Large bedchamber

13b. Family Life

Wonderful excerpts on how the children in this house played have been found in the family’s diaries. When Sally’s daughter Agnes was 13, she wrote that on some winter days, she watched as the boys went sleighing and skating, and she stayed indoors. She observed, “How much pleasure the boys do take skating. I wish I could skate. Frederic said he would teach me next Saturday.” Abby Brown mentioned in her diary that her children were learning to ice skate and were busy “attempting the jumpy rope.” Around this time in early America, parents began adhering to the ideas of philosopher John Locke, who believed that children were born naturally innocent. More and more, play was encouraged, especially those pursuits that instilled adult skills and values. In fact, alphabet blocks were popularized by John Locke, and were sometimes called Locke’s Blocks.

Some historians have remarked that starting in the middle of the eighteenth century, women’s roles in families acquired new significance, and paternal power in the household began to decrease. Certainly, in the case of Sally and her family, she dominated her domestic realm, especially when her male counterparts were increasingly absent from homelife. Even before Charles Herreshoff passed away, Sally was the main influence and authority over her children as they grew up in this house. As such, she and other mothers of this time were responsible for shaping their children’s character and morals.

John Brown House Museum
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. First Floor Hall
  3. 3. Front Hall Portraits
  4. 4. Sarah Brown Portrait
  5. 4a. Alice Brown
  6. 8. Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island Exhibit
  7. 9. Mahogany Exhibit (From Forest to Foyer)
  8. 9a. Mahogany Collections
  9. 5. Maps of the World
  10. 6. Portrait and Platter
  11. 7. The Dining Room
  12. 7a. Sideboards in the Dining Room
  13. 7b. A Recipe
  14. 7c. Servants and Enslaved Persons
  15. 10. John and Sarah Brown's Bedchamber
  16. 10a. Necessary Chair
  17. 11. Marden Perry's Bathroom
  18. 12. Providence Landscapes
  19. 13. Large Bedchamber
  20. 13a. Sally and Charles
  21. 13b. Family Life
  22. 13c. Child's Walker
  23. 14. Second Floor Hall
  24. 17. Washington Wallpaper Room
  25. 18. Butlers Pantry
  26. 20. Carriage Room