What It Was Like Inside the Homes of the Pilgrims

In a world without Home Depot, the Pilgrims had to get creative with their building materials, using whatever they could find nearby to bind and seal their homes. They made a substance called daub, similar to modern-day plaster. This mixture of clay, wet soil, grasses, and water was used on interior walls to insulate and provide a smooth surface.

A typical Pilgrim home wouldn’t have fared too well in today's real estate market, which demands bright and airy spaces. The few windows there were closed with wooden shutters, which made the interiors pretty dark. Without sunlight streaming in, they relied on a central hearth for light and warmth.

The typical Pilgrim home was around 800 square feet and had only one large room where all of the sleeping, eating, cooking, and other activities of everyday life took place. Some homes also had a loft situated in the pitched roof, where the families kept dried herbs and provisions, and maybe a few beds. 

Although Pilgrims had spoons and knives, they did not have forks to spear their dinner, which meant that a lot of the time they ate with their fingers. Because things could get pretty messy at mealtime, the Pilgrims typically wore a napkin on their shoulder so they could easily dab their fingers off as they ate.

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When we think of Pilgrims we tend to think of turkey, but that particular meat probably wasn’t on the average Pilgrim’s dinner rotation. Instead, they ate local delicacies like waterfowl, which were in abundant supply in the Massachusetts Bay area, as well as mussels that they found on the shore.

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