The Changing life of the People

1. The Changing life of the People Chapter 20

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

3. AP TIP 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.

4. Marriage and Family Life • Age at time of marriage 17th C & 18th 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

5. Leaving home • Young men • Apprentice • Itinerant worker • Young women • Few opportunities (more as the 18th 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

6. Premarital Sex and community Controls • 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

7. New Patterns of Marriage and Illegitimacy • 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.

8. Children and Education • 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 1st year • Legalized infanticide?

9. Children - lifestyle • 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

10. Schools and Popular Literature • Most children were illiterate • 18th C provided more opportunities for education • Nobles and well-to-do bourgeoisie often sent their children to Jesuit schools/colleges • 17th C – Protestant and Catholic desired your people to be able to read. • Prussia 1st 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

11. Reading material • “chapbooks” – short pamphlets (mostly religious topics) • The novel – introduced in the 18th 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

12. FOOD, MEDICINE AND NEW CONSUMPTION HABITS • 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)

13. Fashion • 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

14. Increase in Medical practitioners • 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 • 1st life-size obstetrical model (she created) • Wrote a childbirth manual • Received government support • Midwives • Delivered the majority of babies @ 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

15. Medical Practitioners • 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

16. RELIGION & POPULAR CULTURE • 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

17. Religion • Protestants • Removed all images and stained glass windows from churches • Banned processions & pilgrimages • Pietism • 17th 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)

18. Religion • 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

19. LEISURE AND RECREATION • 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