Marriage & Family Structures: 18th Century Insights

1. Chapter 20Part 1 Life in the 18th Century

2. Marriage and the family before 1750 • The Nuclear family still most common in pre-industrial Europe • Young married couples established their homes apart from their parents • Sometimes, though, 3-generations: an older parent sometimes went to live with a married child

3. Before 1750 marriage age was high • Especially for poorer classes • Late 20’s or older for both men and women • A couple could not marry unless they could support themselves • Sometimes young men had to wait until their fathers died to gain land through inheritance • Young women and their families had to come up with a dowry

4. In some areas legal permission from the local lord was needed to marry • Austria and many German states had legal restrictions on marriage well into the 19th century • Belief that without legal restrictions regulating marriage, lower classes would create more paupers and abandoned children and more government money would be needed for welfare

5. BUT • Often these legal restrictions helped to maintain some balance between population and limited resources

6. Many never married • 40-60% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 were unmarried at any given time

7. Children (Before 1750) • Illegitimate birth rate was fairly low • Due to the powerful social controls of traditional villages, especially the open-field ones • If a pregnancy occurred parents, priests, landlords, village elders pressured the couple to marry

8. Premarital sex • Was generally limited to couples who were considering marriage anyway

9. Numbers of children per family • If the husband and wife lived to the age of 45, about 50% gave birth to 6 or more children • High infant mortality rate: 50% survival rate into adulthood was considered good • 20% in economically viable areas • 33% in poorer areas

10. After 1750 • New patterns of marriage and legitimacy • The increased incomes resulting from cottage industries meant more married for love instead of just for economic reasons • Young people became financially independent earlier

11. Arranged marriages • For economic reasons declined • Laws and regulations on marriage (especially in Germany) were ignored • After 1780 factory workers followed the same pattern as cottagers

12. Between 1750 and 1850 • The explosion of births was due to the explosion of illegitimate births • Fewer girls abstained from premarital sex • Fewer boys were willing to marry the girls they impregnated

13. Mobility • Encouraged new sexual and marital relationships • In towns and cities young people were removed from the pressures of the village elders, landlords, parents, and priests • In Germany, though, it was different

14. Germany • Illegitimate births were the result of an open rebellion against the legal restrictions • How do we know? • The illegitimate birth rate declined when the restrictions were removed

15. Women • Women in cities and factory towns had limited economic independence • Young women were NOT motivated by hopes of emancipation and sexual liberation • Most hoped for marriage as a way to escape their difficult lifestyles • Often poor economic and social conditions scared men away from commitment

16. Changing attitudes toward children in the 18th century • Poorer women breast –fed their children much longer than women in the 20th century • The decreased fertility while breast-feeding aided in the spacing of children to 2 to 3 years apart • Mothers’ milk was healthier than other foods anyway and more infants survived

17. But • Women who were aristocrats and upper middle class women (also wives of well-to-do artisans) rarely breast-fed • They believed that breast-feeding was crude, common, and beneath their dignity • Many sent their children to the countryside • Wet-nurses were hired to breast-feed these children • Children were wet-nursed there for 2 to 3 years • Negligence was not uncommon…Killing Nurses

18. Infanticide • The early Medieval Church viewed each life as sacred and denounced infanticide • BUT severe poverty was an issue throughout human history and infanticide was rampant • Often “overlaying” occurred: a parent rolling over and suffocating a child in bed

19. Foundling Hospitals • Many poor women left their infants on the doorsteps of churches • By 1770 1/3 of all babies born in Paris were immediately abandoned • 1/3 of these babies were from married couples • Foundling hospitals in Paris first then all over • St. Vincent de Paul began as a Foundling Hospital group

20. St Petersburg • A foundling hospital in St. Petersburg cared for 25,000 babies in the early 19th century • The above received 5,000 a year • Half of those babies died within a year • In some foundling hospitals 90% died the first year

21. Some claimed • That Foundling Hospitals promoted “legalized infanticide”

22. Child-rearing • High infant mortality rates discouraged parents to become too emotionally attached to their children • Doctors often refused to treat sick children believing that little could be done • Children were often treated with indifference • Wet-nursing is a good example

23. Daniel Defoe: • Wrote Robinson Crusoe • Said, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” • Many believed that a parent’s job was to break the will of the child and make him obedient • Children were subject to harsh discipline

24. The Enlightenment and Humanitarian Movements • Encouraged better treatment of children • Rousseau encouraged greater love and understanding • Children began to survive infancy and live longer • Parents began to grow closer to their children

25. Work away from home • In the countryside, young people worked within their families until they could start their own households • Boys ploughed in the fields or wove in the cottage industry • Girls spun thread and tended the farm animals

26. Increasingly, Boys worked away from home • Boys in towns had opportunities to apprentice themselves to a craftsman for a period of 7 to 14 years • Boys could learn a trade or be admitted to a guild after the apprentice period • They could not marry during this period • Most drifted from one tough job to another

27. Girls working away from home • Had limited opportunities • The most common job was domestic service in another family’s household • Most hoped to send money to their parents or save money for marriage • Was one less mouth for their parents to feed

28. Servant Girls • Had little real independence • They were vulnerable to physical mistreatment by their mistresses • They were vulnerable to sexual advances of their male employers • The upper classes often exploited their servants • A pregnant servant girl was quickly fired • Petty theft and prostitution were the only other options

29. Education • The beginning of formal education for the masses took root • Was inspired by Protestantism and the belief that all Christians should be able to read the Bible • The aristocracy and wealthy had a two-century head start with special colleges run by Jesuits

30. In the 17th century • “little schools” of elementary education began to appear • Boys and girls 7-12 were instructed in basic literacy and religion • By 1682 France established Christian schools which taught reading, writing and religion

31. England • The Church of England and other dissenting religious groups founded “charity schools” for poor children • In 1717 Prussia was the first for compulsory education • Remember…an educated citizen could better serve the state

32. Scotland • Created a network of parish schools for all citizens to be able to read the scriptures

33. The Enlightenment • Philosophers and philosophes believed that education was the key to human progress • Had a commitment to critical thinking and reinforced interest in education throughout Europe

34. Results 1600 1800 Scotland 1 in 6 (males) literate 90% England 1 in 4 (males) literate 50% France 1 in 6 (males) literate 66% Women increasing literacy but lagged behind men