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most fundamental effects of the war on

Native-American women was the

disruption of home, family, and

agricultural life (Berkin, 2005).

The Age of Enlightenment:

Family Life in the Nineteenth

Century

The 1800s witnessed an outpouring of

human knowledge in almost every field of

human endeavor.Ideas which had sprung

up in the mid-1700s,particularly

concerning the rights of the individual,

permeated what was to be called the

Industrial Revolution(1750–1830).This

“age of enlightenment”flooded

philosophical,religious,political,and

economic realms.SeeSidebar 2.4 for

President JohnAdams’comments on the

age of enlightenment.

During the early 1800s the

commodified familywas ushered in with

the IndustrialAge.In other words,the

family itself became a commodity.With

the disintegration of family farms and

small family businesses,families gradually

became units of consumption instead of

production—consumers rather than

producers.The world of work and the

world of family became bifurcated as

husbands and sometimes wives left their

The Changing Face of theAmerican Family: Early History

The age of enlightenment changed the view

of family to one of a private retreat and included

the father, mother, and children, rather than

a household of kin groups.

SIDEBAR2.4
ON THEAGE OFENLIGHTENMENT

Theartsandsciences,ingeneral,duringthe3or4
last centuries, have had a regular course of
progressive improvement. The inventions in
mechanicarts,thediscoveriesinnaturalphilosophy,
navigation and commerce, and the advancement
of civilization and humanity, have occasioned
changes in the condition of the world and the
humancharacterwhichwouldhaveastonishedthe
most refined nations of antiquity.A continuation
of similarexertionsiseverydayrenderingEurope
more and more like one community, or single
family.
—JohnAdams (1735–1826)
Source:Kreis 2002.

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