Did medieval peasants have more children on average than royalty? Or is this a modern phenomenon?
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In America, up until the late 1900s, the family farm as an economic unit could not exist without the free labor provided by children. The 9-months on, 3 months off school model we still use here in America is derived directly from the months children were needed for the harvest.
Since most of America lived in the country (and not the cities) in those years, large families were the norm. There is an early photo of a woman who gave birth to 26 children herself, with no twins or triplets. Incredible by today’s standards.
The morality of America at that time ( meaning most Christian religions) was set up to support the idea of God approving of large families, of God wanting women to be mothers, of God wanting women to stay at home and be homemakers. Morality re-enforced the only viable economic model of the time.
But then two remarkable labor-saving technologies appeared. The John Deere “sod buster” iron plow and the “engine”, first the steam and then the gas.
In the span of a single generation, farm work that used to require 10 or 12 people to do could now be done by 2 or 3.
Labor markets in the rural areas of America collapsed. This led directly to large-scale immigration into the cities and the rise of factories and automation in America.
And since women were now relieved of the burden of producing 12 or 15 children to avoid starvation, they were free to pursue other goals in their lives: The rise of women’s rights and the suffragette movement in America
It’s always amazing how the morality of America has always reflected the technology available at that time.
Don’t even get me started about the invention of the birth control pill in late 1950s and it’s effect on America.
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