"Lenape Birthing Practices, " ca. 1000 to 1650, an illustration of a menstrual hut and other Lenape practices.

The seventeenth century witnessed the beginnings of European and British settlement in the regions that became New Jersey. It also witnessed the introduction of chattel slavery and the decimation of the indigenous Native American population.

In 1664 a British victory over the Dutch established English control over the area and the Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors stipulated that any free person, male or female, worth L50 was considered a landholder. (This property requirement, of course, excluded indentured servants and slaves.) Generous land grants, religious freedom, and self-government attracted numerous settlers to the colony.

Colonial New Jersey was an agricultural society comprised primarily of self-sufficient households. Women produced food, manufactured goods, and provided health-care and instruction for their households.