What was the importance of work in the colonial society?

Answer 1

Alright, here's the 3 minute nutshell version.

Back in the day when protestants were first coming to power in Europe, the idea of presdestination was vital to the new sects especially Calvinism. This concept basically said that it didn't matter how many good deeds you did for the church nor how many times you were absolved for your sins. Regardless of your track record, God had already given your soul a fate on whether you'd be in heaven, hell, or have a shot at purgatory in afterlife (purgatory is a controversial idea that when you die, God basically has you stand in the corner in a time out thinking about what you've done before he lets in into heaven).

Still, the new protestant faiths needed a reason to predict and feel as though they were part of the elite and select group of souls that would go to heaven. Puritans eventually established a tradition that if wealth came your way and if you HAD a good life, chances are you would continue to do so in the afterlife. Such a good life could be encouraged by hard work and due diligence which had the added benefit of being with the "in" crowd of people destined for heaven.

In addition, Puritans believed that any wealth and good fortune that came your way was not to be hoarded or thrown away for entertainment. Instead, it should be reinvested for the betterment of the community. This is not to say that Puritans were socialist (they actually despised hand outs because it discouraged people from working which undermined the whole 'prove your worthiness' focus), but that actually the seeds of the Spirit of Capitalism were planted in their social design.

*-*Spirit of Capitalism*-* This is the ethically oriented maxim of organization for one's whole life in order to fulfill a position in free labor's market. In other words, it's the transition force which forged and insured tradition's value in modern capitalism which is the rationalization for economic gain by dominating the work place through systematic organization.

An aside; not all colonial communities were dependent or epitomized by the Puritan faith. Even Puritan communities were not populated entirely by Puritans (Jews, merchants, other Protestant branches, vagabonds, bards, innkeepers, etc.) and these other people were vital to the Puritans since they brought in resources which couldn't have been easily acquired otherwise due to less technological implementation (cotton, tea, trinkets, tools, paper, etc.).

Also, some places used work AS a motivation in itself for why people should do so. Jamestown's leader, John Smith, required that the people work so they could eat once he realized how laziness caused the decline in population. Indentured servants were originally cheaper than slaves in spite of the cost to bring them over because they on average lived in service than slaves did. Eventually, slaves would be perferred over indentured servants, but this would only occur once Indentured servants had greater survival rates resulting in land and tools having to be provided as well as the success in breeding practices. Breeding practices would be "industrially" experimented and calibrated by overseerers and plantation owners that picked and bought the healthiest slaves on the market while balancing living conditions with living costs (REMEMBER STILL, slaves NEVER lived a life of luxury).

Answer 2

At first when the English came over to the colonies they brought with them the mindset where only a few people work at a time, while the rest sit around and relax. But, this method didn't last long for them. Many died before the colonists realized that they everyone needed to work for their food in order to survive. A good example of this is the colony of Jamestown. At first only a few people worked, but after the arrival of John Smith, everyone began to work because Smith forced them to. Had he not forced them, the colony of Jamestown probably would have become extinct like the colony of Roanoke.

Answer 3

Use your brains! No work, no house, no eat, no nothing! Later, no profit for the employer. By colonial times, too the so-called Protestant work ethic had been developed - a fine and subtle way to convince people the needed to be employed in order to be valued, by god or society. It's made us materially wealthy, but spiritually poor. In a self-sufficient society every man's a king and every woman a queen - although, with overpopulation and the intrusion of wealthy land owners it became much harder. In the "work" society of the "employed" every man's merely a tool, with little time for family, and none of the self-respect of a hand-craftsman.