Vagina MuseumJan 20, 2023
Quick quiz! How common do you think pregnancy before marriage was in 18th century America? What percentage of babies were conceived out of wedlock at the time?
8%
4%
18%
17.1%
38%
46.3%
58%
32.6%
Poll ended at .
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023

The answer to this question is that we don't know for sure, because there aren't enough records to tell exactly what the population average was.

However, what we *can* tell you, from a primary source of the extensive diaries of Martha Ballard, a midwife in rural Maine between 1785 and 1812, among her patients 38% of them had conceived before getting married.

Show threadVagina Museum
Born in 1735, Martha Ballard kept a daily diary covering her life, her work, and the weather in the Massachusetts frontier in present-day Maine. The diary spans 27 years and has over 1400 pages. From this rich data, lots of things can be inferred, such as that people on the frontiers did a lot of fucking in the early summer, because there were seasonal spikes of births in February-April.
Jan 20, 2023 at 1:56pmWeb
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023

Among Ballard's duties as a midwife was to testify in paternity suits. A 1668 law required midwives to ask unmarried women in labour the identity of the father of the baby, with the rationale that nobody would lie while giving birth.

Once she had "taken testimony", Ballard would give evidence in court, and usually the parents of the baby would marry.

Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023
One of these cases involved Ballard's own son, Jonathan. Ballard attended a woman called Sally Pierce in labour, and Sally named Jonathan as the father of the baby. The couple later married, and had a grand total of 13 children together.
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023
There doesn't appear to be any judgment towards unwed mothers within the diary. Premarital pregnancy is presented as a basic fact of life in late 18th and early 19th century Maine. The main challenge there appeared to be for society and the law was establishing paternity so that the father could support the baby instead of the state.
Show threadVagina MuseumJan 20, 2023
If the number of babies conceived to unmarried parents seems a little higher or lower than you expected, it's worth remembering that around the same time abortion was not strictly prohibited and Benjamin Franklin himself was giving out recipes for how to induce it https://masto.ai/@vagina_museum/109715757585144488
Vagina Museum (@[email protected])

OLD THREAD REPOST In 1758, Benjamin Franklin published an instructional manual containing matters "more immediately useful to us Americans." The book contained advice on all sorts of topics including writing, bookkeeping, arithmetic... and a recipe for inducing abortion.

Mastodon
Show threadWayofCatsJan 20, 2023
@vagina_museum Take a bath and celebrate, essentially 🤣