My father has a census for Massachusetts in 1790. They were primarily farmers during this time. Some of the families had 10 or more children, but many had a few and some had 0 children. So, how many children would be needed for a farming family?
Children necessary for a farming family
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I'm not an expert on the subject, but this is what I consider to be an educated guess on the matter:
1. For distribution of chores. They had to get up at dawn, or in many instances before dawn, and work until the sun went down. Lots of work and long hours. I'm guessing if you had more kids to do the chores, then they'd all get done by the end of the day, and with a little less exhaustion.
2. High infant/child mortality rate. Perhaps those families with zero kids had lost them by the time of the 1790 census. It's also possible that there were adult children who had established their own farms, so those who were listed without children were older couples with grandchildren. There is also the possibility that, for a variety of reasons, that in an era of bloodletting and general lack of medical knowledge, there were a lot of miscarriages and stillbirths. It's likely some couples were never able to have children.
3. The high infant/child mortality rate also explains the need to have large numbers of children. If you have ten, you could expect to lose maybe five in their first five or ten years of life. That meant you still had five kids left to help run the farm. I know it sounds a little heartless, but having lots of kids to "make up" the loss was probably considered practical and realistic back then.
4. Religious and societal expectations. Having lots of kids conforms to the Biblical commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Women were pushed into rigid gender roles where their primary purpose was to have children, and also to obey and submit to their husbands, being their property. There was no birth control*, other than complete abstinence. And during those long, cold hard winters when there was little to do but sit inside by the fire, read the Bible and tell stories, once the kids were sent to bed, the parents stayed warm with some nookie. Nine months later, another kid.
*At least no officially sanctioned birth control.
1. For distribution of chores. They had to get up at dawn, or in many instances before dawn, and work until the sun went down. Lots of work and long hours. I'm guessing if you had more kids to do the chores, then they'd all get done by the end of the day, and with a little less exhaustion.
2. High infant/child mortality rate. Perhaps those families with zero kids had lost them by the time of the 1790 census. It's also possible that there were adult children who had established their own farms, so those who were listed without children were older couples with grandchildren. There is also the possibility that, for a variety of reasons, that in an era of bloodletting and general lack of medical knowledge, there were a lot of miscarriages and stillbirths. It's likely some couples were never able to have children.
3. The high infant/child mortality rate also explains the need to have large numbers of children. If you have ten, you could expect to lose maybe five in their first five or ten years of life. That meant you still had five kids left to help run the farm. I know it sounds a little heartless, but having lots of kids to "make up" the loss was probably considered practical and realistic back then.
4. Religious and societal expectations. Having lots of kids conforms to the Biblical commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Women were pushed into rigid gender roles where their primary purpose was to have children, and also to obey and submit to their husbands, being their property. There was no birth control*, other than complete abstinence. And during those long, cold hard winters when there was little to do but sit inside by the fire, read the Bible and tell stories, once the kids were sent to bed, the parents stayed warm with some nookie. Nine months later, another kid.
*At least no officially sanctioned birth control.
yakherder
老外
My grandmother, whose parents immigrated to the US from Russia and started a farm around the time of World War I, had 14 brothers and sisters for that very reason. As young as age 4 they had responsibilities on the farm.
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By the late 1900's/turn of the century, you had an 18% chance of dying by your fifth birthday if you were white, and a 38% chance if you were black. http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11542.pdf
Two hundred years earlier, your odds would have been significantly worse. If you do some internet searching, you should find some figures.
