Jack Miller : Life in the Middle Colonies

My prosperous land is getting harder and harder to maintain everyday. As much as our rich and fertile land is beneficial to our success, there’s just too much of it to handle. I’m becoming worried. I’ve extended the land too because of how prosperous we’ve become. You see, we don’t own any slaves because of our Quaker beliefs. And we don’t have that many servants to help us out either. My brother, boys, and I have been working day and night off and on lately just to keep the land running. Even my wife and daughter have been helping so much throughout the days. I don’t know what to do and I wish my father was still here to help guide me through this hardship. I’m hoping that some luck will strike us and we get the help we need. On top of that, the Natives have been attacking more and more settlements, ours could be next..

My dear wife told me that even though my boys have had an impeccable amount of school work and daily chores, they still ended up fooling around and getting in trouble. They often ended up playing hopscotch or tennis. My daughter had friends over during one of the days I was absent and my wife told me how they would swing around in circles, singing songs. She even told me about how one day, the boys put haystacks upon haystacks on top of each other and pretended that they were little soldiers. They apparently kept diving into haystacks, making a whole mess of the place. I’m pretty sure even the cattle thought they were going mad. But that’s just a daily ordeal in the life of the miller boys.

Anyway, one of the weekly things I end up doing during my life is going to Quaker meetings in this meeting house we have just down the road. We often pray in silence, it’s just the way it’s been done for a while now. One thing that we’ve talked about a lot lately is starting up a petition to abolish slavery, I hope that it comes true. Even though slaves are still a big thing in our colonies, me being a Quaker, well I don’t like the thought of slavery at all. The reason I enjoy living in Pennsylvania so much, is that there are many other Quakers like us and we have a right to practice whatever religion we want. That’s something that wasn’t available back in England, or other colonies that weren’t middle for that matter, at least that’s what my father told me. 

I took my boys to school the other day. I heard rumors on how the New England colonies had Puritans run the school, I’m so glad it’s not like that here, I wouldn’t want my children to be educated by the lowlife Puritans. Anyway, I brought them to a school run by Quakers, since we are you know, Quakers. Some of the other people have told me how other religions run their own separate school, I like it that way. My children are taught the practical aspects of education and each of my boys are taught a skill or trade. Considering that we are part of the wealthier side of the Quakers, I’m having them learn classical languages, history, literature, mathematics, all of those necessary skills to help them succeed later in life. As for my little girl, she’s stayed at home and I’ve gotten her a fine tutor to teach her household and social skills. They are being taught the great aspects of being a Quaker and I think that they’ll grow up to be a group of very fine and fitting Quakers

I think that they feel threatened by us considering that we came to their land all those years ago. I’ve heard stories of some of the colonies going and capturing more and more land from the Indians, maybe that’s why they’re attacking us. I worry for my family and what we will do if the Indians were to ever come to our home. I pray that we will find a solution to this problem soon, I’m tired of constantly living in fear, can’t they see that we mean no harm? 

Update: We’ve upgraded our house to stone, it’s much more sturdier now. I got my sons to help me out too.

I’ve come from a long line of Quakers and its the reason why we don’t own any slaves. My father told me that being a Quaker back in England was very dangerous, which is why William Penn took him and many others to the New World. We’ve become so successful with our farm!