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Institutions such as family, church and school give structure to the world in which a person lives. In the 18th century, the family had the most powerful influence on a person's life. Parents decided when and who their children would marry. They also decided whether the child would go to school or learn a trade.

Most children also received some form of religious instruction. Both parents and children were expected to conform to church rules and regulations.

Everyone was subject to the laws of the colony. In New France, these laws were determined by a governor and superior council. They, in turn, were responsible to the King. Before the American Revolution, governors also represented the final authorityin the American colonies. After the Revolution, the law passed into the hands of the American citizens.

In many towns and cities, the government set the standards of health care. It licensed physicians and imposed quarantines during epidemics.

Church and state had less impact in isolated rural areas. In villages with no priest or minister, parents were responsible for a child's religious instruction. Some communities never saw a doctor. Instead, people turned to local healers and grew their own medicinal plants. People in rural areas had to police each other.

Each child was born into a world with institutions that shaped that child's life and behaviour. Each child, in turn, grew up to create a world for his or her own children. So although institutions changed over the years, they still kept their original focus: to serve the people who depended on them.
   
 
   
   

HOME INSTRUCTION

Some children were taught to read and write at home, either by a parent or a private tutor. Many Protestant children learned to read by studying the Bible. Educators have argued that the Bible's graceful phrases influenced the child's ability to write with fluency and elegance.

Young girls who helped out in the family business were often taught to read and write. Some learned simple arithmetic. Women left to run the business alone after the death of a father or husband would need their skills in reading, writing and arithmetic.

People learned to recognize others of their class by the way they walked, dressed, spoke and ate. Upper class boys and girls were taught the rules of etiquette, especially table manners. Our own rules against elbows on the table or eating too quickly date from this period.

In the American colonies, little girls who sewed the letters of the alphabet on a piece of linen to make a "sampler" were practicing for the day when they would mark house linen with their family initials. Some children received no formal education at all. Nevertheless, parents made sure their children were taught the skills they needed to survive in the world of adults. On fishing properties, for example, children were assigned low level tasks. Very young children were often assigned the job of turning the fish on the flakes. As they grew, the tasks became more complex. An older child might be assigned the job of filleting the fish.

In rural areas on the coast of Canada, older boys were allowed to take part in the dangerous seal-hunts. Young boys eagerly waited for the day they would join the men on the ice.

Even children who worked as servants were educated in the skills and behaviour expected of them. Children who worked in upper class households often received intensive training in the art of housekeeping. At the end of the contract, they were free to seek other, more profitable employment if they wished.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATORS

In New France, the Roman Catholic Church assumed most of the responsibility for instruction. Its resources were limited, however. Qualified teachers were scarce and there were not enough funds to establish schools in each community. In some parishes, children received only enough education to allow them to make their First Communion. They were taught simple prayers and received little, if any, instruction in reading and writing.

Children who lived in urban areas were slightly better off. Religious orders of nuns and priests established schools in some of the larger towns in New France. Girls studied in convent schools run by the Ursuline nuns or the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Most of these young girls belonged to the middle and upper classes. In some schools, the sisters also accepted orphans or other charity cases.

The goal of a convent education was to teach young ladies to be good Catholic wives and mothers. They were taught to read and write in order to instruct their own children in the principles of the Catholic faith. Most books were histories of the saints' lives and other devotional works.

They also learned some simple arithmetic. In some cases, the girls learned enough chemistry and botany to prepare home remedies. Needlework and lace-making were also taught.

As limited as this instruction may seem to us, it was acceptable by 18th-century standards. Children who were educated in these religious institutions received an education equal to any offered in Europe.

Boys attended the Jesuit College in Quebec and the Jesuit Latin School in Montreal. The Jesuit schools for boys were known as classical colleges, because of their emphasis on classical Greek and Roman works. Their classes in rhetoric and logic were based on a curriculum originally developed in ancient Greece. Towards the end of the century, however, this instruction was augmented by classes in "modern" subjects such as history, geography, and mathematics.

Most subjects were learned by rote. Students were required to memorize long passages from ancient epic poems. The children were grouped according to ability and passed on to the next class only when they had mastered the lessons of the previous level.

It was not unusual to see older boys in a class of much younger children. Corporal punishment, or flogging, was beginning to go out of favour in French colleges during the 18th century. It was, however, still widely used in British schools.

The British missionary group known as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent schoolmasters to Protestant communities in North America.

   
In the American colonies, school spelling bees helped move the population toward a standard spelling for given words. Until the 18th century, words were spelled in a highly creative and individual way.

Many children were also taught to read French. In Britain, educated men and women preferred French to English. This tendency was not so widespread in the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin, for example, published Poor Richard's Almanack in English.

Upper and middle class youths went on to attend universities established by religious groups. Harvard was built by the Puritans of Massachusetts. The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia was established by the Church of England. Here, the sons of upper class families studied the liberal arts in preparation for careers in law, medicine, commerce, government, or the church.

They also studied ancient languages. At a time when all educated men could read Greek and Latin, these studies often helped wealthy young men from the middle classes move into the upper classes.

   
   
 
   
   

EPIDEMICS & INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Smallpox epidemics were terrifying events. A resident of New York spoke of the effect they had on the townspeople:

“Many children die, as well as grown persons, and the country people are afraid to come to town, which makes markets thin, provisions dear, and deadens all trade, and it goes very hard with the poor.

[John B. Blake, Public Health in the Town of Boston: 1630-1822. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959.]

Natives had no natural immunities to European diseases. A whole village of native people could be wiped out by influenza. Children who had just been weaned from their mother's milk were also in danger. They no longer benefitted from their mother's immunities and had not yet developed their own. Infectious disease was by far the greatest killer of children. In small towns, a single outbreak of smallpox could wipe out almost an entire generation of children. Older people were also at great risk.

People could see that an infectious disease passed from person to person. Generally people who died from contagious diseases were not buried in the town cemeteries but in emergency graves dug outside the town or village. If ships were known to carry an infectious disease, they might not be allowed to enter the port.

The French scientist Louis Pasteur would not discover that disease was transmitted by living micro-organisms until 1867. Until then, people had only a very hazy understanding of how infection and disease were transmitted. They took few precautions against dirt. A small cut on the finger could lead to blood poisoning and even death.

Lee Fisher
Reenactor, Grand Encampment '99

Tools of an 18th century physician
PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS

 Surgeons were generally trained through the apprentice system. An apprenticeship with a master surgeon had its benefits: surgeons generally had more hands-on training than physicians. Some American practitioners studied at the prestigious College of William and Mary in Willliamsburg, Virginia. Others travelled to Europe for further training in a famous hospital such as Saint Thomas in London.

Some physicians looked down upon the surgeons as mere "bonesetters." Physicians were the elite, or most respected members, within the profession. In New France, only physicians who had passed an examination were licensed to practice. They usually studied in European universities. In the American colonies, young men from upper class families travelled to Edinburgh or London to study medicine. Like physicians today, 18th-century physicians also had framed certificates hanging on their walls.

In the cities, some physicians even offered their patients a medical plan: families pre-paid the doctor a certain sum each year to cover all medical care.

DANGERS OF 18TH-CENTURY MEDICAL CARE

To purge the body of poisons, physicians used a chemical known today as "Epsom salts." Unfortunately, neither doctors nor patients realized that it was often the cure, and not the disease, that killed the patient. Weakened by the constant bleeding and purging, the patient became too weak to fight off the disease.

HOSPITALS

Hospitals were not the sterile, clean places we know today. The people who went there often died of infections they got from the other patients. Catching lice was another danger of a hospital stay. Surgery, such as amputation, was carried out under extremely unsanitary, even dirty, conditions. Instruments were rarely cleaned and patients often died from post-surgical infection, rather than the surgery itself.

In the absence of concrete medical knowledge, people trusted their own powers of observation. People who saw family members die in hospitals felt that they were dangerous places, without really understanding why. Generally, only the very poor or soldiers with no family to care for them were treated in hospitals. Everyone else wanted to be treated at home.

PLANTS AS MEDICINE

Many of the herbs and spices found in our kitchen cabinets today were used as medicines in the 18th century. People drank camomile tea for a fever and applied mint to bee-stings. They believed that mustard applied to the skin would draw out splinters. Onions were widely believed to be a cure for intestinal worms in children. The onions were steeped in water overnight and the water given to the child to drink. Some people treated cholera with the boiled roots of raspberry canes. All of these plants were grown in the family's kitchen garden.

Herbals were found in many homes. These books, published in Europe, listed the uses of each medicinal plant and gave instructions for their preparation.

HEALTH CARE IN RURAL AREAS

Some people who lived in the country never saw a physician. Instead, they relied on home-made or folk remedies. Various tree barks, for instance, were brewed as a cure for asthma or other illnesses. In the small Acadian village of Cheticamp, Nova Scotia, the powder between the bark and the dead spruce tree was applied to babies' bottoms to prevent chafing. Later, browned flour was used.

Each family had a list of remedies that they used in case of burns, boils, asthma, fever and other common ailments. Some of the remedies used to treat the family were also used on the farm animals.

Remedies varied from one village to the next, or from one family to the next. In many families, old remedies had been passed down from mother to daughter for many generations. Some of these cures, such as applying spiders' webs to cuts or gunpowder to an aching tooth, sound very strange to us.

A number of remedies were taught to the settlers by the natives. Many of these treatments had a sound basis in medical fact. Willowbark tea, for example, contained salicylic acid, the active ingredient in the aspirin we use today. The natives also taught the settlers to make beer from the seeds of hemlock or spruce trees. Today we know that scurvy was caused by a lack of Vitamin "C" and that spruce provides enough vitamin "C" to prevent the disease. Most of these home-made remedies were at least as effective as the methods of bleeding and the purges used by the physicians. Certainly, they were a lot less dangerous to the patient!

FAITH HEALING & SUPERSTITION

Many people consulted faith healers, particularly in areas where professional medical help was unavailable. Often, the "gift" was passed on to a younger family member. Some families became famous for their healing powers. Faith healers relied on prayer and the laying-on of hands. They seldom accepted money for their services. Any payment was usually offered in kind, in the form of a chicken or a sack of potatoes.

Other remedies were based on superstition. For example, in Cheticamp, Nova Scotia, people believed that asthma was cured by drilling a hole in a tree at approximately the same height as the sick person's head. A lock of hair was placed in the hole. The villagers believed that a person would be cured once he or she grew past the mark. Trust in these remedies was often based on an unclear understanding of cause and effect. In many cases, for example, the person probably was cured, since people (particularly children) often grow out of asthma when they reach a certain age.

[Anselme Chiasson, Cheticamp: History and Acadian Traditions. St. John's: Breakwater Books Limited, 1986. (First Published in 1962).]

CHILDBIRTH

Childbirth was a leading cause of death for women of child-bearing age. Today, caesarean operations save the lives of many mothers and children. In the 18th century, surgery to remove the child from the mother's body was only an option when the mother was already dead. Many infants died at birth, especially premature infants. Twins, in particular, were often born too early and died as a result.

Some surgeons were trained to deliver babies. Most babies, however, were delivered by local women known as midwives. In some communities, midwives were licensed and trained; in other communities, they were simply neighbours who had gained a lot of practical experience in delivering babies. One midwife in Virginia was known to have delivered over 3000 children.

A SURGEON'S KIT

The following is a partial list of the supplies carried by an actual 18th-century ship's surgeon. The shaving basin and razors indicate that this surgeon was also a barber.

shaving basin
whetstone for razors
2 razors
bullet forceps
dental forceps
2 lancets
spatula for cleaning wounds
instrument for exposing teeth
bone scraper
probe
surgical scissors
4 needles, 3 curved and l straight
a pair of scales and a weight
mortar and pestle
a small precision balance
plaster (used for head complaints)
1 pot extract of juniper (look up)
1 pot ointment of roses used for abrasions
1 pot camphor
1 pot turpentine
1 bottle syrup of roses
1 bottle syrup of red poppies
1 bottle vitriolic spirits
1 bottle chamomile oil -
1 bottle mild mercury
1 bottle red coral
1 bottle shrimps' eyes
1 package alum
1 package of the 4 "cold" seeds (squash, melon, pumpkin, and cucumber).These were used for refreshing drinks and skin conditions.
1 package liquorice
1 package barley
1 piece rhubarb (for diarrhea)

[Linda M. Hoad, "Surgeons and Surgery in Ile Royale," History & Archaeology. Parks Canada, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Halifax, 1976.]


   
   
 
   
   



CHURCH POLITICS

The Bishop of Quebec had a great deal of political power. He was appointed by the King and sat on the council which governed the colony. To support itself, the Church imposed a tax on various industries. In the countryside the farmers had to pay a percentage of their grain harvest. Known as a tithe, it represented 1/26th of all grain grown.

The Church of England had not yet appointed a bishop to serve in the colonies. Instead, twelve men were elected in each parish. Known as the vestry, these men were responsible for all church affairs. They decided how much to tax the people for parish expenses, including the support of the minister and his family. They also assumed responsibility for care of the sick and the insane.

The Church of England's authority in North America was weakened by the presence of several other strong, Protestant churches. The Congregationalists, once known as the Puritans, governed New England. Pennsylvania was governed by Quakers until 1756, when the church voluntarily surrendered its power.

Other Protestant churches included the Baptists and the Methodists. They were known as "dissenters" by the official churches.

Their insistance that every man was equal before God appealed to many people among the lower and middle classes. People of African descent were also attracted to these churches.

In fact, the dissenters' philosophy of equality among men won many converts away from the Church of England. The newly created United States of America would have no official church. In rejecting the British king, Americans also rejected the Church of England and its hierarchical view of society. As the congregation grew smaller, the churches grew shabbier. In contrast, many Loyalists demonstrated their loyalty to Britain by establishing the Church of England in the Canadian wilderness.

Most 18th-century churches were intolerant of other religions. In New France, for example, only practising Catholics could hold public office. To do so, they had to present a certificate from the local priest, stating that they were over 25 years of age, attended church regularly, and were well-behaved.

Although a few Protestants were tolerated in New France, they were careful not to hold their services in public. Some religions were not tolerated at all. In 1740, a Jewish woman named Esther Brandeau disguised herself as a boy and stowed away on a ship headed for New France. As soon as the authorities in New France learned of her presence, they insisted she convert to Catholicism. When she refused, they had her deported.

By 1760, however, the situation had changed. The new British government installed the Church of England as the official church of Quebec. Now, although Roman Catholics were allowed to vote, they could not hold office.

In New England, only members of the Congregationalist church could hold office. Among all the churches, only the Quakers in Pennsylvania were truly tolerant. Roman Catholics were welcome in Quaker communities. Thanks to the intervention of Lord Baltimore, a Catholic community was also established in Maryland.

TEACHING & HOSPITAL ORDERS

Only the orders which rendered some service to society were welcome in New France. The Brothers of Charity of Saint John of God established and ran hospitals. The Grey Sisters were also devoted to the care of the sick.

Classical colleges run by the Jesuits provided many young boys with an education. Girls attended schools established by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, founded by Saint Marguerite Bourgeois. In New France, girls were generally taught by females while boys were taught by males. For some children, a weekly catechism class was the only kind of formal education available. During these classes, girls sat on one side of the room and boys on the other.

FOLK BELIEFS

Throughout the 18th century, faith was often a strange mixture of Christianity and local folk beliefs. Many people still believed in sorcerers and spells. Although the witchcraft trials of the 17th century were by now a thing of the past, people still believed in witches. Country people, especially, had a firm belief in elves, the Devil, fairies, will-o'-the-wisps, and ghosts.

DEATH RITUALS

Although not all graves were marked, grave stone carvers still managed to make a good living. In the American colonies, wealthy people imported elaborate table stones from England. Governors and other prestigious people were buried beneath the floor of the Church, with great pomp and ceremony.

The Catholic church delayed burial for 24 hours, just in case the person wasn't actually dead. The body was not embalmed. Instead, relatives or neighbours simply washed and dressed the body and laid it in the parlour of the house. When it was time for the funeral services, a procession of family and friends accompanied the body to the church and then on to the cemetery.

In an age with no antibiotics, the slightest cold or infection could be fatal. Children, especially, were at great risk. Childbirth was the most
dangerous time of life for women.

If not everyone could have a long life, at least they could hope for a "good death." Everyone wanted to spend their last moments surrounded by loved ones, in perfect resignation to the will of God. Many people left money or property to the church.

Even children were encouraged to prepare for a "good death." One popular religious book for children in England and the American colonies had the following cheery title:

"A Token for Children, being an Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives and Joyful Deaths of Several Young Children, by James Janeway"*

[*Alice Morse Earle, Child Life in Colonial Days. Norwood Editions, 1976.]

Catholics hoped to die with a priest on hand to administer the last rites. This was not always possible. In New France, the Diocese of Quebec stretched from Acadia and the east coast to the far-flung fur trading posts of the west. It reached as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The Church had neither the funds nor the manpower to supply this vast area with resident priests. Instead, itinerant Catholic missionaries travelled from village to village, outpost to outpost.

MISSIONARIES

In New France, the Diocese of Quebec stretched from Acadia and the east coast to the far-flung fur trading posts of the west. It reached as far south as the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana. The Church had neither the funds nor the manpower to supply this vast area with resident priests. Instead, itinerant Catholic missionaries travelled from village to village, outpost to outpost.

When, the priests could not be present, the people performed certain ceremonies themselves. Midwives were authorized to baptise infants. Young couples who wished to marry repeated their vows before witnesses. When there was no priest to say Mass, people might gather together to read the Lives of the Saints or sing hymns.

Within the Church of England, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent ministers to isolated communities. Each Protestant sect also had evangelical ministers who travelled from village to village, preaching the faith.

Missionary work was a harsh and physically challenging life. Accordingly, most itinerant priests and ministers were young and healthy. Few married ministers stayed with it for long. In the end, the harsh climate, travelling, and poor diet took a heavy toll on the health of the missionaries. There are also stories of priests drowning while en route to an isolated mission.

In New France, many priests preferred to serve the Native populations by travelling with them and adopting their lifestyle. Several of these priests actively encouraged the Aboriginal peoples to go to war against the English. A few missionaries acted more like military leaders than priests.

 

Also covered on the CD ROM (available from Folkus Atlantic):

  • Crime
  • Family Life