Bonus Episode 50.5 The Quickening - What 17th and 18th Century Cookbooks have to say about Pregnancy & Women's Bodies

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Listen to "050.5 Bonus The Quickening - What 17th & 18th Century Cookbooks have to say about Pregnancy & Women's Bodies" on Spreaker.

 Link to the Episode:

A Necessary Detour in these days of strange men once again wanting to fiddle with lady bits they would normally never want nothin’ to do with.

 

Funny what people pretend to be experts in on their journeys to grab at power.

And not just right now.

 

This blog post is mainly praise for Internet Archive and The Library of Congress.  These are some of the cookbooks I was able to access – I did not have to purchase them, or run through the other magic of Inter Library Loan.  Support your local library.  The American Public (and publicly funded) Library was a nearly unique idea when they began – and made American education leap ahead in its time.


Paul Revere's family - from the last post - helpfully illustrates the state of women and childbearing in the 18th century.

At 21, he married 20 year old Sarah Orne (ca. 1736–1773).  Sarah Orne Revere died at age 37, seven months after giving birth to her 8th child in 14 years.


Sarah's death was in May of 1773.  She left behind 6 living children, including the infant.   Paul married Rachel Walker in October of 1773.  It is recorded that Rachel was drawn to the family because of these motherless children, especially the baby.  She was 28 and Revere was 34.  Rachel would give birth to eight more children over the next 14 years - the last child born in 1787.




The family is typical in that 5 of the children died before age 5, and 3 of those before the end of their first year.  The family data illustrates well that "average lower life expectancy" didn't mean everyone died at 30.  Rather - lots of people died before the age of 5, and plenty lived beyond age 60 - even to their 80's and 90's, especially if they came from a prosperous family, like the Revere's. 


Caring for 8 or 16 children is exhausting - and expensive.  It would beyond the means of most people.  So while a prosperous silversmith, with children who were able to support the family venture - either in the workshop, or by providing house and kitchen help - many a household would find themselves burdened, impoverished or even ruined by so many children.

Many women - then as now - wanted some control over their fertility.  And the information was around, including in these early English Language Cookbooks I accessed:

The Gentlewomans Companion or a Guide to The Female Sex - Hannah Woolley
















The Accomplish’d Ladies Delight, in preserving, physick, beautifying and cookery - Hannah Woolley






Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery - transcribed and annotated by Karen Hess (1981)

This does not exist as an internet archive volume.

This was a handwritten manuscript, collected by at least 3 authors.  Recipes started being collected in England beginning i the early 17th century.



English Hus-wife – Gervase Markham


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