Chapter 20

 Students will analyses how the lives of ordinary people changed in the 17 th and 18 th Century  Students will understand the living conditions, marriage patterns, child-rearing practices, educational opportunities, consumption of food and other commodities, medical practices, religion and culture.

Emphasis on social history has become a vital part of the AP Euro curriculum. Sometimes students tend to see social history as less serious or less important, but that would be a serious error in preparing for the AP exam, since the exam includes a substantial number of social history question on attitudes toward children.

 Age at time of marriage 17 th C & 18 th C  Averaged 25 – 28  Some never married at all  Most worked for about 10 years and were fully adults by the time of marriage  Marriage might have been delayed for some, due to delay in receiving permission from local lords or government officials

 Young men  Apprentice  Itinerant worker  Young women  Few opportunities (more as the 18 th C wore on)  Domestic service Hard work. Low wages Victims of unwanted sexual advances from their employers Pregnancy cause a girl to be fires Prostitution was often the only recourse

 Illegitimacy was relatively low until 1750  Although 1/5 to 1/3 of the children were conceived before marriage  Strong community controls in traditional village life cold pressure young couples to marry.  Other community intervention included public rituals that humiliated people (forced to “ride stang” (backwards on a donkey) Adultery Abusive treatment of spouse

 Illegitimacy rates soared from 1750 to 1850 Reaching more than ¼ to 1/3 of all births Why? Some suggest that the growth of the cottage industry meant income was no longer tied to land, so younger people could become independent and marry earlier, often for love.  More young people moved to cities in search of econ. Opportunities  “penny weddings” showed how hard it was for families to pay for weddings. In Scotland guests provided cash gifts to help pay for the wedding.

 One reason women had 6 or more children was that many typically 2 or 3 would die before they would reach adulthood.  Only when medical care and sanitation improved did more babies survive to adulthood; at that point, family size began to shrink.  Infanticide was all too common  Foundling hospitals existed in cities In Paris about 1/3 of the babies were abandoned to them Hospitals took in about 100,000 per year – always more babies that they could take in High death rates – 50 to 90 % died in their 1 st year Legalized infanticide?

 Attachment to children was in question  Children were typically treated with severe discipline Children should be obedient and quiet Enlightenment views Children should be held to a different standard  Allowed to play and learn by playing  Philosophes argued for better treatment of children  Children clothing changed to give them greater freedom of movement Rousseau – forerunner of progressive education  The best way to educate children is to have them follow their own interests and to stimulate their curiosity.  Children should be given practical skills Boys – crafts Girls – domestic skills

 Most children were illiterate  18 th C provided more opportunities for education  Nobles and well-to-do bourgeoisie often sent their children to Jesuit schools/colleges  17 th C – Protestant and Catholic desired your people to be able to read.  Prussia 1 st to make elementary education mandatory in 1717 – read scripture and create a educated population to better serve the state  Male literacy rates increased between 1600 – 1800, from 20% to between 50% in England and 90 % in Scotland.  Women also saw improvement in literacy – lower than men

 “chapbooks” – short pamphlets (mostly religious topics)  The novel – introduced in the 18 th C (mostly issues of love & family)  Popular literature developed genres such as Fantasy stories Romances – particularly medieval ones Crime stories Fairy tales Practical manuals Almanacs  Printed forms Pamphlets Newspapers Broadsides Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense sold some 600,000 copies

 Households changed  Private spaces Defined functions Decorated – books & prints  Plate at dining table rather than common dish a century before  Diet  1700s Coarse dark bread or grains added to soup Peas & beans Uncommon: fruit, milk (only for cheese & butter) Less meat than in 1500  1800s Potatoes became a staple Corn, squash, tomatoes – Columbian exchange Tea, sugar, tobacco, coffee, & chocolate Tea, coffee & sugar – desired as stimulants  Mercier described energizing effect (Paris 1780s)

 Women entered the consumer world Greater number of garments & accessories More diversity of style Outspending men  Men Plain dark clothes Gave up magnificent multicolored outfits of earlier century

 Physicians, surgeons, midwives, faith healers, apothecaries (pharmacists)  1700s women med practitioners common, 1800s denied admission to med colleges Still active as midwives & faith healers  Madame du Coudray Taught the art of midwifery Hands on 1 st life-size obstetrical model (she created) Wrote a childbirth manual Received government support  Midwives Delivered the majority of home Treated women’s illnesses Forceps – forced women out of delivery role Physicians used monopoly on the new instrument to exclude midwives  Faith healers Used religious practice to cure Popular in countryside  Apothecaries Druggists

 Training  Long years of hands on training Bloodletting,  Surgeons vs. barbers/butchers Battlefield roles Amputation of wounded limbs of soldiers No anesthesia or attention to sanitary conditions (germ theory not know – death due to infection very high)  Advances  Smallpox vaccine Lady Montagu – Ottoman Empire inoculation (about 1/5 died from vaccine) Edward Jenner – cowpox inoculation

 Parish church  Religious & social life  Records of births and deaths  Educated children  Cared for destitute & orphaned  Royal absolutism  Increased control over church  Spain No papal proclamation w/o royal approval  France Jesuits – expelled by Louis XV in Too loyal to the pope Dissolved in 1773 (with help from Spain)  Austria Maria Theresa & Joseph II abolished monastic orders that were contemplative

 Protestants  Removed all images and stained glass windows from churches  Banned processions & pilgrimages  Pietism 17 th C Protestant movement stagnated New movement – stressed personal, emotional religious experience Lutheran ideal “ priesthood of all believers” Grew in Germany Mass education Study groups Reading the Bible Offered the chance to be reborn Methodists John Wesley organized a new club on Oxford campus  Spread movement thru revival meetings  Message – all men and women can be saved  Popular in England Resentment over favoritism in the Church or Eng Enlightenment skepticism Shortage of churches (pop growth)

 Catholic  Religion flourished in Catholic countries Elaborate Baroque decorations Popular pilgrimages Procession in celebration of saints & Jesus  Jansenism Pietism w/n Catholicism Adopted many Calvinist concepts  Predestination  Piety & spiritual devotion Attracted French intellectual elite & urban poor

 Carnival  Festive period for several days before the deprivations of Lent Dancing, drinking and masquerading Plays & processions  Literacy  Grew  Oral traditions favored Tavern or pub  Town & city amusements Fairs Spectator sports Horse racing Boxing Bullfighting, bull baiting, cockfighting  Enlightened elites began to criticize blood sports