The New England Town

Freeman grew up in a small New England town at a time when the region was undergoing what many social and cultural historians have viewed as an enervating change. Many of the area's vigorous youth, including a large percentage of men, had abandoned the settled communities of the East to pursue the country's westward expansion. The Civil War had also decimated the population of young men. The New England of Freeman's experience seemed overwhelmingly peopled by single women and old men. New England townspeople were similar racially and culturally, church-based, and strongly agricultural. Women usually did not work in the fields, but instead took on responsibility for the many tasks required to run a farm, such as making basic foodstuffs and clothing. The town itself was frequently made up of several villages along with the countryside in between, all of which were under the...