Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The Changing life of the People

Marriage and the Family

•

Late marriages:

–

Most people did not marry young in the 17

and 18

century;

they were 25-27 yrs. Old

–

They wanted to be able to support an independent household

and children

•

Working away from home:

–

Boys went into the apprenticeships around age 16 and finished

early in their 20’s

–

Girls went to find work as seamstress, linen draper, or midwife.

–

As servants the employer would often make payments to the girl’s

parents.

Premarital Sex and Community Controls

•

premarital sex: condoms or coitus interruptus.

•

Community control: premarital sex

– _{Illegitimate babies were a disgrace}

– _{The community would push the couple to get married}

– _{Unwed mothers with illegitimate children were seen as a threat to the}

economic and moral stability of the community.

– _{Couples that were engaged were allowed to have premarital sex}

•

Community control: behavior

– _{They would publically degrade a person.} – _{Gang up on their victim}

– _{Make spouse-beater; and adulterers ride backward on a donkey while they}

New patterns of marriage and illegitimacy

• _{Second half of the 18}th _century

– Illegitimacy explosion: out of wedlock births were climbing at an alarming rate.

– _{Young women had sex with the promise of marriage only to have the young man not}

follow through.

• _{Prostitution:}

– offered both single and married men an outlet for sexual desire.

– _{Courtesans (prostitutes) – wealthy men would supply them with rent , foods, and}

clothing.

• _{Same Sex:}

– _{Homosexuality was described a sodomy or buggery} – Condemned by the church and society

– _{King James I was the first documented Bi-sexual} – Occasionally called Mignons: “dainty ones”

– _{Subcultures started and in London they called themselves “Mollies”. Cross-dressing in}

Child Care and Nursing

•

Breast Feeding:

–

Women in the country fed for 2 years.

–

Served as a means of birth control thus giving the

women several years between births

–

Breast feeding was healthier.

•

Childbirth:

–

Most women had 6 or more children

–

Most newborns died early

–

Women had a high rate of death from childbirth due to

Wet nursing

•

The wealthy women thought breast feeding was undignified and took

time away from their activities.

•

They would hire a wet nurse to feed their babies for them.

•

Rural wet-nursing:

– _{Sending your baby into the country-side to be fed.}

– _{By the end of the 18}th _{century in France alone 50% of the babies were sent for}

rural wet-nursing.

– _{Many babies died because the wet-nurse was unhealthy, unsanitary conditions.}

Foundlings and Infanticide

• _{Abortions were illegal.}

• _{Many girls smothered their newborns= (infanticide)}

• Foundling homes (orphanages)

• _{European foundling homes were admitting about 100 thousand abandoned}

children each year.

• _{50% of the babies died within the first year.}

• With so many dying the foundling homes were often referred to as “legalized infanticide”.

Attitude toward Children

• _{Birth of a child: parents tended to be un-attached emotionally because}

chances were the child would die.

• _{Discipline of the child was often severe: “Spare the rod and spoil the child”}

• _{Education: (according to Rousseau)}

– Boys were to have plenty of fresh air and exercise and taught practical craft skills with book learning

– _{Girls education focus on their future domestic responsibilities.} – Women were for getting married and having children

• _{By late 18}th _{century there was a call for greater tenderness and new teaching}

methods for children.

– _{Encouraged women to nurse their own children} – To dress them as miniature versions of themselves.

Education

•

Schools were for children age 6-12.

•

Charity schools were set up for the poor.

•

Most schools were designed to teach the

scriptures, prayer, reading and writing.

•

Habsburg empire students were required to attend

Popular literature

•

The Bible was still the most popular book.

•

Chapbooks: printed on cheap paper they featured Bible stories, prayers,

devotions and the lives of saints and exemplary Christians.

•

Humorous stories – fairy tales, medieval romances, true crime stores

were also popular.

•

•

Provided an escape from the realities of everyday life.

•

Almanacs were popular literature: calendars, agricultural schedules, facts

and jokes.

•

Most famous book was Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” which attacked

Leisure and Recreation

• _{Most families gathered around the fire place and talked, sang, told stories} etc.

• _{Men- the local tavern to talk with friends.}

• _{Towns and cities – pleasure gardens, theaters, lending libraries.}

• _Boxing

• _{Carnival: drinking, masquerading, dancing. Day before lent. Served as a} time to release pent-up frustrations

• _{Blood Sports:}

– Bull-baiting: bull was chained down and attacked by vicious dogs.

New Foods and Appetites

• Bread was still the staff of life: dark bread for the wealthy, standard flour for the common man.

• _{Bread was to be sold at “fair price” – when it did not there were bread riots.}

• Vegetables: peas and beans most common, used in soups and stews.

• _{Europeans ate less meat because it was more expensive.}

• The potato became a very important staple and source of vitamin A & C.

• _{Major change in diet came with the drinking of tea and use of sugar.}

– Coffee, tobacco, and chocolate were also popular

– Common people drank tea to fight monotony or fatigue at work.

• _{The upper class were the only ones that could really afford meat.}

Consumer Revolution

•

People derived their self-identity from their

consuming practices as well as from their working

lives.

•

With new consumer goods comes new ideas of

individuality and self expression.

•

Businesses started marketing campaigns.

–

Fancy boutiques with large windows to entice the

customer

Fashion Merchant

•

Clothing was one of the chief indicators of the growth of consumerism.

– Fashionable clothing for men

– Diversity in colors and textiles

– Cheaper copies of elite styles made it possible for working people to follow fashion.

– Parisian women out-consumed men with expensive wardrobes.

– Gender appropriate clothing emerged

• Women decorative vibrant.

• Men no longer wore stockings and short pants.

The home, privacy and comfort

•

The home use to be one room where everyone slept, ate,

entertained.

•

Now by the 1700’s rooms were being divided where they could

have “privacy”.

•

Instead of eating out of a communal plate people now had their

own plate and cutlery.

•

Homes had more books and prints to decorate walls and build

book cases.

Religious authority and beliefs

•

Religious faith promised salvation and gave comfort

in the face of sorrow and death.

•

Church Hierarchy

–

Parish church remained central to the community.

–

Protestants: Princes headed the official church and

regulated their territorial churches by selecting

personnel and imposing detailed rules.

Catholic Church

•

Spanish control over religion:

– _{Took over control of ecclesiastical appointments} – _{Papal declarations had to be approved by the gov.} – _{Took control of the Spanish Inquisition.}

•

Society of Jesus = Jesuits

– _{Great teachers of those in high gov. positions and nobilities.}

– _{Controversies over Jesuits led Louis XV to order them out of France.}

– _{Pressure from France and Spain forced the Catholic church to dissolve the}

Jesuits from 1773 to 1800.

•

Austria = Emperor Joseph II

– _{abolished “Contemplative orders”. Allowing only orders that were}

engaged in teaching, nursing.

Protestant Revival called Pietism

•

Started in Germany and had three parts

–

1

: Warm emotional religion that everyone would

experience. Enthusiasm in prayer, worship,

preaching and in life.

–

2

. Priesthood of all believers reducing the gulf

between clergy and laity. Bible study and reading

were extended to all classes. Educational reforms.

–

3

: Practical power of Christian rebirth in everyday

Methodists: John Wesley

•

Methodist: named that because they were “methodical” in their

devotion.

•

He saw the corruption in the Anglican Church, poor churches,

sermons that had become uninspiring.

•

Deism had become popular: a belief in God but not in organized

religion.

•

John Wesley had a “Mystical, emotional conversion” in 1738.

– _{He believed that everyone could have the same heartfelt conversion}

– He traveled 225,000 miles preaching more than 40,000 sermons in open fields.

Catholic Piety

•

Catholic churches were still highly decorated, More people

participated more actively in formal worship.

•

Catholics enjoyed the celebrations or “processional” days, saint’s

days and pilgrimages as Tradition, escape from work or form of

recreation.

•

Jansenism: originated with Cornelius Jansen

–

Called for a return to the early Christianity of Saint Augustine.

–

Emphasized the heavy weight of original sin

–

Accepted doctrine of predestination

–

Outlawed by the Catholic church they attracted religious renewal in

France.

–

Among the urban poor meetings of Jansenism brought ecstatic worship

Superstition and rituals

•

Feast of St. Anthony: blessing of salt and bread for farm

animals to keep them free from disease.

•

Lutherans buried a live bull to ward off hoof and mouth

disease.

•

Bonfires where young men jumped over fires to help the crops

grow and protect themselves from illnesses.

•

More and more churches came to condemn these practices

referring to these people as pagan animals.

Medical Practices

•

Faith healers, apothecaries, physicians, surgeons,

and midwives.

•

Faith healers and Apothecaries

–

Believed that evil spirits lodged in people caused

disease.

–

Apothecaries sold herbs, drugs and medicines.

–

Most used strong laxatives or regular purging of the

bowels for good health.

Hospitals and surgery

•

Battlefields became an area of experimentation.

•

Amputations were done so the area could be

cauterized to reduce death.

•

Most surgery was performed without anesthetic or

painkillers.

Midwifery

•

Woman practitioners that were taught by other women – set up

their own guild.

•

Assisted in labor and delivery, female problems such as breast

feeding, infertility, venereal disease and small children.

•

After the invention of the forceps more male doctors were used.

•

Madame du Coudray wrote “Manual on the Art of Childbirth”

–

She traveled all over France giving lessons and

Conquest of Smallpox

•

60 million Europeans died from Smallpox in the 18

century.

•

First attempt of a cure came from Lady Mary Wortley

Montagu who brought back the idea of inoculation from

the Muslims.

•

Crucial break through made by Edward Jenner

–

Noted that diary maids that had cowpox did not get smallpox

–

After 18 years of study Jenner came up with a successful

vaccination

–

The new method of treatment saw smallpox decline to the point