An Examined Life: The Lives of Men and Women in the Atlantic World

 Proposal:

The “New World” meant many new experiences for both men and women. As the time came to populate the colonies, roles shifted. Virginia Dare was born in Roanoke in 1587. She was the first English subject born in the new world. Her parents were Ananias Dare and Eleanor White. Her death date is not known, as she disappeared with the rest of the members of the colony of Roanoke. There were many people in the American colonies, the Indies and the west African coast who were in some cases forced into new roles. There were slaves who were forced to work, Europeans fleeing religious persecution and others who saw the New World as a place of resources and a place to spread Christianity.

            Wives, husbands, widows, widowers, boys and girls were all an integral part of life around the world, but the New World saw a shift and reassignment of roles and experiences for men and women. Men, women and children would be forced into slavery. There were many men who wanted to make a new life, and women who came later to help populate and sustain the new colonies. The roles and work were divided among many walks of life and people. Religion was important and there was also an introduction of new religion in a world where Christianity was not the norm. This forced many into religious roles they had not expected as well.

            This paper will be an examination of the life stages for the men and women of the Atlantic World. Based on location and country, it will examine the ages and life stages at which things happened, such as marriage, bearing children and eventually death, in several major areas of the Atlantic world, including western Europe, the West African coast, the colonies and central/south America. This paper will focus on the lives of men and women in the New World and the new experiences they would have endured in the New World including roles in work, religion and their everyday lives and how it would have differed from their former lives.

Intro

            The lives of people were different based on sex, age and race. The day to day lives of men and women were very different. The women were tasked with taking care of the home and the children. When they did work, depending on age and race, they were usually in roles such as teaching, house slaves, making home goods, clothing and working in the fields depending on race typically. For men, the work included mostly manual labor. For slaves it required working sun up to sun down on plantations, usually harvesting cotton, sugar cane or tobacco. For white men and Europeans, their roles were typically working plantations in a non-slave capacity, overseeing plantations, government roles and some apprentice work and general merchant and tradesman work. Race, gender and age were the three defining factors for life in the Atlantic World. The individual lives of the natives and colonists was dependent, almost entirely, on those factors.

The Role of Women in the New World

             For women, the main purpose and role that they would serve was as mothers and wives, but some had secondary roles as teachers, house servants and field laborers. There were also important distinctions between women who were in slavery and women who were indentured servants. Most notably, their skin color. It was important to the countries involved in colonizing the New World that they have citizens born in the new colonies. The conditions for childbirth were very different depending on race and age. At the time there was very little known and understood about childbirth, which would remain true for almost the entirety of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

            Roanoke was one of the first English colonies in the America. It is most famous for being “the lost colony.” John White was the Governor of the colony, the third time they attempted to colonize, as the first two attempts had failed. Sir Walter Raleigh sent White to the Americas to re-establish a colony and create an English foothold. On August 18, 1587 Virginia Dare was born. She was the first English child to be delivered in the New World.[1] The birthing conditions for Virginia’s mother Eleanor, the daughter of John White would have likely been very minimal and not ideal. Midwives were typically called to the home to help deliver the child, and doctors had very little to do with the birthing process at the time. An expectant young mother would have likely been unaware of the changes taking place in her body but may have been informed that her “four humors,” were out of balance. Studies of birth in colonial America have been conducted and show that many women were unaware of pregnancy until they felt the quickening, which would have been the beginnings of fetal movement. An article written about motherhood in colonial America states, “Although it is impossible to determine how many women or men in the English colonies in North America read articles and books about women's sexuality and reproductive functions, or were influenced by them, it is possible to categorize these works into two distinct types: I) those intended to inform readers about the reproductive processes and 2) those intended to exhort readers to change their behavior. The latter type was often the work of moralists and Puritan theologians who sought to bring the sexual behavior of their readers into conformity with specific religious beliefs. Both shared assumptions about the natural functions of women's bodies-assumptions which shaped the advice that they gave their readers.”[2] For Eleanor, she likely would have had a midwife to help her through the process. In early colonial America, the main role of women was as wives and mothers. Women were brought over to the New World so that they could help increase the population and be wives to the many men that had already come to the New World. For slaves, birthing conditions would have been even more deplorable. For slaveowners, their female slaves served one purpose. Labor. To labor in childbirth and to labor in the fields. “Slaveowners in the early English colonies depended upon and exploited African women. They required women’s physical labors in order to reap the profits of the colonies and they required women’s symbolic value in order to make sense of racial slavery. Women were enslaved in large numbers, they performed critical hard labor, and they served an essential ideological function. Slaveowners appropriated their reproductive lives by claiming children as property, by rewriting centuries-old European laws of descent, and by defining a biologically driven perpetual racial slavery through the real and imaginary reproductive potential of women…”[3] Slaves giving birth would have had far less access to proper care and they were expected to be back in the fields as soon as possible, to work day in and day out, or else the resources and supplies needed to support the new colonists would have dwindled and people would go hungry.

            There was another reason that women were sent to the New World. As indentured servants or because they had been banished. This was the case for Elizabeth Sprigs. Sprigs was a white Englishwomen who had been sent to the colonies as an indentured servant. This did not work quite the same as slavery, because indentured servants were often freed at the end of their work contract, typically around 7 years. Sprigs is an unusual case, as there is not much known about her other than what is written in a letter to her father.[4] It reads, “O dear Father, believe what I am going to relate the words of truth and sincerity, and Ballance my former bad conduct [to] my sufferings here, and then I am sure you’ll pitty your destress [ed] daughter, What we unfortunate English people suffer here is beyond the probability of you in England to conceive…”[5] The letter, written by Sprigs in 1756, is another example of the conditions that faced women in the New World, and her contempt for the state of affairs in 1756, says a lot about the lack of improvement made since the initial colonization began.

“May it please you, her Majesties subjects of England, we your friends and countrey-men, the planters of Virginia, doe by these presents let you and every of you to understand, that for the present and speedy supply of certaine our knowen and apparent lackes and needes, most requisite and necessary for the good and happie planting of us, or any other in this land of Virginia, wee all of one minde & consent, have most earnestly intreated, and uncessantly requested John White, Governour of the planters in Virginia, to passe into England, for the better and more assured helpe, and setting forward of the foresayd supplies: and knowing assuredly that he both can best, and wil labour and take paines in that behalfe for us all, and he not once, but often refusing it, for our sakes, and for the honour & maintenance of the action, hath at last, though much against his will, through our importunacie, yeelded to leave his governement, and all his goods among us, and himselfe in all our behalfes to passe into England, of whose knowledge and fidelitie in handling this matter, as all others, we doe assure our selves by these presents, and will you to give all credite thereunto, the 25 of August 1587.”[6] This was a letter written on behalf of the colonists of Roanoke. They were in desperate need of supplies. The colony of Roanoke is known as the “lost colony,” because it when White returned several years later, he found no sign of the men, women and children he had left behind several years prior. It is likely that the colonists died of starvation or may have integrated with local native American tribes to help preserve what was left of their lives. This is just one account and request on behalf of the colonists of Roanoke, but it gives some insight in to what they were thinking when they sent White for supplies. Their daily lives were becoming so difficult, and the crops they had planted were yielding nothing. The fear that they would have felt would not have been based on race, age or gender, because the one force in life that does not discriminate is death.

The letters above and the journal articles about life in the New World for women and mothers all show historians today the conditions that would have been facing the citizens of the colonies in the Atlantic. The conditions in the early American colonies were not great, which is very evident in the letter to the queen as the colony of Roanoke was failing. The letter from Elizabeth Sprigs in 1756 shows the same thing, that she was miserable. The journal articles about childbirth for Englishwomen and slaves show a distinct difference based on race. Children born to slaves were the property of the slaveowners, whereas Englishwomen were encouraged to have children in the New World in an effort to establish a foothold, and to populate the new colonies being established.

There is one example of a former slave, who was eventually became the first black woman to become ordained in the Christian church. Jon F. Sensbach’s book, Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World, sheds light on an often forgotten about role of women, women in the church. His book describes the life of Rebecca Protten, a former slave who went on to create one of the first African Protestant congregations in the America’s. She eventually moved to Europe, after many years of working in the Caribbean where she went door to door to minister to African slaves on the islands.[7] Protten’s main role was not that of a slave or as a wife and mother, though she did serve in those roles during her life. Her most important role was bringing hope and the gospel to the slaves of the islands and giving them hope that this was not their only purpose in life.

The Role of Men in the New World

             Men in the New World had more opportunities than women, but again were limited by race. There were some circumstances, during the revolutions in America and the Caribbean that allowed for slaves to purchase their freedom, such was the case with Olaudah Equiano. For the most part, the jobs and roles that men held in the New World included merchants, plantation owners, missionaries, lawyers, teachers, husbands, fathers, masters, government workers and any other role that they could fill. There were also indentured servants and slaves. The slaves lived in similar conditions to female slaves, though they were forced to work longer hours and did more manual labor than many women. Indentured servants and apprentices had more opportunities than slaves, because it allowed them to develop a skill or trade and when they had their freedom, they could use those new skills.

            Olaudah Equiano is an interesting example of someone who began his early life in Africa and ended his life a free man in England. Equiano was born circa 1745 in the Eboe province. He was kidnapped and sold into slavery around age 11 and was loaded onto a slave ship and taken to the West Indies.[8] He was sold to Captain Pascal in Virginia and from there, he traveled the world with the Navy captain. He received an education and was able to purchase his freedom later. Later in his life, Equiano would move to England. In 1789, he published his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. He details his life and travels, including his early enslavement. While in England, he joined the London Corresponding Society and wrote letters to the Queen, campaigning for the vote for all working men in England. “I presume, therefore, gracious Queen, to implore your interposition with your royal consort, in favour of the wretched Africans; that, by your Majesty's benevolent influence, a period may now be put to their misery; and that they may be raised from the condition of brutes, to which they are at present degraded, to the rights and situation of freemen, and admitted to partake of the blessings of your Majesty's happy government; so shall your Majesty enjoy the heartfelt pleasure of procuring happiness to millions, and be rewarded in the grateful prayers of themselves, and of their posterity.”[9]He was an early abolitionist, but passed away in 1797. Ten years later, England passed the Slave Trade Act which abolished the slave trade in England. Slavery would officially be banned in the 1830s.[10]

            There were many Europeans who thought that African slaves would make better workers than Native Americans because they believed that Africans would be immune to the diseases that were wiping out the Native Americans. “Early modern Europeans did believe that Africans were less susceptible to tropical diseases, but unless African slaves had had previous exposure, they were no more likely to be immune to small pox, malaria, or yellow fever than any of the Indian or European populations.”[11] This was untrue and the only Africans that were resistant to the diseases were those who had been exposed to them before. This was yet another way that Europeans thought that the lives of their slaves were disposable. They favored male Africans as workers and repeatedly put them in terrible working conditions that put their bodies through trials and put them at further risk for disease and infection from wounds, sometimes inflicted as punishment.

            The men in serving in government during the age of revolutions in the Americas and the Caribbean had the ability to change what the definitions of citizenship was. In America, they opted to not give full citizenship to Africans, African Americans or to Native Americans, this was done via the Three Fifths Compromise. “The three-fifths clause was part of a series of compromises enacted by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The most notable other clauses prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territories and ended U.S. participation in the international slave trade in 1807. These compromises reflected Virginia Constitutional Convention delegate (and future U.S. President) James Madison’s observation that “…the States were divided into different interests not by their…size…but principally from their having or not having slaves.”[12] In Haiti, the men in government opted to grant citizenship to all their inhabitants. The Haitian Constitution of 1805 stated in Article One that, “The people inhabiting the island formerly called St. Domingo, hereby agree to form themselves into a free state sovereign and independent of any other power in the universe, under the name of empire of Hayti…” and point 14, “All acception (sic) of colour among the children of one and the same family, of whom the chief magistrate is the father, being necessarily to cease, the Haytians shall hence forward be known by the generic appellation of Blacks.”[13] In America, it took until the end of the Civil War for African Americans and African slaves to be freed and given equal rights on paper. These were rights they continued to fight for, for many years to come. Even when given power, some men were still unable to make the right choice to protect the people they served.

Conclusion 

During the time that the Transatlantic Slave Trade was up and running from about 1510 to 1870, there were 10,257,500 slaves embarked on ships bound for the New World.[14] Of those men, women and children, only 9,113,356 disembarked from those voyages.[15] The men went to work on plantations. They harvested cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, sugar and other resources. They worked in horrid conditions and worked sunrise till after dark. The only thing that mattered to the Europeans was that they felt superior, and they felt superior to the Native Americans and the Africans, because of the color of their skin.

Much like the rest of the world, there were many stages of life and similar problems that faced the people in the New World. Many of the same events that they experienced in their home countries of Spain, France, Portugal, England and the Netherlands would transfer with them to the New World. For African slaves, their culture and heritage would become intermingled with their New World surrounding, and it led to the creation of a new culture altogether. In the New World, your worth was determined by the color of your skin, your gender and your age. For men to be in power, you had to be white and had to have money. Slaves needed to be strong males who could work long hours, but the female slaves needed to be of childbearing age so that they could produce in the field as well as produce more workers for the field. They faced the horror and the reality that any children they had would be taken from them and sold or forced into the atrocious working conditions they were enduring themselves. For white Englishwomen, some of the letters made their lives in the New World sound merely like an inconvenience to them. They did not know an did not see the horrors that their African counterparts had to endure at the hands of their masters. There were some who were able to make it out and back to Europe in a time where slavery was coming to an end. Former slaves like Olaudah Equiano and Rebecca Protten were able to make lives for themselves in Europe. Protten as the first black female ordained in the church and Equiano as an abolitionist and trader in England. Equiano used his story to inspire others and to plead for change. The slave trade, in England, was abolished ten years after his death. There were many that were not so lucky as Protten and Equiano. The New World was a representation of the old world. Old customs with a new face, slavery and divisions of labor based on age, gender and race. David Armitage and Michael J. Braddick summed up the idea of relationships between Europeans, Africans and Native Americans the best, “This new social and economic world was mostly of European creation – it was Europeans who first crossed the Atlantic and then bound its societies into a common network of exchanges, though Africans would be dominant numerically in transatlantic migration, and the societies of native people would be those most dramatically altered by the encounter.”[16] The men and women, slaves and freeman, wives and husbands, mothers and fathers all served their place and important individual roles in Atlantic World history.

Bibliography

Benjamin, Thomas. The Atlantic World. New York City: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Braddick, David Armitage and Michael J. The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Carter, Karen E. "Disease in the Atlantic World, 1492-1900." OAH Magazine of History, 2004: 27-32.

Emory University. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. 2019. https://slavevoyages.org/voyage/database (accessed March 1, 2019).

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. London: Author, No. 10, Union-Street, Middlesex Hospital, 1789.

Ginn, Alyson. Elizabeth Sprigs. December 13, 2013. https://throughtheeyesofafemaleimmigrant.weebly.com/elizabeth-sprigs.html (accessed March 2, 2019).

Morgan, Jennifer L. Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery . Philidelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

PBS and CET. Olaudah Equiano . n.d. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p276.html (accessed February 11, 2019).

Sensbach, Jon F. Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. London: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Shaeffer, Mathew. Virginia Dare. 2016. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/virginia-dare-1587/ (accessed March 3, 2019).

Simba, Malik. The Three-Fifths Clause of the United States Constitution (1787). October 3, 2014. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/three-fifths-clause-united-states-constitution-1787/ (accessed March 2, 2019).

Sprigs, Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Springs Begs for Help, 1756." In Major Problems in Atlantic History, by Alison Games and Adam Rothman, 172-173. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Olaudah Equiano. March 24, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaudah-Equiano (accessed February 11, 2019).

Thomas G. Patterson. "Chapter 12: Social Revolution." In Major Problems in Atlantic History, by Alison F. Games and Adam Rothman, 354-384. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

Treckel, Paula A. "Breastfeeding and Maternal Sexuality in Colonial America." The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 1989: 25-51.

White, John. ""The Voyage of Edward Stafford and John White" ." In The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt, 3:285. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1600.

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[1] Shaeffer, Mathew. Virginia Dare. 2016. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/virginia-dare-1587/ (accessed March 3, 2019).

[2] Treckel, Paula A. "Breastfeeding and Maternal Sexuality in Colonial America." The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 1989: 25-51.

[3] Morgan, Jennifer L. Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery . Philidelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

[4] Ginn, Alyson. Elizabeth Sprigs. December 13, 2013. https://throughtheeyesofafemaleimmigrant.weebly.com/elizabeth-sprigs.html (accessed March 2, 2019).

[5] Sprigs, Elizabeth. "Elizabeth Springs Begs for Help, 1756." In Major Problems in Atlantic History, by Alison Games and Adam Rothman, 172-173. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

[6] White, John. ""The Voyage of Edward Stafford and John White" ." In The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt, 3:285. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1600.

[7] Sensbach, Jon F. Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. London: Harvard University Press, 2005.

[8] PBS and CET. Olaudah Equiano . n.d. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p276.html (accessed February 11, 2019).

[9] Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. London: Author, No. 10, Union-Street, Middlesex Hospital, 1789.

[10] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Olaudah Equiano. March 24, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olaudah-Equiano (accessed February 11, 2019).

[11] Carter, Karen E. "Disease in the Atlantic World, 1492-1900." OAH Magazine of History, 2004: 27-32.

[12] Simba, Malik. The Three-Fifths Clause of the United States Constitution (1787). October 3, 2014. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/three-fifths-clause-united-states-constitution-1787/ (accessed March 2, 2019).

[13] Thomas G. Patterson. "Chapter 12: Social Revolution." In Major Problems in Atlantic History, by Alison F. Games and Adam Rothman, 354-384. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.

[14] Benjamin, Thomas. The Atlantic World. New York City: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

[15] Emory University. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. 2019. https://slavevoyages.org/voyage/database (accessed March 1, 2019).

[16] Braddick, David Armitage and Michael J. The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

 

The Great Depression

            My grandparents, who raised me, were born during the 1930s and had to contend with the effects of the Great Depression. They were born in 1936 and 1939 and had vastly different stories. My grandpa was born to two college educated parents, one of whom was a professor of chemistry at Oklahoma University. My grandmother was born to two parents who had a third and a sixth-grade education. They grew up in the same town but lived vastly different lives. My grandpa had his own bedroom, and my grandmother lived in her grandparent’s garage with her parents and her four siblings. Times were tough after the stock market crash of 1929, but many Americans made do with what they had. One of the many things that my grandma talks about with pride is that her parents never accepted money in terms of the welfare programs that were created by the New Deal. She is also proud of her father who found work with the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which was founded in 1935 as one of the agencies of the New Deal.[1] The New Deal agencies would help pull the country out of the Great Depression, even if they were ultimately deemed unconstitutional.

The New Deal had several goals. To bring the economy out of the depression, to make wealth distribution more equal and to realign American politics, so that the Democratic party could remain in power.[2] The first goal certainly succeeded, as the country was already on a trajectory to pull out of the depression when Roosevelt was elected. The second goal of equalizing the wealth distribution was tricky. Largely, the stimulus and money being used to help the economy, was going to big businesses, so that they could hire workers. This did not always mean that the employees were benefitting though. The third goal worked in some ways, because Roosevelt was the first and only four-term president in American history. Overall, the New Deal programs seemed to work on the surface. Though, as previously noted, some of what the New Deal created was deemed unconstitutional after the fact.

The theory that is widely accepted as an explanation for the Great Depression is that the Governments of the world oversee fiscal policies. When it came to the Stock Market crash in 1929, most of the governments around the world were slow to do anything or did not try and do anything to mitigate the crash. Some believe that their lack of immediate response, led to the lasting economic struggles for many.

The Great Depression ended in 1933, according to most historical accounts. Christina Romer article suggests that there was still explosive growth of the United States economy in 1938 and 1942, with the GNP increasing from 8% to 10%.[3] There were many factors in the economic recovery of the United States. Part of what helped to propel the United States economy to recovery were the many alphabet agencies created by the New Deal, during the Roosevelt administration. Another factor, which helped increase the GNP, was World War II, as the United States had not entered the war yet, they were still happy to supply weapons, munitions, and goods to the allied troops. This certainly helped the economy to rebound.  

Despite the rebounding economy, there was still a recession in 1938. A chart showing GNP vs. consumption shows that the two did not reach equilibrium until at least 1940.[4] Interestingly, the system that was designed to give more power to the laborer’s, was also failing them, but the system did even itself out and allow America to climb out of the depression. For my grandparents, this meant very different things. My great grandfather continued to teach at the University through the depression and economic resurgence. For my grandma’s parents, they took any jobs they could. They took in laundry, did janitorial work, worked at the hospital and my great grandfather took a job as a short order cook in a local diner. The times were tough, but this did not stop either side of my family from working or entering the workforce. This was common practice, and it lent a hand to women entering the workforce in droves in the post-depression years. The end of the Great Depression, and the recovery of the American economy, was truly the work of a team. The government played their role and the role that was played by ordinary workers cannot be overstated. The hard work of the American people was ultimately what secured the end of the Great Depression.

As we get to the 2020s, many who lived through the Great Depression are not around anymore. I am fortunate to have my grandparents around to tell me their stories. It is like an oral history of our family, but there are many that do not have this. It is so important to record these things for posterity as we move forward into the next decade, one hundred years removed from the events of the Great Depression.

[1] John D. Chichester, Herman Kehrli, Dilworth Walker and Charles D. Rosa. "Scope and Use of Works Progress Administration Projects." The Bulletin of the National Tax Association 21, no. 9. (1936). 258-264.

[2] Bradford A. Lee, "The New Deal Reconsidered." The Wilson Quarterly 6, no. 2. (1982). 62-76.

[3] Christina D. Romer, "What Ended the Great Depression?" The Journal of Economic History 52, no. 4. (1992). 757-784.

[4] Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian, "New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis." Journal of Political Economy 112, no. 4. (2004). 779-816.

_________________________________

Bibliography

John D. Chichester, Herman Kehrli, Dilworth Walker and Charles D. Rosa. "Scope and Use of Works Progress Administration Projects." The Bulletin of the National Tax Association 21, no. 9. (1936). 258-264.

Lee, Bradford A. "The New Deal Reconsidered." The Wilson Quarterly 6, no. 2. (1982). 62-76.

Ohanian, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. "New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis." Journal of Political Economy 112, no. 4. (2004). 779-816.

Romer, Christina D. "What Ended the Great Depression?" The Journal of Economic History 52, no. 4. (1992). 757-784.

An Examination of Marriage in the Early Protestant Church

          When considering the Protestant Reformation, it is easy to get caught up in the ideas of the men running the show, like Martin Luther and John Calvin. The focus trends toward an interest in the specifics of the division with the Catholic Church, as well as a focus on the belief that the path to heaven and salvation was through faith alone. There are many more components to the early Protestant Church and one of the many changes that was taking place was how marriage fit in to the Protestant Church, because marriage looked different after Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses. There were significant changes to marriage and to the role that it played in the establishment of the Protestant Church. Changes that took place included; new definition of roles for mothers and wives, changes to the process of annulment and divorce and the demographics of the people getting married changed as well.[1] For example, Martin Luther was a Catholic priest and he went on to marry a former nun, Katharine von Bora. The Luther’s would change the way that marriage was considered. They were not the first or the last to bring change to marriage within the establishment of the new church, but they were certainly prominent figures. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”[2] During the Reformation, the changes to marriage were numerous, and they shaped the way the church views modern marriage today.

One of the more significant changes to marriage within the Protestant Church came from the way annulments and divorces were handled. Prior to the Reformation, the Catholic Church did not condone divorce and annulments were granted on extremely rare occasions. Henry VIII wanted a son and his wife Catharine of Aragon, who was the daughter of the Ferdinand II and Isabella I, could no longer bear children. Catharine came from a Catholic country and they did not look favorably on divorce. Catharine had given birth to a daughter, Mary Tudor, who would later be Queen of England, and earned the moniker “bloody Mary,” during violent revolutions during the Reformation. However, she was no longer able to bear children, which allowed meant that if Henry wanted a son, it would be a child of wedlock with no legal claim to the throne. This was the beginning of changes to divorce and marriage within England.

In 1533, Anne Boleyn married Henry VIII. Very shortly after this took place, Henry was excommunicated from the Church by the Pope, as was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. This all took place following the establishment of the Church of England, which was created in order to give Henry the break with the Pope he needed in order to annul his marriage to Catharine and marry Anne Boleyn in hopes to have a son and an heir to be King of England.

There has been speculation over the years that Anne Boleyn’s portrayal as the woman who began the English Reformation may be overstated.[3] She was the first wife of the newly protestant Henry, but she was not the only catalyst. In Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn Queen of King Henry VIII, this topic is addressed. The book talks about how many people saw Boleyn as ambitious and deviant, while many others saw her as a hero who helped Henry to break free from the bonds of the Catholic Church.[4] The book itself has many letters discussing the view points of Boleyn’s contemporaries. Much of the correspondance is between Boleyn and Henry, but there are a few letters that lend context to their complex courtship and marriage, beginning with his ardent admiration.[5] Boleyn was without a doubt an interesting historical figure of the Reformation, but her role seems to have been greatly exagerated, despite her contributions to changes in marital status.

Boleyn was put on a pedastal by some, and some modern historians have fallen into the trap of writing about Boleyn purely based on the word of her peers and confidants, rather than from an objective standpoint.[6] One historian, and contemporary of Boleyn’s was John Foxe, who published his book, the Book of Martyrs in 1563. This book examined the important figures of the English Reformation, including Boleyn.[7] He would also go on to write about the men and women of Europe and Asia giving their lives in the cause of matyrdom. One of the more objective historians examines John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Thomas Freeman wrote an article about the portrayal of Boleyn in Foxe’s book, and believes that the conclusions that Foxe drew in 1563 were based on claims from those close to Boleyn, or those who may have benifitted from her being Henry’s bride and the Queen of England.[8] John Foxe’s credibility was questioned when the book was released, because he was falsifying testimony and misusing the evidence to support his claims. Subsequent editions of the Book of Martyrs were released and Foxe claimed to have fixed the innacuracies.[9]

          On the other side, the argument is made that without the marriage of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, there would have been no break with the Catholic Church in England, and they would have remained in alliance with the Pope. E.W. Ives discusses the conclusion that Anne Boleyn was ultimately beheaded due to her interference within the affairs of England. The idea in this article, “Anne Boleyn and the Early Reformation in England: The Contemporary Evidence," is that Anne Boleyn, had many powerful been who had it out for her, because they believed women had no place meddling in royal affairs.[10] Ives pays particularly close attention the antagonizing relationships that Boleyn had with Henry’s council, which was constitued by men. In the end, the debate that Boleyn should be heralded as a hero who helped to begin the Reformation in England is still a debate, as there is plenty of evidence that suggests that both sides are correct. Her marriage to Henry VIII both changed the way that marriage was defined and handled and caused strife within the Church, but that The question is whether or not she had as much of a role in shaping the Church of England as some assert or if her more important role was having had a hand in shaping marriage and divorce within the new Church. 

          In contrast to the marriages and annulments of King Henry VIII, the Luther’s look drastically different. In 1525, Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther were married. This was only two short years after Martin Luther had helped Katharina flee from the convent in secrecy after she had become increasingly interested in the Reformation movement. There are many interesting things about the Luther’s marriage, but one of the more telling signs that marriage was changing within the Church is that by 1525, all of the Wittenberg reformers were married, and Luther just happened to be the last of them to do so.[11] It is important to note that this was also a change to the demographic of married couples. Prior to the Reformation, the clergy did not marry, and this was a change that broke with the Catholic Church as well.

          Katharina played a large role in defining what the new “Protestant family life,” and Protestant wives would look like. She seemed to be truly loved by her husband. In one letter, Luther wrote to her he said, “And I thought about what good wine and beer I have at home, and in addition a beautiful woman, or (should I say) master.”[12] The love that he had for his wife may have shaped the way wives were treated and could very well be what allowed for a strong foundation to define the sacrament of marriage within the Protestant Church. It is said that there are not many primary sources written about Katharine or by Katharina herself, but one source, translated by E.A. Endlich, gives an overview into their marriage and how roles were defined within the confines of marriage. This book is a firsthand account and a glimpse into their lives together. It paints a portrait of Katharina as a dutiful and loving wife who had great respect for her husband and the work he was doing.[13] She took on many tasks to help him with his work, including administering the holdings of the monastery that he worked in. She also helped in the hospital ministering to the sick patients while the nurses cared for them.[14] On top of all the duties that she took on, she was reported to wake up as early as four-o-clock in the morning to begin her responsibilities and these only grew when she became a mother.[15] When she became a mother, that role became important to her as well, as it would, and she continued her many duties to her husband and to her church.

          Katharina von Bora helped to define the role of the wife and mother in the Protestant Church.[16] She and Martin Luther were also a prime example of former clergy members being married as she was a former nun, and he a priest. In the Catholic Church, nuns and priests were not to be married to anyone, let alone one another, so the Luther’s would have caused quite the scandal within the Catholic Church, however, the newly established Protestant Church had no such issues.

          After having been married to Martin for twenty-one years, Katharina became a widow. The children that did not pass away early in life, grew up and moved out and when Luther died in 1546, he named Katharina as his sole heir.[17] The law of the time did not allow for this. Luther’s actions to will his belongings to his wife were denied by Saxon law, and soon after, the woman who had been so dutiful in her marriage and dutiful to the Protestant Church, she was forced to leave her home and move away with her children. She was treated generously, by some, for her hard work, but ultimately Katharina would die in 1552 after returning to Wittenberg and living the rest of her life in poverty. Her unwillingness to waiver in her duty to the church, or her husband, is a testament to her role as a wife and a member of the Protestant Church and is a stark contrast to her former life as a nun, which she fled from.[18] Katharina spent twenty-one years married to Luther, and in that time she defined and embodied the roles of wife, mother, child of God and Reformer. She provided a good example to other Protestant women and the marriage and relationship between her and Martin Luther was a seemingly loving one that also provided a good example and foundation for Christian marriage and the definition of marriage as a Protestant sacrament.

          A woman who followed the example of defining marriage during the Reformation was Charlotte de Mornay. She was born in France prior to the wars of religion and grew up Catholic until her father left the Catholic Church. Interestingly, her mother remained a devout Catholic. Charlotte and her siblings would choose whether or not they wanted to be Protestant or Catholic. Charlotte chose to be Protestant and remained devout. She was married for a brief time to her first husband, Jean de Pas, who passed away after the birth of their daughter. He died never having met her. Later, she met and married her second husband, Philippe de Mornay, who was a writer.[19]

          Charlotte de Mornay is an interesting female historical figure. She was married to Phillipe de Mornay and she chronicled their lives together. She was also one of the only people to witness and write about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Mornay was writing in a time when women didn’t write, much less write with respect of their peers. Mornay used her writing to discuss the roles and actions of women in politics and religion as well.[20] Her account of the Massacre is published in many places. The Massacre took place in 1572 and was carried out by a group of Catholics who targeted the Huguenots, who were French Calvinist Protestants. The Massacre began on either the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of August and It lasted until October fifth in its entirety. During this time, anywhere between five-thousand and thirty thousand died. It was considered “the worst of the centuries religious massacres.”[21] Charlotte Mornay’s account of this massacre, as well as her husbands, were some of the more important accounts of the events that took place in France during the time.[22] Geoffrey Treasure, who believed the Mornay’s accounts of this day were important, wrote further about the massacre and stated that, “The figures are shocking enough but convey little of the overall effect. French Protestantism was decapitated. Of the principal leaders only Henry of Navarre, now the king’s brother-in-law, had been spared – and he thought it prudent to renounce his faith.”[23] Despite having witnessed these events, the Mornay’s did not renounce their faith and Charlotte still sought to write about the tragic events. Mornay wrote about much more than just her account of that day and in her lifetime, she filled four volumes with the details of her life, her husband’s life and their marriage.

          Marriage within the Catholic and Protestant churches underwent dramatic changes during the Reformation. For Boleyn, who had been secretly wed to another prior to marrying Henry VIII, this was true.[24] The medieval church, prior to the Reformation, allowed less strict laws regarding marriage, but that had all changed. In the medieval church, “the practice of recognizing a marriage as valid in the eyes of God as long as both husband and wife exchanged vows of fidelity to each other, regardless of parental consent, economic ability of the husband to support his wife, or even any witnesses to vouch for the exchange of vows, had become too problematic to continue unaltered.”[25] Both the Protestant and Catholic churches underwent changes in attitude toward the sanctity of marriage. One of the changes taking place was to the demographics of the people getting married. Around the time of the reformation, the average age of marriage for a woman was twenty, or if they were an heiress, it was sometimes younger, as many royals were interested in marriage for money and other resources.[26]

Authors Galvin and Fiorenza sum up the study of marriage succinctly, “…one needs to examine carefully and critically the Roman Catholic tradition about marriage as a sacrament. A study of this tradition should take into account not only historical evidence about the long and diverse development of the Christian understanding of marriage. It should also examine philosophical and social background theories that have been the underlying assumptions of this tradition.”[27] Today, marriage looks different than it did in the sixteenth century. Ephesians 5:31 is no longer the standard. Many people are no longer identifying as heterosexual and this has also been a shocking change to many within the church. Interestingly, many denominations do not denounce same sex marriages. This certainly paints a different picture of marriage, much like the changes that took place during the Reformation. With the help of key powerful figures like Martin Luther, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Katharina von Bora and many others, the way marriage was viewed and how it took place changed, along with the ideas and practices of the church. Marriage became a more defined construct within the Protestant church during the Reformation and in its wake, and this set the course for how we view modern marriage within the context of the Church today.

 

Bibliography

 

Benger, Miss. Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn Queen of King Henry VIII. Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1822.

Bernard, G. W. "Anne Boleyn's Religion." The Historical Journal, 1993: 1-20.

Broomhal, Susan. ""In my Opinion": Charlotte de Minut and Female Political Discussion in Print in Sixteenth-Century France." The Sixteenth Century Journal, 2000: 25-45.

Christian History Institute. "Christian History Issue 131 - Women of the Reformation Lesser Known Stories." Christian History. August 15, 2019. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/uploaded/CH131s.pdf (accessed November 1, 2019).

Collinson, Patrick. The Reformation: A History. Modern Library, 2006.

Crump, Charlotte de Mornay Translated by Lucy. "A Huguenot Family in the XVI Century: The Memoirs of Phlippe du Mornay." Archive. 1595. https://archive.org/details/huguenotfamilyin00mornuoft/page/n7 (accessed November 20, 2019).

Curry, Andrew. How a Runaway Nun Helped an Outlaw Monk Change the World. October 22, 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/martin-luther-wife-protestant-reformation-500/ (accessed December 13, 2019).

Dunlap, Martin Luther and Katherine von Bora translated by Thomas. "The Reformer as Husband – Luther and his Wife (1529, 1534, and 1546) ." GHDI. 1529, 1534 and 1546. http://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3715 (accessed November 22, 2019).

Endlich, Armin Stein translated by E. A. Katherine von Bora Dr. Martin Luthers Wife: A Picture from Life. Philadelphia: G. W. Frederick, 1890.

ESV Bible. Ephesians 5:31 . n.d. https://www.bible.com/bible/59/EPH.5.31.ESV (accessed November 28, 2019).

Fisher, Mary Pat. Women in Religion. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.

Foxe, John. Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church. England: John Day, 1563.

Freeman, Thomas S. "Research, Rumour and Propaganda: Anne Boleyn in Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs'." The Historical Journal, 1995: 797-819.

Galvin, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza and John P. "Marriage." In Systematic Theology, by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, 583-619. Augsburg Fortress, Publishers, 2011.

Holt, Mack P. "The Social History of the Reformation: Recent Trends and Future Agendas." Journal of Social History, 2003: 133-144.

Ives, E. W. "Anne Boleyn and the Early Reformation in England: The Contemporary Evidence." The Historical Journal, 1994: 389-400.

Koenigsburger, H. G., George Mosse, and G. Q. Bowler. Europe in the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman, 1999.

"Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4, 1524-1530." British History Online. 1874. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol4/ccxxv-cclxxxv (accessed November 20, 2019)

Morris, John G. Catharine de Bora: Social and Domestic Scenes in the Home of Luther. Philadelphia: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, 1856.

Mullock, St. Alphonsus of Liguori translated by Rev. Dr. The History of Heresies and their Refutation; or The Triumph of the Church. Dublin: James Duffy, 1857.

Ozment, Steven. "Marriage and the Ministry in the Protestant Churches." In The Age of Reform, 1250-1550, by Steven Ozment, 381-396. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.

Smith, Jeanette C. "Katharina von Bora Through Five Centuries: A Historiography." The Sixteenth Century Journal, 1999: 745-774.

Thigpen, Paul. Martin Luther’s Later Years: A Gallery — Family Album. 1993. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/martin-luthers-gallery-family-album (accessed December 13, 2019).

Treasure, Geoffrey. "Chapter Title: The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day." In The Huguenots, by Geoffrey Treasure, 167-175. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

Warnicke, Retha M. "Anne Boleyn's Childhood and Adolescence." The Historical Journal, 1985: 939-952.

 

 

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[1] Christian History Institute. "Christian History Issue 131 - Women of the Reformation Lesser Known Stories." Christian History. August 15, 2019. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/uploaded/CH131s.pdf (accessed November 1, 2019).

[2] ESV Bible. Ephesians 5:31 . n.d. https://www.bible.com/bible/59/EPH.5.31.ESV (accessed November 28, 2019).

[3] Bernard, G. W. "Anne Boleyn's Religion." The Historical Journal, 1993: 1-20.

[4] Benger, Miss. Memoirs of the Life of Anne Boleyn Queen of King Henry VIII. Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1822.

[5] "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4, 1524-1530." British History Online. 1874. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol4/ccxxv-cclxxxv (accessed November 20, 2019)

[6] Freeman, Thomas S. "Research, Rumour and Propaganda: Anne Boleyn in Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs'." The Historical Journal, 1995: 797-819.

[7] Foxe, John. Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church. England: John Day, 1563.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Collinson, Patrick. The Reformation: A History. Modern Library, 2006.

[10] Ives, E. W. "Anne Boleyn and the Early Reformation in England: The Contemporary Evidence." The Historical Journal, 1994: 389-400.

[11] Ozment, Steven. "Marriage and the Ministry in the Protestant Churches." In The Age of Reform, 1250-1550, by Steven Ozment, 381-396. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.

[12] Dunlap, Martin Luther and Katherine von Bora translated by Thomas. "The Reformer as Husband – Luther and his Wife (1529, 1534, and 1546) ." GHDI. 1529, 1534 and 1546. http://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3715 (accessed November 22, 2019).

[13] Endlich, Armin Stein translated by E. A. Katherine von Bora Dr. Martin Luthers Wife: A Picture from Life. Philadelphia: G. W. Frederick, 1890.

[14] Thigpen, Paul. Martin Luther’s Later Years: A Gallery — Family Album. 1993. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/martin-luthers-gallery-family-album (accessed December 13, 2019).

[15] Curry, Andrew. How a Runaway Nun Helped an Outlaw Monk Change the World. October 22, 2017. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/martin-luther-wife-protestant-reformation-500/ (accessed December 13, 2019).

[16] Morris, John G. Catharine de Bora: Social and Domestic Scenes in the Home of Luther. Philadelphia: LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, 1856.

[17] Smith, Jeanette C. "Katharina von Bora Through Five Centuries: A Historiography." The Sixteenth Century Journal, 1999: 745-774.

[18] Fisher, Mary Pat. Women in Religion. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.

[19] Crump, Charlotte de Mornay Translated by Lucy. "A Huguenot Family in the XVI Century: The Memoirs of Phlippe du Mornay." Archive. 1595. https://archive.org/details/huguenotfamilyin00mornuoft/page/n7 (accessed November 20, 2019).

[20] Broomhal, Susan. "In my Opinion": Charlotte de Minut and Female Political Discussion in Print in Sixteenth-Century France." The Sixteenth Century Journal, 2000: 25-45.

[21] Koenigsburger, H. G., George Mosse, and G. Q. Bowler. Europe in the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman, 1999.

[22] Treasure, Geoffrey. "Chapter Title: The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day." In The Huguenots, by Geoffrey Treasure, 167-175. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Mullock, St. Alphonsus of Liguori translated by Rev. Dr. The History of Heresies and their Refutation; or The Triumph of the Church. Dublin: James Duffy, 1857.

[25] Holt, Mack P. "The Social History of the Reformation: Recent Trends and Future Agendas." Journal of Social History, 2003: 133-144.

[26] Warnicke, Retha M. "Anne Boleyn's Childhood and Adolescence." The Historical Journal, 1985: 939-952.

[27] Galvin, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza and John P. "Marriage." In Systematic Theology, by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, 583-619. Augsburg Fortress, Publishers, 2011.