Family Life in 18th and 19th Centuries

8/6/2019 Family Life in 18th and 19th Centuries

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FAMILY LIFE IN 18 TH AND

19TH CENTURIES



ASPECTS OF FAMILY LIFE IN18TH CENTURY

People began to express affection more openly than before; this

was partly because people could now expect a reasonably long life.

This resulted mainly from improved diet and the greater cleanliness

of cotton rather than woolen underclothing; it was also the result of a

growing idea of kindness.



For the first time children were no longer thought of as small

adults, but as a distinct group of people with special needs. One

popular handbook on the upbringing of children, warned: "Severe

and frequent whipping is, I think, a very bad practice."



Girls continued to be victims of

the idea of feminine beauty of slim

bodies, tight waists and a paleappearance, to improve the chances

of a good marriage, parents forced

their daughters into tightly waisted

clothes, and gave them only little

food to avoid an unfashionably healthy appearance.



The children's opinion increasingly about their marriage, but their

parents still often decided on a suitable marriage for them. Therefore

sons and daughters often had to marry against their wishes.

Love and companionship were slowly becoming accepted reasons

for marriage.



For the first time people started to believe that cruelty either to

humans or animals was wrong. It did not prevent bad factory

conditions, but it did help those trying to end slavery. At the root of

this dislike of cruelty was the idea that every human was an

individual.



The most successful in trade and industry were often

Nonconformists, who were especially hardworking and they could be

hard on their families

The Nonconformist was ambitious for their sons, sending them

away to boarding school at a young age. Removed from family

affection, this kind of education increased individualism.



Starved of emotional life, many of the boys from eighteenth

century grew up to put all their energy into power, either helping to

build the empire, or helping to build trade and industry.

Where women and children could find work making cloth, a

worker family might double its income, and do quite well. But a poor

family in which only the father could find work lived on the edge of

starvation.



The use of child labour in the workhouse and in the new factories

increased towards the end of the century.

Children of the poor had always worked as soon as they could

walk.

Workhouse children were particularly useful to factory owners

because they were easy to discipline, unlike adults, and they werecheap.



ASPECTS OF FAMILY LIFE IN19TH CENTURY

In spite of the greater emphasis on

the individual and the growth of openly shown affection, the end of the

eighteenth century also saw a swing back

to stricter ideas of family life.

In this century except for the very

rich people no longer married for

economic reasons, but did so for

personal happiness.



Still woman were not equals with men, so the possibility for a wife

to find emotional support or practical advice outside the immediately

family became more limited. In addition, as the idea of the close

family slowly spread down the social order, an increasing number of

women found their sole economic and social usefulness ended when

their children grew up.



Women were discouraged from going out to work if not

economically necessary, and also encouraged to make use of the

growing number of people available for domestic service



This return to authority exercised by the head of the family was

largely the result of three things. These were fear of political

revolution spreading from France, of social change caused by

industrial revolution in Britain, and the influence of the new religious

movements of Methodism and Evangelicalism.



A wife was legally a man's property, until nearly the end of the

century. In spite of a stricter moral atmosphere in Scotland which

resulted from the strong influence of the Kirk.

Scottish women seem to have continued a stronger tradition of

independent attitudes and plain speaking

Documents

Family Life in 18th and 19th Centuries