Yeoman farmer

The vast majority of colonists were farmers. And the farmers of the 18th century experimented with new crops, with new techniques of agriculture and animal husbandry, and subscribed to Almanacs and journals to share their ideas. To be a yeoman farmer simply means that you are free, you own your land (unless you are a tenant farmer and then you farm someone else's land), and thus are something of a small business owner in managing your property.

Abigail Adams, 1766

Farms were usually family affairs – everyone pitched in. Wives may not have had the property rights of their husbands, but this did not mean they had any less responsibility for the property or saw it any less theirs. If you are wealthy enough to have indentured servants or slaves, you probably live in the middle colonies (Pennsylvania, New York, or New Jersey). Men were generally the heads of households, but women were no stranger to running farms -- Abigail Adams raised the kids and managed their farm while John Adams traveled to fulfill political responsibilities. She advised him on politics as well as well she should. When she urged John to "remember the ladies, all men would be tyrants if they could," she was no stranger to leadership and politics.