Pre-industrial Families and the Emergence of a Modern Family Form
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Family and the New Social History
Family history is a multidisciplinary field.
Family history concentrates on the experiences and perceptions of ordinary people, including
previously under-studied groups.
• Social class, ethnicity
Using research methods such as family reconstitution and aggregate data analysis, family
historians have given us a new picture of family life and social change.
Family history themes
• Diversity – Broad differences in the U.S. population have made generalizations about “the
family” impossible.
• Native American & Hispanic indigenous peoples; class, gender, region of origin of white
colonists; African slaves
• Uneven Change – Families in different social classes, races, and immigrant groups all
experienced different rates of change.
• Human Agency – Families are active agents rather than passive victims of change.
• Use cultural heritage in adapting to social change
Family Life in Colonial America
Macrostructural Conditions
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“Godly family” – patriarchal institution
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Very little distinction between family & society
• Boundaries between home & community almost nonexistent
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Family life characterized by family-based economy
• Almost all production was done in the household
• All family members worked at tasks defined by age & sex
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Family performed many social functions
• School, vocational institute, church, house of correction, welfare institution
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Family matters were not considered private
• Charivari
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Integration of family & society persisted through 18th century
Household Composition
• Families were typically nuclear in structure
• Often included non-related household members (servants, boarders, apprentices)
• Families tended to be larger than contemporary families but smaller than the stereotypical
portrayal
• Disagreement among scholars regarding number of children per family
Wives & Husbands
• Unquestionable principle of patriarchy
• Marriages were arranged based on the social and economic purposes of larger kin groups
• Romantic love was not absent, but marriage was more of a contractual agreement
• Marriage across social class boundaries was unacceptable
• A shortage of women enhanced the status of women
• Women’s work was essential part of colonial economy
• Vital economic role gave them important position in colonial families & communities
• Great majority worked in family setting
• Women who worked outside the home were excluded from roles that yielded the most power &
privilege
Children
• Families reared large numbers of children
• Number of children living in a household was 3x greater than in 1950
• Women gave birth to an average of 8 children, yet household size was not very large due to
high child mortality rate
• Children's religious training was intensive and discipline severe
• “breaking wills”
• Childhood was not recognized as a separate stage of development
• “miniature adults”
• “putting out” children at 10 & 11 years of age
The Emergence of “Modern” Family Life
(between American revolution and 1850)
Macrostructural Changes
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The main reason for changes in family patterns was industrialization
• Work in factories and shops replaced work in the home
• Family-wage economy
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Families became increasingly private & took on highly specialized functions of procreation,
consumption, and child-rearing
• Family lost many functions as workshop, church, school
• Major characteristics of family: domesticity, intimacy, privacy
• Division of public & private spheres of living
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Two key demographic changes were also critical to transition
• Gradual reduction of fertility within marriage
• Fewer children, spaced closer together, cease childbearing at earlier ages
• Gradual aging of population
Agency, Adaptation, and Change
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Individuals were not passive victims of change
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Family relationships shaped the emerging social order
• The inheritance system balanced the family’s desires with rapid population growth and
industrialization
• Family played an important part in adapting different classes to the new social order.
• Differences between merchant, artisan, laboring families
Household Composition
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Non-related household members (apprentices, servants, etc.) left family settings and households
became smaller
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Wives & Husbands
• Romantic love and mutual affection replaced economic considerations in choosing marital
partners
• Activities split into the male world of work and the female world of the family (decreased
economic status of women)
• Middle class women focused on reproductive roles of homemaker & caretaker and
household labor took on new social meaning
• Working-class women continued their productive roles in the industrial labor force
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Children
• Children came to be viewed as different from adults
• Childhood & adolescence as distinct stages of growth & development
• Child-rearing books & books for children
• The class and status of the family determined children's experiences
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The modern family form emerged as a race-specific and class-specific arrangement
• Not all groups were entitled to family life