Chapter 20 Part I Pages Marriage and Family & Children and Education

Marriage and Family Extended and Nuclear Families Common people married late (mostly in their late twenties) in this period

Work Away From Home Girls and boys both learned independence by working away from home as servants, apprentices, and laborers Service in another family’s home was the most common job for single girls. Servant girls worked hard, had little independence, and were in constant danger of sexual exploitation.

Premarital Sex and Community Controls The evidence suggests a low rate of illegitimate births. In rural villages there were tight community controls over premarital sex and adultery. Once married, couples generally had several children

New Patterns of Marriage and Illegitimacy Cottage industry enabled young men and women to become independent earlier. Young villagers who moved to the city entered into new sexual relationships free of community control

Child Care and Nursing Women of the lower classes generally breast-fed their children for a longer period of time than is customary today. The well-off generally hired poor wet nurses to breast-feed their children.

Foundlings and Infanticide Rates of infant mortality were high. Many children were abandoned soon after birth and foundling homes existed to care for some of these children. There is some evidence that infanticide remained common.

Attitudes Toward Children Parents and other adults tended to be emotionally detached from children. Emotional detachment often shaded into abuse. From the middle of the eighteenth century, this pattern came under increasing attack

Schools and Popular Literature Some European governments encouraged primary (Elementary) school education for children of the common people (Prussia, other Protestant principalities in Germany, Scotland, England, the Austrian Empire). Protestants and Catholics encouraged common people to read the Bible. Basic literacy rose rapidly between 1600 and 1800.