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La Mère de famille | The Housewife

In New France, the most important role a woman could take on was that of a wife and mother. The new colony was struggling to increase its population, especially when compared to New England, so various measures were undertaken by the colony’s administrators in order to attract groups of new settlers. One such group was the Filles du roi, some 700 unmarried women who were sent to New France between 1663 and 1673. Read more about them here.

Most female newcomers to the colony, including the Filles du roi, married quickly and had fairly large families. This was also true of Canadian women, those born in New France. They became mères de familles, or housewives. Here’s a brief look at the housewife’s daily life and the hardships she endured over the course of her lifetime.  

Pregnancy and Childbirth 

About eight to eleven months after her wedding, a new bride would normally give birth to the couple’s first child. After this first birth, she would have another child every 24 to 28 months on average, until the age of about 41. In the 17th century, a couple would typically have six to eight children (as long as they weren’t sterile). In the 18th century, the average was four to six.

On the flip side, there were couples who were not able to have children. There were clearly no infertility solutions at the time, so women who could not conceive were often shamed and scorned by their community.

In New France, being pregnant, especially at the beginning of a marriage, was the norm. To have a “blessure” (an “injury”), or miscarriage, was unfortunately very common. On top of this, a mother usually had to face the untimely death of one or more of her children. On average, two out of five children died before the age of 15. Miscarriages and child mortality took a severe emotional toll.  

Housewives also feared the birth itself, which was extremely painful and could be life-threatening. About 1-2% of women died in the 60 days following childbirth, despite the help and support of family, neighbours and the midwife. Without modern medicine and conveniences, pregnancy and childbirth were physically demanding and painful, if not dangerous.

After childbirth, the mother would typically be completely exhausted. She would need three or four weeks to fully recover. In the country, however, she didn’t have this option. The housewife would have other children to take care of, animals and a garden to tend to. This is the reason why the risk of maternal death was so high. She would be breastfeeding the baby, not only for their health but also to lengthen the time between pregnancies (to give their bodies time to rest and recover).  

Here’s a sad example from my own family tree. My 6th great grandmother, Marie Angélique Barthélémy dite Rosa, was married at age 23 in 1749. Nine and a half months after her wedding, she had her first child, who was baptized and buried the exact same day. She went on to have another 12 children—half of them dying before the age of five. Marie Angélique had her last child in 1763 at the age of 37. She died a month later, likely due to childbirth complications. 

Traditional Roles

In the country, housewives took care of the family home (or cabin, more appropriately) and the children, raising and educating them. They were also in charge of water and fire: fetching water from the well, doing the cleaning and the washing, as well as making soap and tallow candles. They was also responsible for preparing all meals, making bread and butter, as well as tending to the vegetable and tobacco garden, and the livestock. The housewife also saw to the family’s clothing, mending and sewing as necessary. All of this, even while pregnant. During the spring and summer harvests, housewives would also help their husbands with the farm work and the wheat harvests, even if their pregnancy was far along. Inevitably, this hard work could lead to an “injury”, or miscarriage.

Their husbands were, for the most part, in charge of financial transactions, barter and trade, crop cultivation, furniture making and chopping wood. Traditionally, they were not involved in their children’s upbringing. These roles weren’t set in stone, however. Women often helped their husbands in the fields, and men could help with housework.   

In the city, women would still take care of their household and raise the children. They could also take on other jobs in order to help financially, becoming laundresses, servers, seamstresses, or running cabarets and inns alongside their husbands.  

Sources:

• Alain Laberge, “La famille en Nouvelle-France : mythes et réalités”, Cap-aux-Diamants, (39), 10–12, 1994, digitized by Érudit (https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cd/1994-n39-cd1042227/8652ac.pdf).

• André Lachance, Vivre, aimer et mourir en Nouvelle-France; Juger et punir en Nouvelle-France: la vie quotidienne aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Montréal, Québec: Éditions Libre Expression, 2004), 23-30.

• Yves Landry, Orphelines en France, pionnières au Canada. Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle ; suivi d’un répertoire biographique des Filles du roi (Montréal, Québec : Leméac, 1992).

• Jan Noel, Les femmes en Nouvelle-France (Ottawa: Société historique du Canada, 1998), Brochure historique n° 59, digitized by the Canadian Historical Association (https://cha-shc.ca/_uploads/5c38c4aa82776.pdf).