Abstract
Accounts of
the British fertility decline have turned on the rise of the male breadwinner
family, which by placing the responsibility for supporting women and children
on men converted them to a preference for smaller families. This paper uses working-class autobiography
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to develop understanding of sources
of income and patterns of dependency and to illuminate the motives towards
smaller families. Even before 1800 fathers’
duties were to work hard to support their families, but male responsibilities
did not extend to stretching male wages to cover the variable demands of
smaller or larger families. Mothers often sacrificed their own diets and
wellbeing to stretch resources. Yet for them children were supports as well as
burdens. Sons could earn more than their mothers and surrendered their earnings
willingly. Through the family, resources were transferred from older working
children to younger dependent siblings.
Children’s diets and schooling were eroded by the appearance of new
babies and their entry into early work prompted by the burden of dependency.
Their experiences as family members and child workers were recycled with a lag
into recognition of the costs of larger families and slowly and imperfectly
into agreement about the need for fertility control