A Busy New Life

Hannah and Samuel settled into their life together with their newly formed family. As an obedient and devoted daughter, Hannah, much like young Mehitable, would have spent much of her childhood helping with the household chores and tending to her younger siblings.

Hannah, almost certainly, got the children ready for morning prayers and Bible study. Hannah would have then spent much of the day tutoring her younger siblings in Quaker beliefs and practices. Lessons, taught at home, included reading and writing poetry and prose. Handwriting was practiced by copying a page or two from printed text. As their father had requested, Hannah taught her siblings to write and cipher well. Hannah also made sure that her sisters mastered homemaking skills, such as sewing, by making clothing for their dolls and creating decorative needlework pieces called samplers.

How do you think Hannah felt about her life and responsibilities?