For much of the colonial era, death was a domestic affair. Instead of hospitals, senior homes, or hospices, people more often died at home, leaving family members to manage the body and arrange for a funeral service. Who did what was often decided on the basis of gender.

Women were often tasked with caregiving. After someone’s death, that meant cleaning and dressing the body, a duty that could include both immediate family and community members like neighbors and the local midwife. They would have also prepared clothes for the burial, including a loose, open-backed garment commonly called a shroud, as well as more common clothing items like stockings and soft shoes. In more urban areas, women might even work as quasi-professional layers out of the dead. Women would also typically be expected to take part in funeral processions and put together a meal and drinks for the living who attended services and wakes.

Meanwhile, men would have gotten to work crafting the coffin, a simple container that was often put together by a local carpenter or cabinet maker. While woodworking was very much a male-dominated field, so, too, was the religious side of things. From church caretakers known as sextons to the minister conducting the service, men would have taken on the public religious duties necessary at a funeral. They would have also taken on much of the physical labor, such as digging the grave and transporting the coffin from church to burying ground.

You May Also Like

Joliet news: 5 critically injured in crash near South Chicago Street, McDonough Street, police say

ByABC7 Chicago Digital Team Monday, December 4, 2023 3:16PM JOLIET, Ill. (WLS)…

Investment titan Charlie Munger dies aged 99: Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner at Berkshire Hathaway passes away ‘peacefully’ at California hospital

Charlie Munger, the longtime business partner of Warren Buffett, has died aged…

Donald Trump is set to return to the witness stand in his civil fraud trial

NEW YORK – After a pugnacious first turn on the witness stand,…

Things Found At Patsy Cline’s Death Scene

It was about 6 a.m. the next morning when cotton farmer W.…