Full Description
Part of the Major Problems in American History series, this text for courses in family history or history of childhood balances its discussion of marriage and gender relations with coverage on children and childhood. Offering a thorough treatment of race, ethnicity, and class from colonial times to the present, this edition grants sustained attention to Native Americans and Latinos. Relating history to larger political events, the text narrative balances coverage of public policy toward families with coverage of the experiences of family life.
Contents
1. Studying Families and Children in Historical Perspective
ESSAYS
John Demos, Digging Up Family History: Myths, Realities, and Works-in-Progress
Stephanie Coontz, Mythology and History in the Study of the American Family
Joseph M. Hawes and N. Ray Hiner, Reflections on the History of Children and
Childhood in the Postmodern Era
2. Marriage, Family, and Kinship in Early America
DOCUMENTS
Three Europeans Comment on Native American Marriage, Gender, and Kinship, 1600s-1700s: John Smith Describes the "Naturall Inhabitants of Virginia," 1608; Roger Williams Discusses Marriage and Divorce Among New England Indians, 1643; Robert Beverley Defends the Morality of Virginia's Native Americans, 1705
James Mooney Records Traditional Cherokee Myths, 1900
Plymouth Colony Requires All Persons to Live in Families, 1669
Puritan Minister Cotton Mather Describes "a Family Well-Ordered," 1699
Slaves Escape in Search of Family Members, 1750s-1760s
ESSAYS
Theda Perdue, Matrilineal Kinship Among the Cherokee Indians in the American Southeast
Lisa Wilson, Patriarchy and Marriage in Colonial New England
Allan Kulikoff, Slavery and Family Life Among African Americans in Eighteenth-Century Maryland
3. Children and Childrearing in a Developing Democracy
DOCUMENTS
Colonial Legislatures Permit Harsh Punishment for Disobedient Children, 1642, 1646, 1654
A Colonial Mother Describes the Custom of Breeching, 1679
English Philosopher John Locke Recommends a Rational Approach to Childrearing, 1693
Laura Wirt's Parents Offer Instruction and Advice, 1810
The Reverend Francis Wayland Describes Discipline, 1831
John J. C. Abbott Gives Advice to Mothers, 1834
Lucy Larcom Remembers the Pangs of Conscience, 1889
ESSAYS
Philip Greven, Breaking Wills in Colonial America
Anne Scott MacLeod, Developing Character in Antebellum America
4. Marriage and Family in Victorian America
DOCUMENTS
Eliza Southgate Expresses Her Opinion of Love Matches, 1800
Emma Willard Gives Marital Advice, 1815
Caroline Gilman Recommends Wifely Submission, 1838
Martha Hunter Hitchcock Complains of Loneliness and Illness, 1840-1846
Lizzie Neblett Describes Marriage and Motherhood in Texas, 1860
ESSAYS
E. Anthony Rotundo, Men, Women, and Marriage in the Nineteenth-Century North
Anya Jabour, Marriage and Family in the Nineteenth-Century South
5. Families in Bondage
DOCUMENTS
Slave Husbands and Wives Correspond, 1840s-1850s
Frederick Douglass Describes Separation and Sexual Abuse, 1845
Harriet Jacobs Remembers Growing Up a Slave, 1861
Fanny Kemble Reports on Slave Women's Health, 1863
Former Slaves Recall Family Life, 1930s
ESSAYS
Brenda Stevenson, Marriage in Slavery
Stephanie J. Shaw, Motherhood in Slavery
6. Fathers and Children in the Civil War Era
DOCUMENTS
A Confederate Father Writes to His Daughter, 1861-1864
A Popular Poem Mourns a Soldier-Father's Death, 1865
Children Play at War, 1863
A Southern Girl Records Her Brothers' Eagerness to Fight, 1861-1862
A Union Veteran Remembers Military Drills and Farewells, 1909
ESSAYS
James Marten, Fatherhood in the Confederacy
Reid Mitchell, Coming of Age in the Union Army
7. Families on the Frontier
DOCUMENTS
Harriet Taylor Upton Recalls Pioneer Life, ca. 1870
Margaret Bell Describes Children's Work on the Montana Frontier, ca. 1910
Esperanza Montoya Padilla Details Her Mother's Home and Community Work in the 1920s
Socorro Félix Delgado Describes Family and Religion in Arizona, ca. 1930
The U.S. Government Makes Contradictory Proposals for Educating Indian Children, 1940s
ESSAYS
Elliott West, Children on the Plains Frontier
Sarah Deutsch, Women, Work, and Community in Hispanic New Mexico and Colorado
Katherine M. B. Osburn, Fatherhood and Assimilation Among the Southern Utes
8. Children and Child-Savers in Progressive-Era America, 1880-1920
DOCUMENTS
William P. Letchworth Visits the New York Catholic Protectory, 1876
The Reinhard Committee Investigates Child Labor, 1896
Judge Ben Lindsey Encounters Youthful Criminals, 1894
Psychologist G. Stanley Hall Defi
