What Would You Have Been?
In the colonial era, the most prestigious jobs were reserved for well-off white men, who secured appointments as colonial governors and military leaders. But there were many other types of jobs in Britain’s 13 American colonies.
Benjamin Banneker, a free Black man born in Maryland in 1731, was a farmer and writer who, after the American Revolution, assisted in the land survey to establish the District of Columbia. Elizabeth Freeman, who successfully sued for her freedom in Massachusetts in 1781 (becoming the first person to win her freedom this way), worked as a midwife and nurse.
Here are six common types of jobs that people held in the 13 colonies and what they produced.
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