Chapter 16, The Back Country - Part 2 Summary and Analysis

Here, the author shows readers yet another way in which the British ways turned into Colonial ways, and later, with some localized modifications, American ways. David Heckett-Fischer has separated them in the book, but the two can 'run together'. The gender ways pass into child-rearing ways. There is an incredibly important distinction here that comes from the borderland behavior of the British. The child-rearing method was will-enhancing, rather than destroying or limiting, of the child. It was focused on making the child stronger and more independent. In the back country this approach was emphasized with boys. It turned out that this back country tendency to intentionally nurture the will of their children was something that was also practiced by the native tribal people who also had their turn at serving as...