Lower Orders of Northwestern Europe Eddie Mina, Ashka Sheth, Nanditha Lakshmanan, Kristi Kwok

Family Life ● lived in full extended families (agrarian 2-4 gen) ● life expectancy was 30 years ● Love (17 years) o Social mobility o Unwed Mother rejection o “Follow your heart” ● Land= wealth o (Britain)  Nobility  Gentry  Yeoman ● Women worked as servants ● Men worked around the house o could leave home

Children ● Children were essential & treated as adults (5-6) o Education < farming & business ● Followed the role of their parents ● Arranged marriages at a young age ● Crime o Increased crime in poorer classes o Tried as adults ● Care o Rich used wet nurses o the poor breastfeed ● premarital sex + illegitimate babies increased 20% o Infanticide (hospitals) -Edward

Agricultural Techniques/Practices ● Growing populations+land shortages=need to find new agricultural methods ● Landlords attempt to modernize agricultural practices → peasant revolts ● New Crops=turnip+clover (Netherlands), corn+potatoes (France) ● New Innovations=iron plows, crop rotation, and animal breeding ● Convertible Husbandry=English policy that prevents wasteful land fallowing every 2-3 years

Industrial Revolution ● Began in the late 18th century ● Increased demand for production of goods and services ● "Hallmark of modern society"/"hallmark of a nation's prosperity" ● Great Britian: Home of the Industrial Revolution, largest free trade area in Europe ● France: less workers, less resources, still more profitable than other European countries ● The Netherlands: very prosperous, compared to GB it was very late to receive some on the new technologies

Industrial Revolution cont. ● Textile production was a massive part of the Ind. Revolution ● Peasants in the countryside were the "basic units of production" ● The Lower class: more work for the lower class-- they became the unskilled labor force ● Women in the Industrial Revolution

Primary Sources ●The Scullery Maid by Jean Baptiste Chardin in 1738 ●This picture depicts a lower class or peasant woman cleaning in the kitchen.

Primary Sources ● A pauper settlement at the St. Clement Danes Parish in London ● Elizabeth Bridgen’s case with Christopher Plumely