Chapter 20
 Students
will analyses how the lives of
ordinary people changed in the 17th and 18th
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 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

 Young


Apprentice
Itinerant worker
 Young


men
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
 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 1st 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






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



“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

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


Madame du Coudray




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



Taught the art of midwifery
 Hands on
 1st life-size obstetrical model (she created)
 Wrote a childbirth manual
 Received government support
Midwives


Still active as 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


France


No papal proclamation w/o royal approval
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



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)
 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