Pilgrim Houses essays

Pilgrim Houses essays Pilgrim workers built the houses. The men were the only people that built the houses. The houses on Plymouth Plantation were made out of logs, hay, rocks, wood and mud. The houses in Plymouth Plantation were built close together for safety reasons. A fence enclosed the plantation and the men had to take turns watching over the plantation. Pilgrim houses were always one-room houses with an attic that they needed a ladder to get in. This one room was called the keeping room because they kept everything in there. Everybody lived in the keeping room. The keeping room had the fireplace where they cooked all their food and kept themselves warm. The baking was done in community ovens that were shared by several families. All the familys beds were also in this one room. Everybody had his or her own bed. Some beds were really fancy and even had curtains around them. This curtain gave each person some privacy and helped keep the Pilgrims warm at night. Some beds were made out of bags stuffed with scratchy straw and some were made out of bags stuffed with soft feathers. The keeping room also had the eating table, benches around the table, and cupboards to keep their clothes and food. All the furniture was made out of wood and animal skins. This was pretty much all the furniture in the house because the whole family had to live in this one room house. There was no bathroom in the house. Everybody went in the outhouse that was on the outside of the house. Many families shared the outhouse. The basic frame of each house was oak although other hardwoods such as beech could be for minor members. The roofs were generally thatched with reeds or straw, although there may have been some shingled structures. The walls were of wattle and daub, woven supports made of split wood or saplings that were plastered over with a mixture of clay, sand and straw. Without lime the daub walls washed away in winter storms, so they sheathed the walls w...