Adolescent migrants from Normandy in Paris at the end of the 18th century

The article deals with the social and family environments and modes of departure of migrants from Normandy to Paris at the end of the 18th century. It also considers in-migrants' future once in Paris. This approach to long distance migratory phenomena — applied here specifically to follow a population of adolescents — was possible due to the fruitful linking of serial nominative sources, each created independently. For the departure zone, we have examined three regions in Normandy for which the population was reconstituted over a period covering the end of the 18th century. For Paris, we used the registers of identity cards, or cartes de sûreté, issued between 1793 and 1794. The typical portrait of the adolescent in-migrant consists of an individual who is the youngest member of a fairly large family. He was often born in a small town, not in a village. It is likely that his decision to migrate was not impeded by his father's refusal. Indeed, the father of the in-migrant was often dead when the son left. In-migrations tended to be isolated; the adolescent rarely joined a family member in the capital. Migration to Paris often seemed to lead to a rupture with the childhood region.     

Continuity and change among the Rhemish proletariat

Textile workers formed a major part of the population in Rheims at the end of the Old Regime. Traditionally, many pieces of cloth were woven both in urban and rural families for Rhemish manufacturers (fabricants). With economic changes during the 18th century, the French cottage proto-industry was in crisis. Unemployed textile workers, young males and females, moved to town. Family workshops had difficulties surviving in Rheims. One of the sons inherited the family loom, but he rarely kept his independence. Family histories presented in this study show how weavers relied on their family network in and outside the city in order to deal with irregular demand. The market required that production be diversified. At the same time, a concentration of the workforce developed in new, larger family enterprises. The role of female workers in textile production was often elusive. Single women and widows, women alone without a spouse, worked hard to survive and could rarely keep their children at home.     

Continuity and change among the Rhemish proletariat: Preindustrial textile work in family perspective

Textile workers formed a major part of the population in Rheims at the end of the Old Regime. Traditionally, many pieces of cloth were woven both in urban and rural families for Rhemish manufacturers (fabricants). With economic changes during the 18th century, the French cottage proto-industry was in crisis. Unemployed textile workers, young males and females, moved to town. Family workshops had difficulties surviving in Rheims. One of the sons inherited the family loom, but he rarely kept his independence. Family histories presented in this study show how weavers relied on their family network in and outside the city in order to deal with irregular demand. The market required that production be diversified. At the same time, a concentration of the workforce developed in new, larger family enterprises. The role of female workers in textile production was often elusive. Single women and widows, women alone without a spouse, worked hard to survive and could rarely keep their children at home.     

From Ahogado to Zorrillo: external causes of mortality in the California missions

The history of grandparents is too often founded on a demographic prejudice, that is, the very low statistical possibility of children having known their grandparents before the rise in life expectancy in the twentieth century. On the basis of a sample of several thousand children bom in the region of Vernon (Normandy) at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the article contests this idea and shows that newborns knew about half of their grandparents, with a slight advantage on the grandmothers' side. Inequalities were present between elder and younger siblings, but the latter also profited from the presence of their forbears. Consequently, the study of the different functions served by grandparents in the traditional family should be pursued, and questions should be raised about the contemporary concept of “new grandparents” by separating it from the demographic assumption on which it is based.     

Are grandparents really absent from the family tradition?: Forbears in the Region of Vernon (France) around 1800

The history of grandparents is too often founded on a demographic prejudice, that is, the very low statistical possibility of children having known their grandparents before the rise in life expectancy in the twentieth century. On the basis of a sample of several thousand children bom in the region of Vernon (Normandy) at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, the article contests this idea and shows that newborns knew about half of their grandparents, with a slight advantage on the grandmothers' side. Inequalities were present between elder and younger siblings, but the latter also profited from the presence of their forbears. Consequently, the study of the different functions served by grandparents in the traditional family should be pursued, and questions should be raised about the contemporary concept of “new grandparents” by separating it from the demographic assumption on which it is based.     

“Let us content ourselves with praising the work while drawing a veil over its principles”: Eighteenth-century reactions to Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments

Cesare Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments, first published in 1764, has often been read as a purely utilitarian work. Beccaria, while certainly not ignoring considerations of utility, was far more interested in considerations of justice than many critics have believed, and he was at least as much a retributivist as a utilitarian.

The misperception of Beccaria grew out of the political controversies surrounding the book during the years following its publication. Beccaria's critics often grasped the rights-oriented and justice-centered aspects of his thought, but they attacked them in the name of tradition or religion. Those who defended Beccaria's retributivist side were few and generally not influential. By far the greatest number of his supporters—Milanese reformers, French philosophes, and Austrian civil servants—stressed the utilitarian side of his book to suit their own purposes. The upshot was that, by the end of the eighteenth century, Beccaria was wrongly perceived as a sort of Benthamite avant la lettre, both by Bentham himself and by the retributivists Kant and Hegel. This misunderstanding of Beccaria has persisted in many quarters, creating a false impression of the criminal justice system advocated by the Lombard reformer.     

Frequency,timing and intensity of remarriage in 19th century Flanders

The article addresses the belief that the Early Modern period and the early 19th century were characterized by “many” remarriages. The confusion in the analysis, however, between proportion and intensity has led much research down the wrong track. The evolution in remarriage intensity and in some other sociodemographic remarriage characteristics was measured for the period 1800–1913 in Leuven, Aalst, and Bierbeek—three areas with different socioeconomic structures and cultural climates. Comparison of the age-specific ratios shows that the remarriage probability of widowed people was often lower than first-marriage probability of those not previously married, even in the first half of the 19th century. In so far as our data are representative of the Early Modern period, the claim that “many” remarriages took place then must be put into perspective. In fact—with the exception of young widowers—fewer remarriages than first marriages often occurred. The proportion of remarriages fell from 20–25% in the first half of the 19th century to 10–15% by the end of the century. The most frequently occurring remarriage type was that between a widower and an unmarried woman; the least common was between a widower and a widow. An additional cultural factor was that from approximately the mid-19th century on, first marriage was so central to the development of a private social environment and was so highly valued that a watered-down version, in the form of remarriage, was held in low esteem and even rejected.     

Frequency,timing and intensity of remarriage in 19th century Flanders

The article addresses the belief that the Early Modern period and the early 19th century were characterized by “many” remarriages. The confusion in the analysis, however, between proportion and intensity has led much research down the wrong track. The evolution in remarriage intensity and in some other sociodemographic remarriage characteristics was measured for the period 1800–1913 in Leuven, Aalst, and Bierbeek—three areas with different socioeconomic structures and cultural climates. Comparison of the age-specific ratios shows that the remarriage probability of widowed people was often lower than first-marriage probability of those not previously married, even in the first half of the 19th century. In so far as our data are representative of the Early Modern period, the claim that “many” remarriages took place then must be put into perspective. In fact—with the exception of young widowers—fewer remarriages than first marriages often occurred. The proportion of remarriages fell from 20–25% in the first half of the 19th century to 10–15% by the end of the century. The most frequently occurring remarriage type was that between a widower and an unmarried woman; the least common was between a widower and a widow. An additional cultural factor was that from approximately the mid-19th century on, first marriage was so central to the development of a private social environment and was so highly valued that a watered-down version, in the form of remarriage, was held in low esteem and even rejected.     

The Jews of early modern Marburg, 1640s—1800

This article examines Jewish household and family organization in a middle-sized German city, the Upper Hessian regional center of Marburg, the population of which ranged from 2500 to 6000 from the Thirty Years War to the end of the 18th century. Some general hypotheses about population development, household structure, and family life conveniently summarized by Toch [Toch, M. (1995). Aspects of stratification in early modern German Jewry: Population history and village Jews. In R. P. Hsia & H. Lehmann (Eds.). In and out of the ghetto: Jewish-Gentile relations in late medieval and early modern Germany (pp. 77-89). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] serve as an organizational frame for the case study. In Toch's view, Jews' comparative wealth, as well as governmental restrictions on their settlement and marriage in central Europe, led to their having larger and more complex households than those of the Christian majority. While household enumerations over time confirm several of Toch's observations, especially the larger size of Jewish families, neither Hessian settlement policy nor local Marburg opposition prevented the Jewish minority of about 1% from keeping pace with general population growth. Moreover, Jews did not respond to their regulated living conditions and status as cultural outsiders with a family organization exhibiting remarkably more internal complexity than did Christian households.     

Age and family structures among the Jews of Mitau,Kurland, 1833–1834

The article analyzes an 1834 listing of the Jewish inhabitants in the city of Mitau in the province of Kurland, one of the Baltic provinces (the other two were Estland and Livland) of the Russian Empire. From Catherine the Great's reign onward, the Jewish population of the Baltic provinces rose steadily throughout the 19th century, but microstudies of Jewish communities in the region are virtually nonexistent, especially for the first half of the century. The Mitau list shows that the Jewish population there was very young, with about 45% being in the age group 0–14. Age at first marriage for males was about 24 years, and for females 21. From about age 35, 93% of males and 97% of females were married. The mean size of the family group was 5.8 persons, and about a third of all families were either extended (containing unmarried relatives beyond the nuclear family) or multiple (more than one kin-linked conjugal family unit). Judging by kinship terms in the source, the kin system tilted toward patrilineality, as would be expected. These characteristics need to be compared to other Jewish communities before and after 1834—in the Baltic area and surrounding regions—but the paucity of local studies suggests that some time will pass before the Mitau findings can be placed in an adequate comparative framework.     

Radbruch as an Affirmative Holist.On the Question of What Ought to Be Preserved of His Philosophy

Abstract. Gustav Radbruch is one of the most important German‐speaking philosophers of law of the twentieth century. This paper raises the question of how to classify Radbruch's theories in the international context of legal philosophy and philosophy in general. Radbruch's work was mainly influenced by the southwest German school of Neo‐Kantianism, represented by Windelband, Rickert, and Lask. Their theories of culture and value show an affirmative‐holistic understanding of philosophy as a source of wisdom and meaningfulness. Kant, on the other hand, belongs more to a fundamentally different, critical camp of philosophy. Although Radbruch has incorporated Kantian Elements into his theory, he is rather a member of the affirmative‐holistic camp. In the end the question will be raised as to what ought to be preserved of his philosophy.     

Faulty genes or faulty parents? Gender,family and survival in early and late childhood in the Netherlands, 1860–1900

According to the famous economist and Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen women have a significant biological advantage over men. Despite this fact women do not always live longer. In today's third world, but also in some areas in Europe at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century we find so-called excess female mortality. In this paper we examine child mortality in The Netherlands in general and gendered patterns of child mortality in particular. The focus is on differential mortality patterns by gender for infants, older children, and young adults up to age 20 in the second half of the 19th century. The analysis takes place at three levels. We start off with an exploration of sex differentials in mortality at the national level, based on the existing literature. We next examine gender differentials in mortality at the level of several Dutch communities, in the region called Twente, focussing on the differences between the city and the countryside. The final part of the analysis focuses on the micro level of the individual and his or her family in the rural community of Lonneker located in the Twente region. In this part of our study we make use of longitudinal individual level data which are analysed with event history methodologies. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that young women and girls in The Netherlands were not always in a position to fully capitalise upon their greater biological advantage and suffered instead considerable excess mortality. Especially in the rural parts of the country girls had lower survival chances. The individual level analysis confirms the importance of sex in explaining child and adolescent mortality. These gendered mortality risks can however not be attributed to social and economic household characteristics. The analysis also shows that, when death came, it literally affected the entire family. This phenomenon, better known under the label ‘death clustering’, may have been an effect of parental incompetence.     

The garcia de la paz

According to the famous economist and Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen women have a significant biological advantage over men. Despite this fact women do not always live longer. In today's third world, but also in some areas in Europe at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century we find so-called excess female mortality. In this paper we examine child mortality in The Netherlands in general and gendered patterns of child mortality in particular. The focus is on differential mortality patterns by gender for infants, older children, and young adults up to age 20 in the second half of the 19th century. The analysis takes place at three levels. We start off with an exploration of sex differentials in mortality at the national level, based on the existing literature. We next examine gender differentials in mortality at the level of several Dutch communities, in the region called Twente, focussing on the differences between the city and the countryside. The final part of the analysis focuses on the micro level of the individual and his or her family in the rural community of Lonneker located in the Twente region. In this part of our study we make use of longitudinal individual level data which are analysed with event history methodologies. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that young women and girls in The Netherlands were not always in a position to fully capitalise upon their greater biological advantage and suffered instead considerable excess mortality. Especially in the rural parts of the country girls had lower survival chances. The individual level analysis confirms the importance of sex in explaining child and adolescent mortality. These gendered mortality risks can however not be attributed to social and economic household characteristics. The analysis also shows that, when death came, it literally affected the entire family. This phenomenon, better known under the label ‘death clustering’, may have been an effect of parental incompetence.     

Troubled Children and Children in Trouble: Redefining the Role of the Juvenile Court in the Lives of Children

This Essay considers the emerging research in the area of dual‐jurisdiction children, often referred to as “crossover kids”—those currently or previously involved in maltreatment proceedings who have also committed delinquent acts. Part I describes the development of the juvenile courts in the early twentieth century. Part II of this Essay questions the need to “track” children along one legal path or another and points to the pitfalls of providing services to some children through a criminal justice paradigm instead of treating all children through a social work paradigm. Finally, Part III advocates a redesign of the juvenile court—a return to its roots—to better enable a court to consider the needs of the whole child, in context with the needs of her/his family.     

The temporary migration of males and the power of females in a stem-family society: The case of 19th-century Auvergne

The phenomenon of men's migration from Auvergne to Spain in the 19th century is studied through the eyes of married peasant women. These migrants' wives had to change their way of life during their husbands' long absences, not only in bringing up their offspring, but also in hiring servants, and overseeing the work in the fields — often working there themselves. In many cases, they assumed full financial responsibilities. These women wrote to their husbands in French, although they spoke a country dialect. Unlike most of their neighbors, they developed their intellectual capacities and broadened their horizons. Their letters reveal how dignified and levelheaded the migrants' wives remained, and how they wanted to show themselves to best advantage. The men's letters, written in paternalistic tone implying the wives' submissiveness, were full of advice about how to cope with material difficulties. These peasant women were completely different than the bourgeois women of the same century: they learned to make decisions by themselves and take on a myriad of responsibilities, which often required self-sacrifice. Because of them, households were not disrupted.     

From parish register to the “historical table”: The Prussian population statistics in the 17th and 18th centuries

This overview deals with the development of population statistics in Germany and Prussia, where different streams and trends in the field of statistics can be observed until the end of the 18th century: (1) the so-called university statistics (Staatenkunde); (2) political arithmetic; (3) table statistics; (4) “German Kameralia;” and (5) Prussian financial science. The most important sources for historical demographic research are the parish registers. In Germany, they start in the early or high Middle Ages as baptismal lists. In Prussia in the 16th century, parish registers consisted of entries and items of baptisms (births), marriages, and funerals (deaths). Based upon these parish registers at the end of 17th century in the Brandenburg Electorate, population lists were set up as registers or tables of population movement, as “general registers of the born, the married, the deceased, and the communicants.” Physicians and such Prussian medical authorities as the Collegium medicum and the Collegium sanitatis collected data about the causes of death and the longevity of human life (people more than 90 years old). In the course of 120 years during the 17th and 18th centuries, about 350,000 immigrants came to Brandenburg-Prussia. The Prussians developed excellent migration and census statistics in the form of historical tables. From the founding of the Prussian Office of Statistics in 1805 until its reorganization in 1809–1810, historical tables were set up using population statistics.     

Central European household and family systems,and the ‘Hajnal–Mitterauer’ line: The parish of Bujakow (18th–19th centuries)

The article examines marriage behaviours, household patterns and household formation rules prevailing among the population of the Upper Silesian parish of Bujakow during the late 18th and the first part of the 19th century. Their character, it is argued, is crucial not only for the proper understanding of European family systems in the past, but also for accurate comparisons of family systems in Europe and Asia. The family pattern prevailing in this part of central Europe exhibited a ‘hybrid’ nature in many respects. The pattern's chief characteristics were a moderate age at marriage, the dominance of simple family households and the high incidence of lifecycle servants. Serial household lists revealed, however, the significant diversity in proportions of household types between censuses and between villages. Despite the strong indication of a stem family pattern in the parish, the analysis of headship transmission revealed the concurrent co-existence of various modes of household formation among families. Some of these formation processes did not vary much from neo-local principles or followed exactly this type of pattern. This study also made it possible to reconsider the supposed relationship between the seigneurial authority and family behaviours in the parish pointing out the considerable degree of autonomy of the peasant subjects.     

Bequests to widows and their property in early modern England

This paper analyses those wills made by persons with the surname Farrer between 1500 and 1849 that mention both a widow and children in order to see how different testators divided their property when the interests of more than one family member had to be considered. It is argued that the economic position of women following widowhood was weaker in the eighteenth century than it had been earlier. In the eighteenth century, fewer widows were appointed executrix of their husband's estate and fewer received a share of the residue of the estate. Relatively more bequests of houses and land went to children and not to the widow. These trends occurred in all regions we examined and were experienced by all social groups who made wills. However, while husbands in the eighteenth century were relatively less generous to their widows in their wills than their predecessors, their widows were far from destitute, often receiving some land, cash and goods in addition to a house.     

Bequests to widows and their property in early modern England

This paper analyses those wills made by persons with the surname Farrer between 1500 and 1849 that mention both a widow and children in order to see how different testators divided their property when the interests of more than one family member had to be considered. It is argued that the economic position of women following widowhood was weaker in the eighteenth century than it had been earlier. In the eighteenth century, fewer widows were appointed executrix of their husband's estate and fewer received a share of the residue of the estate. Relatively more bequests of houses and land went to children and not to the widow. These trends occurred in all regions we examined and were experienced by all social groups who made wills. However, while husbands in the eighteenth century were relatively less generous to their widows in their wills than their predecessors, their widows were far from destitute, often receiving some land, cash and goods in addition to a house.     

“If this be living I'd rather be dead”: Enslaved youth,agency and resistance on an eighteenth century Jamaican estate

By the late eighteenth century, enslaved children and young adults had become vital components in the reproduction of Caribbean slavery. Yet the experiences of enslaved children and adolescents have rarely been the focus of scholarship. Indeed, the near-absence of scholarship on enslaved children and youth within the historiographies of slavery, childhood and family history is striking. While we know much about the structure of family life, gender roles, courtship, marriage, and parenting among the enslaved, we know far less about the material worlds of enslaved youth and adolescents. Childhood and adolescence represented critical stages in the lives of enslaved children for it was during these life-stages that young people were inculcated with the racialised ideologies of the wider social order, gained insight into the value systems of their society, were socialized into acceptance of their status as unfree peoples, and prepared for their future roles as labourers. Hence, their experiences of slavery were qualitatively different from those of adult slaves.

This paper explores some aspects of adolescent life on the Jamaican estate of Thomas Thistlewood in the late decades of the eighteenth century. Thistlewood, manager of a slave-pen, early recognised the importance of young people in furthering his ambitions to become master of his own estate, and his purchases of young people reflect that market-rational strategy. Thistlewood’s preference for a youthful labour force stemmed from his conviction that young people could be more easily made to submit to his authority than adult slaves. Yet, Thistlewood’s belief in the greater tractability of enslaved youth was often undermined, as his adolescent labour force frequently and forcefully tested the limits of his mastery and asserted their rights to freedom. Thistlewood’s journal not only offers rich insights into the processes of transformation of enslaved children to adolescents and mature adults, but it also sheds light on enslaved youth and their negotiations with, manipulations of, and resistance to the master–slave relationship. This paper argues then, that far from being the passive objects of planter mastery, enslaved youth were active agents in the shaping of their own histories. In exploring these issues, this paper reveals much of the contradictions and ambiguities of enslaved childhood, youth and adolescence.