Societies in the Face of Colonization
Far from being a “New World,” North America was home to millions of Native Americans speaking over a thousand languages. Their societies ranged from nomadic hunter-gatherers to advanced agricultural civilizations, such as the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest and the large Mississippian cultures centered near Cahokia.
- Pueblo Societies: Groups like the Hopi, Zuni, and others built terraced, multistoried adobe dwellings in defensive positions amid canyons. They cultivated squash, beans, and corn (maize) through sophisticated dry-farming techniques. Pueblo women owned houses, furnishings, and crops, maintaining collective economic and social authority. They could easily divorce a husband by placing his belongings outside the door.
- Moundbuilders and Mississippians: In the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, large earthen mounds served as sites for burials and religious rituals. These communities engaged in extensive trade with neighboring regions. Mississippian societies thrived around major cities like Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis). Skilled horticulture, copper work, and textile production underpinned their economies. The spiritual life often centered on communal rituals tied to the cycles of planting and harvest.
- Algonkians, Iroquois, and Muskogeans: East of the Mississippi, many groups practiced mixed economies of farming, hunting, and fishing. Iroquois-speaking peoples organized themselves through the Iroquois League (or Haudenosaunee), a powerful confederation of five (later six) nations. In these matrilineal cultures, women held influential roles in property rights, agricultural activities, and the appointment or removal of male chiefs. European settlers, from their patriarchal viewpoint, often misread such political and economic systems and discounted women’s authority.
When Europeans arrived, diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles devastated indigenous communities lacking immunity. Mortality rates soared, sometimes reaching 90%. In the early decades of European colonization, Native Americans dictated much of the trade, especially in furs and other goods, forcing colonial powers to adapt to local norms. But by the latter half of the seventeenth century, colonists, aided by superior weaponry, shifted the balance of power decisively in their favor. Conflicts such as the Pequot War (1637) and King Philip’s War (1675–76) left many tribes weakened or destroyed, and thousands were forced to cede their homelands.
The Emergence of French Settlements
While the English established a foothold along the Atlantic seaboard, the French concentrated on Canada (New France) and the Mississippi valley. Initially, the French population was small, consisting largely of fur traders, a few farmers, and Catholic missionaries (particularly the Jesuits). By the mid-seventeenth century, France intensified its colonial efforts, offering incentives for families to emigrate.
In New France, women often found opportunities unavailable to them at home. Though still under the watchful eye of the Catholic Church, they were essential to the colony’s stability and growth. Some historians argue that the scarcity of women gave them a certain leverage in marriage and property dealings—especially when compared to the narrower legal horizons in France and other colonies. However, missionary efforts to convert Native Americans often collided with indigenous customs. Jesuit priests tried to impose male dominance on tribes where women were integral to decision-making, and their teachings stressed monogamous, irrevocable marriage in place of more fluid indigenous marital patterns.
French settlements eventually expanded down the Mississippi, culminating in the founding of New Orleans in 1718 and other posts across the Gulf Coast. “Filles à la cassette” (or casket girls) arrived to marry French settlers, reinforcing population growth. Yet the French focus on the fur trade frequently required harmonious relations with local tribes—far more than the English, who saw land acquisition as paramount. This difference in focus would influence how each colonial power negotiated or battled with Native communities.
Indentured Servitude and the Roots of Slavery
All colonies faced the challenge of finding enough labor. Spain and France both tried, unsuccessfully, to enslave local Native Americans, but indigenous people knew the terrain and could more readily escape. The Catholic Church in Spanish territories also restricted enslaving Native groups. For the English, the initial solution was indentured servitude. Landowners and joint-stock companies recruited England’s surplus population—often impoverished, in debt, or otherwise desperate. Prospective migrants signed contracts that bound them to work for four to seven years in exchange for passage, board, and lodging. Upon completing their term, they would theoretically receive “freedom dues,” which might include land, money, tools, or clothing.
Conditions were harsh, and many servants, particularly in the hot, disease-ridden Chesapeake, died before their contracts ended. Women, who were far fewer in number, worked both as field hands and in domestic service. Some, once free, married well and gained relative prosperity. However, the supply of indentured servants never fully matched the enormous labor demand for tobacco, rice, and other cash crops.
By the late seventeenth century, planters in Virginia and elsewhere realized that purchasing enslaved Africans provided a more “permanent” labor force, since slavery was for life and hereditary. The first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, but only gradually did slave laws emerge that codified African-descended people as chattel. Children born to an enslaved mother were automatically enslaved, guaranteeing a self-reproducing labor force. Interracial relationships between white women and Black men were penalized—whereas white men’s systematic sexual exploitation of Black women went largely unpunished. By the early eighteenth century, the transition to a slave-based economy was well underway in the southern colonies, entrenching a brutal system that simultaneously widened the gap between rich and poor whites and subjected Africans to a lifetime of dehumanizing conditions.
Women’s Lives in the Southern Colonies
Women’s experiences varied, shaped by geography, economics, social status, and race. In the Chesapeake (Virginia and Maryland) and the Carolinas, women—both free and indentured—faced numerous hurdles. The climate bred disease, and the gender imbalance (favoring men) made women’s labor doubly valuable, whether in the home or the fields. Women often married at a younger age than in England or in other colonies, and many children lost one or both parents early in life. Widows could have more autonomy than in England, partly because they inherited property or managed estates until their children came of age. Yet this “autonomy” was frequently short-lived, as they remarried or succumbed to the region’s punishing living conditions.
Within the daily grind of early southern life, free women processed food, managed basic medical care, sewed clothes, and cared for children—while men typically handled strenuous field work and oversaw laborers. However, in practice, women’s work blurred these boundaries. For wives of middle-class planters, domestic and agricultural duties seamlessly merged, especially if their holdings were modest. Some wealthy women, like Margaret Brent of Maryland—an unmarried Catholic woman who owned large tracts of land—exercised significant influence in local affairs. She famously demanded two votes in the Maryland assembly (one for herself and one as the estate representative of the governor) but was rebuffed. Her demands, though rejected, illustrate how women in certain circumstances pushed the boundaries of traditional gender roles.
Enslaved women lived a sharply different reality. They toiled in fields from sunrise to sundown, then labored again at night for their own families—cooking, repairing clothing, nursing children, and enduring constant fear of physical or sexual abuse. Laws offered no protection against exploitation, and slave marriages had no legal recognition. Though the white elite justified slavery with racist ideologies, the system’s real bedrock was economic profit through forced labor.
Conclusion
North America’s early colonial era was anything but simple or monolithic. Various Native American peoples resisted, adapted to, and sometimes allied with the Europeans who arrived on their shores. Each colonial power—Spain, France, and England—brought distinct legal, religious, and social frameworks, influencing everything from land ownership to women’s roles. Over time, English interests gained the upper hand in the continent’s eastern half, thanks in part to the sheer volume of English migration and a ruthless willingness to seize Native lands.
Amid these sweeping changes, the stories of individual women—from Francisca Hinestrosa traveling with conquistadors to Margaret Brent in Maryland—illuminate the overlooked complexities of colonization. Whether they were Native American women exercising traditional authority, French settlers negotiating new freedoms, or enslaved Africans forging family structures in oppressive conditions, women’s experiences profoundly shaped colonial society.
Sophie
Sophie
Sophie
