The Life of The People

1
The Life of The People
2
1.)

• Contrary to common belief, the extended family
  in the Asian of African sense was not that common
  in preindustrial Western or Central Europe.
  Recent studies of parish registers reveals that
  the nuclear family was the most common type of
  family.

3
2.)

• An early marriage like this would have been rare.
  Going back to the middle ages, people usually had
  to wait until they could afford to be married for
  several reasons
• In serfdom, the permission of the lord had to be
  given.
• Later, men had to develop a means of supporting
  his family.
• Usually this was done by waiting for his father
  to die to inherit land and property.

4

• Women also had to have a suitable dowry, which
  meant more waiting.
• Local village customs usually prevented young
  men and women from marrying before they had means
  of support, to keep poverty ad illegitimacy rates
  down.
• Thus may people in the preindustrial age were
  married quite late, maybe in their mid-twenties.

5
3.)

• This tradition began to change the Industrial
  era
• The growth of cottage industry and the putting
  out system meant that younger people had a
  little money, so they were motivated to begin
  relationships earlier.
• Likewise, when young men and women began to
  leave the villages for the cities and factory
  work, they were no longer subject to the old
  customs and supervision of the village elders.
  They did what they wanted.

6

• When the enclosure movements occurred, many
  rural girls moved in with upper-class families to
  serve a domestic help, where they were introduced
  to sex through illicit relationships or even
  abuse by the men of the household.

7
4.)

• Birth control most often meant the rhythm method
  or coitus interruptus. These are primitive and
  relatively undependable. Some upper-class people
  did use sheaths.
• The primary method of birth control was
  abstinence. If there was premarital sex, then the
  local community pressured marriage. As a result,
  illegitimacy was practically unheard of.

8

• Furthermore, divorce was forbidden by Catholics
  and basically forbidden by the Protestant
  churches. Marital scandals and adultery were fair
  game for village was and degrading rituals at
  carnival and festival time. So, people stayed
  married through thick and thin.

9
5.)

• Around 1750 the Industrial era emerged. Young
  people moved to cities where they were on their
  own, away from rural custom. Fewer young woman
  abstained from premarital sex and fewer young men
  married the girls they got pregnant. Also the up
  and down cycles of the early industrial age
  caused men to be jobless for long periods, making
  it hard to support a family.
• As a result, illegitimacy boomed, from 2 to 25
  in some places. Poverty soared, and the
  Dickensian industrial image took hold.

10
6.)

• Not really. The idea that they were more
  liberated is a modern idea. Rural and urban
  women were subject to the same economic changes
  and patterns which left them all vulnerable to
  many soldiers, day laborers, and male servants
  who promised marriage but were unable or
  unwilling to take on the burden of supporting a
  family.

11
7.)

• Infant mortality has always been a scourge of
  civilization. In Medieval Europe, 1 in 3 rural
  babies would die, 1 in 5 in the cities. Disease
  was usually the culprit, but famine and
  infanticide also were to blame. The medieval
  church had done well in eliminating the tradition
  of infanticide as a pagan practice, but the
  practice of eliminating extra mouths to feed
  continued in Europe, especially once illegitimacy
  boomed.

12
(No Transcript)
13
8.)

• Poorer women breast-fed for longer periods to
  delay the resumption of ovulation, occasionally
  2-3 years (!) Because they had a supply of milk
  and because the upper-class women considered
  breastfeeding to be crude, these poor women were
  mistreated, in the hopes of making the living.

14
(No Transcript)
15
9.)

• Abortions were not common but they were
  available. They were very dangerous. If she
  wasnt willing to commit infanticide or leave her
  child to starve in the street, she often left it
  on the steps of a church or a foundling home.
  These homes offered some hope if they were well
  run, but some of them were killing mills were few
  infants ever grew into childhood, due to neglect,
  disease, and malnutrition.

16
10.)

• In earlier times, children were quite detached
  from adults. They were put to hard labor at an
  early age in nearly all societies. In Europe,
  because of the high IMR, many parents of all
  classes were conditioned not to grow attached to
  them. Doctors did not place great priority on
  learning to treat them. Pediatrics was unheard
  of. Discipline of children sometimes bordered and
  abuse, by modern standards. (Spare the rod and
  spoil the child). Loving ones child as an
  emotional investment was rare.

17

• In the middle-eighteenth century this began to
  change. Rousseau called for tenderness and warmth
  in dealing with children. Parents were encouraged
  to invest emotion in their childs development.
  These changes were enlightened ideals and reflect
  the idea of optimism and progress the enjoined
  the Enlightenment.

18
11.)

• Common people were illiterate from the Dark Ages
  through the mid 1600s. the Reformation, and the
  Protestant belief that the people should
  interpret the Bible for themselves, was the
  catalyst for a new growth in literacy. Later
  Catholic reformers also pushed literacy,
  especially in border areas where there was
  religious conflict.

19

• Prussia led the way in developing universal
  education, mandating compulsory elementary
  attendance as early as 1717. Scotland and England
  soon followed. By 1800, 9 of 10 Scots men could
  read, and fully half of Englishmen. Common people
  had little interest in Enlightenment ideas. They
  tended to focus on

20

• -The Bible and chapbooks, small pamphlets
  devoted to stories of a religious nature.
• -Fairly tales, fantasy, stories that have entered
  our imagination like Cinderella, Snow White,
  Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel.
• -Practical literature dealing with mundane
  matters like farming and craftwork. Farmers
  Almanacs are a holdover of this type.
• Their reading did not challenge the established
  social order, however.

21
13.)

• Typical peasants ate coarse, dark bread, lots of
  vegetables such as peas and beans, carrots and
  cabbages. They drank lots of beer. They rarely
  had meat and eggs, when they did it was often
  mutton. They had little cheese and butter.
  Actually a pretty healthy diet in normal times.

22

• Rich people ate quite differently. Their diet was
  extremely rich meats of all kinds, sweets and
  cheese, creams and gravies. They drank
  excessively. No wander that they often suffered
  from the gout, and that they considered
  portliness to be desirable as it signified wealth
  and power.
• The small middle classes ate somewhere in between
  these two worlds.

23
14.)

• The advent of the potato form the new world
  changed things tremendously. It is very
  nutritious if the skin is eaten, you can grow
  lots of potatoes on a small plot of land. In some
  areas like Ireland, the potato replaced grain as
  the primary crop.

24
15.)

• Practitioners of medicine also grew more skilled.
  The enlightenment forced a focus on natural
  causation, whereas medieval healers often
  believed that illness was caused by a jinx or
  curse, or worse, devils and demons. Believing
  that the only cure was to drive out the demons,
  rural people especially placed great store in
  these faith healers.

25
16.)

• Hospitals were horrible places where those of
  varying degrees of illness were thrown together,
  often 6 to a bed. Infectious disease ran wild
  sterilization and sanitation were unknown. Going
  to a hospital was often a death sentence.

26
17.)

• Smallpox inoculation was and still is
  controversial because there is a risk that a
  percentage of those inoculated will die, as
  healthy people are exposed to small doses of the
  disease to build some resistance. 2 of those
  exposed will die.

27

• Edward Jenner is one of the great figures in
  medicine. Following the rural belief that
  milkmaids wouldnt contract smallpox, he used
  these women to provide material for vaccinations.
  These proved a success and soon smallpox
  practically disappeared in Europe and later,
  globally.

28
18.)

• The way mentally ill people were treated was
  deplorable, going back through Western history.
  Often they were considered possessed by demons.
  It was commonly believed that the full moon
  caused crazy behavior-thus the word lunatic. Also
  it was commonly held that masturbation caused all
  manner of mental unbalance. Later, huge
  sanitoriums and asylums were opened, the most
  well known being St. Mary of Bethlehem (Bedlam).

29
19.)

• In both Protestant and Catholic countries, the
  secular governments sought to control religion.
  Despite this, the local church was the focal
  point of rural communities. Church was the scene
  of baptism, marriage, funerals, weekly
  congregation and gossip. Going to church was the
  high point of weekly life for most. However, the
  secular control had caused many churches to
  become watered down. This caused some reformers
  in the 18th century to seek new vitality and
  passion in religion.

30
20.)

• The baroque style had woven religious themes into
  art and architecture. But on a simpler level,
  local customs, traditions, and holidays, most of
  dubious, pagan origin, remained common. The
  carnival season highlighted many of these
  traditions.

31
21.)

• As noted, Protestant churches had settled into a
  basic routine after the close of the major
  religious wars. To wit, it might have been said
  to be stale or even uninspiring. The 18th century
  reaction o this was pietism. Pietism called for
  warm, emotional, enthusiastic religion. Also, it
  stressed the idea of a universal priesthood,
  meaning that all members were encouraged to
  explore the meanings of he Bible. Bible study and
  Sunday school were the result. Lastly,
  born-again Christian were supposed to be active
  in working Gods will, a life of involvement.

32

• John Wesley was a vigorous follower of these
  beliefs. He and his fellows were called
  sneeringly called Methodists because of the
  steady devotion (their Method of worship). He
  later had an emotional transformation and began
  to travel around England by horseback, preaching
  to huge mass rallies in open fields. This
  movement was a backlash against he cold logic of
  the Enlightenment, and in America was called the
  Great Awakening. Wesleyan cells emerged in
  Europe and America in the colonies especially,
  the Methodist circuit rider was a common
  fixture.

33
22.)

• Carnival was the main season of recreation.
  Carnival preceded Lent, and culminated in fat
  Tuesday. There was a wild drinking, dancing,
  costumes, plays, processions, and rowdiness.
• The rest of the year set the pattern. In winter,
  stories and songs were preformed by the
  fireplace. Women would get together to spin and
  chat. For men, the local tavern was the place to
  be.

34

• In towns, urban fairs became popular, featuring
  acrobats, freak shows, foods. Bull baiting and
  bearbaiting were popular, as were cockfights.
• The differences in recreation among hose of
  different classes drove a wedge between them.
  Even today, certain types of recreation are
  considered to be common to different classes.