Social Class In Colonial America

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Following the Spanish conquest colonists in the Americas established a social order that remained much as it had been in Old World. The structure followed the old feudal principles and was ruled by the aristocratic elite. Officially, the formal criteria ranked individuals station in life based on race, occupation and religion. Unofficially, and more aligned with the reality of everyday life in the colonies, ranked an individual’s social status based on wealth. Rules and regulations dictated what each social class was permitted to do, or not do, but for those fortunate enough to belong to wealthy and powerful families the rules could easily be bent in their favor. Spanish law ranked social groups according to race and the perceived notion …show more content…
They were also especially vulnerable under Spanish laws that did not allow them to vote or hold political office. Men were dominate in the relationships and were often allowed to beat their disobedient wives under Church doctrine as long as it was done with moderation. Women in general were also sexually exploited. For the lower classes of women, there was little they could do to protect themselves from the abuse and it usually came from men of all races and classes, including priests. Elite and middle-class women faced with the daunting reality of sexual and physical abuse often joined convents in order to escape and find some sense of independence. Sexuality was also an area of women’s lives controlled by the Church and social expectations. Women were expected to remain chaste until marriage, while men had no restrictions imposed on their conduct. These restrictions failed to curtail extramarital affairs and premarital sex however and throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries illegitimate births continued to escalate. Women of the upper class or of financial means were often able to have their births legitimized and thus avoided the child from facing a lifetime of prejudices that included exclusion from professional …show more content…
The social structure that distinguished individuals by race, gender and social class also worked to prevent them from rising to positions that could rival the white ruling class. Laws forbade minorities from entering into binding contracts or accumulating debts, but the fluidity of the system allowed a small percentage to find loopholes that allowed them to become prosperous business owners with property of their own. Unfortunately, in the long run, these individuals usually adopted the same viewpoint on the social status that kept the European born Spaniards at the top with all other races relegated to inferior
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