Simple Life In The 1800s

A Simple Life

Day in and day out, the same routine with no motivation for anything else. Wake up, cook breakfast, wake the children and tend to your husband. This was the only life women knew in the 1700’s. The highlight of their days was taking care of the homes. They watched as their husbands left for work as they stood in the doorway with their children. Women never expected that a more quality life was even a possibility. Most women didn’t even aspire to do anything more than what they were used to. They become contemplate with their lives. Men and women, believed that women were only needed to bare children and take care of the homes, they were seen as less than the white males in American, and there was no room for them to improve themselves

The ultimate goal of these times was to become a wife and enter motherhood. According to Fawver, Motherhood came at an early age for many Harford wives, as 49 percent of the white women under the age of twenty had at least one child. Women began bearing children in their late teens and, with each successive five-year increment had more (467). There was no reason to strive for anything better, because they had not been exposed to anything different. From a young age their mothers have been preparing them for these roles in life. If you didn’t not fit into these standards as you became of age, then you were seen as unusual or an outcast. They were seen as sex objects for their husbands. They could not, themselves, be sexual beings or commit adultery. They had to be seen as conservative, and could not leave any impression of being promiscuous. It was demined socially unacceptable to be a single parent during these

The men were seen as providers. They were the ones that worked and made the money. Women could not make the money because then they were the ones seen with the power. Men were seen as providers and strong, and head of the households. Men felt threatened if they were not the ones in charge, so they belittled the women so that they knew they were not at the same level as them. It was not the norm to see a woman as the head of the families. This was not the way women were brought up. According to Fawver, once men married, around the age of 23-25, they gained the privilege of being the head of the home, but women didn’t gain the same freedom