What was family life like in the 1800s?

Eighteenth-century families assumed a natural hierarchy and continuity between generations. A typical family would depend on the labor of sons and daughters to contribute sufficiently to the family's economy to provide a beginning stake for each of them.

What was life like in the 1800s for kids?

Life in the 1800s

Before the Victorian era, children as young as 6 or 8 years old might work in a mill or factory, they might run errands and make deliveries for a store keeper, they may be apprenticed to a skilled craftsman or woman, or they could be hired out as a servant.

What was family life like in the 18th century?

In general, men were the breadwinners, providing income for the family, whereas the mothers were in charge of the household. This role grew more prominent with more wealth, as with that came more estate to manage. Marriage was also very closely tied to social class; women were seldom married into lower social rungs.

What was life really like in the 1800s?

Working Class Living Standards

Life for the average person in the 1800's was hard. Many lived a hand-to-mouth existence, working long hours in often harsh conditions. There was no electricity, running water or central heating.

What was family life values like in the 1890s?

Married women lived a very restricted life;wives were expected to cater to the needs of their house and husband. If a family was wealthy, they would be able to hire someone to care for the home. This however, did not mean a wife had the opportunity to pursue other interest.

A Day in the Life of an 1850's Pioneer Family—The Funk Heritage Center

What did families do for fun in the 1800s?

For fun, children would make rag dolls and corn husk dolls to play with, wrap rocks in yarn to make balls, and even use vines or seaweed strips for jump ropes. They played games such as hide-and-seek and tug-of-war. Foot races, hopscotch, marbles, and spinning tops were also popular.

What were families like in 1850?

In the 1850s, most people lived on farms and lived much like their ancestors. They followed the seasonal rhythms, grew their own food, sewed their own clothing, built traditional homes, and followed the customs and traditions they were familiar with.

Was life in the 1800s hard?

People often had physically intensive work. Technology was fairly limited until the end of the 18th century. Providing for a family was often the responsibility of the entire family. Mothers, fathers, and children old enough to help were expected to participate in household responsibilities and work wherever possible.

What were the roles of children in the 1800s?

Children worked on farms, in homes as servants, and in factories. Children provided a variety of skills and would do jobs that were as varied as needing to be small and work as a scavenger in a cotton mill to having to push heavy coal trucks along tunnels in coal mines. There were so many different jobs!

What was a typical meal in the 1800's?

The foods served varied, changing with the customs of each region, but in the North some common foods were chowder, beef, clam soup, baked beans, roasted pork, custards, oxen, turtles, mutton and salmon.

What was family like in 1900?

In 1900, the average family had an annual income of $3,000 (in today's dollars). The family had no indoor plumbing, no phone, and no car. About half of all American children lived in poverty. Most teens did not attend school; instead, they labored in factories or fields.

What was family life like during the Depression?

The hardships of the Great Depression threw family life into disarray. Both marriage and birth rates declined in the decade after the crash. The most vulnerable members of society—children, women, minorities, and the working class—struggled the most. Children, in particular, felt the brunt of poverty.

What age did people have kids in the 1800s?

In 1800, the American birthrate was higher than the birthrate in any European nation. The typical American woman bore an average of 7 children. She had her first child around the age of 23 and proceeded to bear children at two-year intervals until her early 40s.

Why did people have so many kids in the 1800s?

Because there was almost no birth control or abortions and abortion was illegal and considered immoral, and because people back then were more religious. But most of all, because back then, it was more expensive back then to not have children than to have children.

How was life different in the 1800s?

Most people had to work a lot harder, usually on a family farm. Healthcare sucked, medications were untested, unreliable and unregulated. Germ theory was viewed suspiciously by old time doctors. Septic infections were a leading cause of death.

How many hours did children work in the 1800s?

Children in the mills usually worked eleven or twelve hour days, 5-6 days a week. Windows were usually kept closed because moisture and heat helped keep the cotton from breaking.

Did kids have school in the 1800s?

As you can tell from the title, back in the 1800's there weren't elementary, middle, or high schools. There were just one room schoolhouses. You may think the different age groups just went to school at different times, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

What did kids learn in school in the 1800s?

On the elementary level children studied the three Rs: Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic. In 1849 the youngest pupils at Geneva's Classical and Union School started with the alphabet, reading, spelling, and geography. Then they moved on to arithmetic, history, and writing (penmanship).

What were common chores in the 1800s?

Girls were generally assigned household chores such as washing and mending clothes, making soap, collecting firewood, cooking, and cleaning. Boys were expected to tend to livestock, split firewood, repair tools, or even to help run the family business.

What was life like for a woman in the 1800s?

For women, marriage and family was their destiny, their lives confined to a small and private sphere. They could toil, but they couldn't vote; they could work their land, but often couldn't own it. They were laced into corsets, surrounded by a piece of clothing called a cage.

Did people have fun in the 1800s?

Circuses came to town and set up in parks and public places. There were fêtes, carnivals, art exhibitions and lessons in singing, dancing and cooking to attend. Talks were given by visiting notables, scientists, preachers, and people who had been adventuring in different countries.

What was the average family size in 1800?

In 1800, most women in the U.S. had 7 children but that number has steadily decreased over the years, with the exception of the Baby Boom (when the U.S. fertility rate jumped to 3.62). In 2018, U.S. woman had 1.7 children on average.

How big were families in the 1800s?

According to most census estimates, an American woman had on average seven to eight children in 1800. By 1900 the number dropped to about 3.5.

What was the average family size in the 1700s?

Over the course of the nation's history, there has been a slow but steady decrease in the size of the average U.S. household – from 5.79 people per household in 1790 to 2.58 in 2010.