Question by Dan: What was the normal American family life like from the 1830s to 1860s?
What was the normal American family life like from the 1830s to 1860s?
APUSH sucks, especially when you have NO TIME to do it, like now.
Thanks for help
Best answer:
Answer by isis1037
The period between 1830 and 1860, [which was just on the eve of the Civil War...1861-65...], saw many changes in the social lives of families.
Lewis and Clark had opened up the western parts of the U.S. and families were beginning to migrate west in the 1840s, 50s, and 60s in ever larger amounts first in wagon trains and then later, on the first trains.[Most of my family came on wagon trains...one of my GGgrandfathers was a Capt. on a wagon train on the Oregon Trail in 1856]….
The U.S., for the most part was made up of few large cities. Most of the population lived in smaller, more rural areas.
They were usually kept very busy raising food, preserving it, and tending to live stock for the family, but there were also social organizations…both formal as well as informal. They would have gatherings in towns, ‘barn raisings’ for new comers, build schools, Grange meetings, Quilting parties, in which all the surrounding communities would participate…the women would bake and cook for these. [There was always a certain type of 'competition' on one's cooking abilities among the women]. Social gatherings were usually the only chance [other than church..if there happened to be one...usually 'church' would be in someone's house until one could be built]… for people to meet, exchange ideas, recipes, meet relatives that were, perhaps a ‘wagon distance’ away [about 15 miles one way...this would require those to stay overnight at someone's house], and these were also gatherings in which the young men and women met each other. There was almost always ‘home-grown’ music, and dancing, as well as a large amount of food provided…[some families had the talent to be a 'band'...as my family did, and travel short distances, by wagon to the small communities to play].
They usually depended upon wood for heating and cooking…which would require the men and older boys to cut down trees and chop wood…[women also chopped wood outside their back doors]…
Even in small cities, families had livestock, and some had both a house in town as well as a ‘homestead’ out of town, where they grew food for livestock, as well as gardens for themselves…
Clothes were seldom ‘store-bought’…women learned to sew [by hand] as small children. [having a sewing machine was a great luxury [usually a 'Singer' after 1851]…..
Much enjoyment was experienced when a catalog came in the mail [usually picked up at a local post office..or brought when someone went to town]…Kerosene lamps were the only source of light…other than candles; [gas lighting was available in the late 19th C. in larger cities in the U.S.].
The families at that time were usually large, with many children…[child mortality, as well as child birth mortality, was quite high]. Many men are shown in various census as having at least 2 wives, due to the death of one [or more]. Life was much shorter then. People died of diseases and physical causes, as well as accidents at a much higher rate than today. The life expectancy was aprox. 40-50..[my GGrandfather died at 49 from appendicitis...yet my Gmother died at 102 in 1984]…she was born in 1883, oldest of 8 living children [several died in infancy or at birth].
It really depended upon just was areas people lived…and where they had originated. Many brought certain types of foods and traditions with them from one part of the U.S. to another as they migrated.
Most homesteads began with one room, and perhaps a ‘half addition’ for a kitchen. There was no ‘indoor plumbing’ in rural areas…
Life was just as it is today…sometimes unpleasant and at other times very pleasant….but also much harder, as far as labor and living…..
isis1037@yahoo.com
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
