1700s Changing Society
Pre- Revolution Social History
Marriage and the Family
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Extended versus nuclear family
27 yrs old average age for marriage
Reasons for late marriage–
economic/land and dowry; legal
permission by local lord and/or
village elders
Helped maintain balance between #
of people and economic resources
Lower class youth apprentices
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Boys- apprenticed 7-14 years to
learn a trade
Could not marry; paid little /worked
hard
Goal- admitted to guild= economic
independence
Most often- drift/odd jobs/ lack of
employment stability
Lower class youth apprentices pt.2
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Young girls- sent into “service” –often
upper class households
Salaries paid directly to family
Often mistreated/overworked;
subjected to sexual exploitation
Girls with little recourse as servantsLed to pregnancy and increased
prostitution in London and Paris as
source of income to survive.
Social Patterns of Sex, Marriage and
Illegitimate Children
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Pre- 1750- late marriages,
premarital sex common but
illegitimate births rare.
Community controls effective in
social responsibility
Cottage industry and movement for
employment begins to break down
this system.
Social Patterns of Sex, Marriage and
Illegitimate Children- pt 2
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1750-1850- illegitimacy explosion
Cottage industry redefines village
controls- more movement for
employment, marriage earlier, love
matches, less village pressure to
turn “pregnancy into marriage”
Unstable trends would last into the
late 1800’s.
Children and Education
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High infant mortality rate
High illiteracy rate among both boys
and girls
Most advantages to upper class
Wet nursing use common in upper
class families- often the wet nurse
blamed for infant deaths/ bad
temperment
Children and Education
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Infanticide not condoned but
suggested for unwanted
babies(girls)
Overlaying another technique
Foundling homes accepted babies
no questions asked
Were often over loaded and poorly
staffed – 50% babies died.
Children and Education
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Parental indifference toward
children- little emotional investment
Harsh discipline
Rousseau leads change in attitude
Education of upper class increases
Private schools/tutors only
Enlightenment has little impact on
peasant/worker education
Food and Medical practices
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Grain-- the staple of life
Dark bread versus white bread
Just price- “fair” /government
controlled
Adam Smith/supply and demand
stops just price– creating crises,
hoarding, even “revolutions”
Food and Medical practices
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Upper class- poor diets: white breads,
sugar, meats, overdrinking, organ
meats= gout
Middle class-more lower class; could
afford “some” upper class food
Lower class- best diet- fruits,
vegetables, less meat, dark bread,
All classes dealt with scurvy- A&C def.
Food and Medical practices
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Potatoes became a staple for the
desperately poor of Ireland and
spread slowly through Europe
Sugar went down in price due to
slave triangle- led to tooth decay
Food and Medical practices
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Faith healers, apothecaries,
physicians, surgeons and midwives
Faith healers- based on good and
evil demons and prayer
Apothecaries- herbs, drugs, and
patent medicines- also blood letting
Physicians- mostly men– on the job
training mostly in hospitals
Food and Medical practices
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Surgeons- made significant
progress (at patient expense)- most
on the job training after battlessawing off limbs and cauterize
major wounds- no painkillers or
aeneseptic
Midwives- trained by other
midwives- treated with suspicion;
with invention of forceps physicians
began to undermind confidence in
midwifery
Hospitals and medical experiments
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DON”T GO THERE!!! Filthy, dirty,
die from infection
Bright spot- Phillip Pinel –
humanized treatment of mentally ill
in Paris
Edward Jenner- smallpox
vaccination- through Baconian
process – associated cow pox to
small pox to create vaccination
Religion and Popular Culture
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Jesuits- increase in state power versus
papal weakness; when Jesuits tried to
influence political matters, often
expelled - Louis XV
Protestant Revival- called Pietism
1) warm emotional religion 2)stress
priesthood of believers 3) Reborn
Christian must lead good moral lives
Influenced John Wesley- methodists
Religion and Popular Culture
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Carnival- time of reveling and excess
Catholic and med Europe (still Brazil)
Preceded Lent
Excessive rowdiness, turned established
order upside down
Protestants more stoic- not as willing to
participate
Some used Carnival to teach an enemy
a lesson