A Little History

Major Events and Culture

The 1840s were an early part of the Victorian era.  Queen Victoria, who had reigned in England since 1837, died in January of 1901.  Her reign would last for about 63.5 years.

In the United States, the Civil War had not yet happened, and slavery was still legal. This is part of the period in the South known as the Antebellum period (from the Latin meaning “Before the War”). In the United States, people were already concerned about slavery and advocating its abolition. The theme of abolition appeared in literature of the time, including children’s literature. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, published his autobiography in 1845.

The 1840s were also a time of westward expansion. Wagon trains were heading to Oregon and California, and toward the end of the decade, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill led to the California Gold Rush. In 1845, the US annexed Texas, which led to a territorial dispute with Mexico and the Mexican-American War. At the end of the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico and granted large areas of land to the United States that now make up the southwest region of the United States.

Society was becoming more industrialized and urban.  Populations had already started shifting from the countryside to the big cities, and factories were increasing production of consumer goods.  New technological developments were changing people’s lives. Samuel Morse sent his first electrical telegraph message in 1844. Also in 1844, Charles Goodyear patented his process for vulcanizing rubber, and a Swedish chemistry professor, Gustaf Erik Pasch, developed the modern safety match. Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron, worked on translating an Italian article about Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine (an early computer concept) into English, adding some notes of her own, including an algorithm that is regarded as the world’s first computer program, making Ada Lovelace the world’s first computer programmer.

Children

For many, being a child during these years was difficult.  Child labor, even for rather young children, was still legal in the United States and would remain legal, in some form, for many more years.  Children growing up on family farms would naturally engage in farm chores, supervised by parents and older siblings, but as the country became more industrialized, children were increasingly used in factories.  Concerns were raised about the hours that children worked and the dangers involved in operating certain types of machinery.  Children were also used in coal mining, which had its own dangers and health risks.  Poor families and immigrants often relied on money that their children earned to help make ends meet, and industries profited from their cheap labor, which made it difficult to keep rules and limits in place for the children’s welfare.

Children from more affluent families were more likely to focus on education rather than working, although many did not pursue higher education.  In those days, not many jobs required college degrees, and more people could get decent jobs with a high school education or less.  (Back when I was studying journalism, my teacher explained that newspaper articles are traditionally written at about an 8th grade reading level (roughly age 13 or 14 in the United States), partly to make them accessible for different age groups and reading abilities and partly because, for a long time, that was about the standard education level of adults who could read.)

It was common for babies to be delivered at home rather than in a hospital, and in the case of families who lived in rural areas, it was more likely that the birth would be attended by family members or women from neighboring farms than by a physician.  Infant mortality rates were higher during this period than in modern times because the level medical care available wasn’t as good, antibiotics like penicillin had not yet been developed so infectious diseases were more likely to turn deadly, and there were less vaccines for preventing diseases in the first place.  It was fairly common for families to lose at least one child in infancy.  This is also part of the reason why the overall life expectancy was lower. 

It wasn’t that adults would always die at a much younger age (although that did happen sometimes because of diseases or accidents); it was also that quite a lot of people didn’t make it to adulthood, or even out of early childhood, in the first place.  Remember that an “average lifespan” for a decade is an “average” number (the “mean” in math), not the most common number by itself (the “mode” in math).  The difference is important because, to find out what age an adult would likely live to once they reached adulthood, you would have to focus on the average age at death only for those who reached adulthood, not including infants and children.  Adding in the infant mortalities brings down the average overall and can give you a false picture that no one ever lived to see their grandchildren, which was not the case.  So, if a person managed to survive some of the riskier points of life, such as early childhood or the child-bearing years for women, their odds of living to what we might consider a more normal lifespan might be better than you think.  Of course, that’s “if.”  People who lived at this time period would have been aware of the dangers of diseases and other risks for themselves and their children, and they would have known that even if they survived to adulthood, they might well lose a child someday.

Literature

Some of the most famous works of classic literature were written and published during this decade:

  • The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) by Edgar Allan Poe
  • The Masque of the Red Death (1842) by Edgar Allan Poe
  • The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) by Edgar Allan Poe
  • A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) by Alexandre Dumas
  • The Three Musketeers (1844) by Alexandre Dumas
  • Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte
  • Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Bronte

You’ll notice that some of the books I’ve mentioned above are read by children, particularly teenagers, in schools today. Sometimes, with older literature, the lines between children’s literature and adult literature are blurred, partly because some books that were originally intended for adults eventually became considered children’s literature through their use in schools, the appearance of child characters in the stories, their popularity with children, and the fact that the concept of teen and young adult literature did not really exist prior to the 20th century, evolving more in the mid to late-20th century. Just as 19th century children were expected to work and behave like small adults when not playing or in school, older children and teens who had finished their education and learned to read would simply have moved on to adult literature when they were done with children’s books and school readers (you can actually read some of the school readers here). This is something to remember with children’s literature throughout the 19th century.

Many of the books for children during this period, and even many through the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th century, were intended more for improving their minds and behavior than for providing entertainment. Even adventure and fantasy stories had morals to teach children. Some books were also written to draw attention to social issues, both for children and adults.

Children’s Fiction Books

General Fiction

Series

Cousin Lucy Series

A spin-off series from the author’s earlier Rollo series. This series was meant as wholesome entertainment for girls. Lucy is a young girl, Rollo’s cousin, and her stories are about events in her daily life. Some are available through Project Gutenberg. By Rev. Jacob Abbott. 1841-1842.

Rollo Series

A series of moralistic stories about a boy named Rollo. Rollo also explains practical skills for children, such as teaching them how to read. Rollo grew up during the course of the series and later took a trip through Europe. By Rev. Jacob Abbott. 1835-1842.

Adventure

Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific (1841)

The Seagrave family is shipwrecked and must learn to survive on a desert island. By Frederick Marryat.

Poor Jack (1840)

A poor boy who is the son of a sailor grows up, becomes a pilot on the Thames, and makes his fortune. By Frederick Marryat.

Historical Fiction

The Children of the New Forest (1847)

An English children’s book set during the English Civil War. Four orphans, the children of a Cavalier, hide from the Roundheads and forge new destinies for themselves. By Frederick Marryat.

Percival Keene (1842)

A poor, illegitimate boy whose father is a naval captain also joins the navy. A coming-of-age adventure story that takes place during the Napoleonic wars. By Frederick Marryat.

The Settlers in New Canada (1844)

An immigrant family establishes a new home near Lake Ontario in the 1790s. By Frederick Marryat.

Fantasy

New Fairy Tales (1844)

A collection of four new fairy tales, not based on earlier folktales: The Angel, The Nightingale, The Sweethearts, and The Ugly Duckling. By Hans Christian Andersen.

Picture Books

Struwwelpeter (1845)

A German children’s book. In English, “shock-headed Peter” or “Shaggy Peter.” Peter has very wild, shaggy hair. Accord to Wikipedia, the book’s original title was Lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder mit 15 schön kolorierten Tafeln für Kinder von 3–6 Jahren (“funny stories and whimsical pictures with 15 beautifully coloured panels for children aged 3–6”).

In the book, exaggeratedly horrible things happen to various people because of their misbehavior. For example, a girl who plays with matches burns to death, and a boy who won’t stop sucking his thumb gets his thumbs cut off by a traveling tailor. This book was influential on later literature. By Heinrich Hoffman.

Children’s Non-Fiction

The Anti-Slavery Alphabet (1846)

A book written in rhyme to promote abolitionist ideals for children. By the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS).

You can see pictures of this book and even read it at this site. The site also explains more about the history of the book. The book doesn’t really have illustrations, just large, colorful, decorative letters of the alphabet. The best part of this book is definitely the rhymes. The imagery itself is colorful, and it doesn’t hold much back. Parts are not anything I would particularly want to explain to very young children, which is probably why there are no pictures. K stands for “kidnapper,” and L stands for “lash,” to give you an idea.

“T is the rank Tobacco plant,
Raised by slave labor too:
A poisonous and nasty thing,
For gentlemen to chew.”

The Book of Nonsense (1846)

A book of nonsense limericks for children. By Edward Lear.

Series

Countries of the World Described Series

This is by Favell Lee Mortimer, author of the Peep of Day.  As far as I know, the series didn’t have a title, but this is what I call it as a reference to the titles of the books in the series. 1849-1854.

Warning: Not only would informational books about countries from this period be horribly out of date by modern standards, these books aren’t even going to tell you much of use about the world during the period in which they were written. Mostly, what you learn about other countries from this series is that Mrs. Mortimer doesn’t like a lot of them because they are full of people with bad habits, religions she doesn’t approve of, and criminals of all kinds. They also don’t all have “fine” rivers and forests. She makes it a point to tell you about the deficits of rivers and forests in many areas of the world. I am not joking. These books are loaded with obvious prejudices, gross generalizations, and sharp criticism of practically everyone. Read my description of the series for more details. I’m not going to do reviews of individual books in this series, but it’s worth describing the series as a whole so that you’ll understand. People read these books when they were published and gave them to real children for educational purposes. What people read as children explains so much of the way they behave as adults. If you read it yourself, beware of offensive materials, and please don’t inflict it on modern children.

Children of the Decade

Children born in this decade in the United States:

They would have been in their teens or 20s during the American Civil War (1861-1865). They would have strong memories of the war and would remember life before the war began. They may have even taken part in the war themselves. Slavery would have been legal in the United States during their earliest years.

They would have been in their 50s or 60s around the time the Wright brothers built and flew their first airplanes during the early 1900s.  Their earliest memories would be from a time before aviation existed.

They would have been in their 60s through their 70s during World War I (1914-1918).  Some of their grandchildren may have take part in the war.  All of them would have called the war “The Great War” before World War II. Actually, they may not have lived long enough to know that there would be a Second World War. Almost none of them would have lived to see World War II because they would have been in their 90s or about 100 years old. It is unlikely that they would have lived to see the start of the Cold War at the end of World War II. None would have lived to see the Civil Rights Movement, which started when they would have been over 100 years old.

They were born before women in the United States could vote.  None of their mothers had the right to vote at the time of their births or for their entire childhoods.  Those who lived long enough would be in their 70s and 80s when women’s suffrage was granted after the ratification of the 19th Amendment (although some western states did have women voting even before that).

They lived during a time when people not only did not have television but also did not have home radios (which were invented and popularized in the 1920s).  If you wanted music at home, you had to either learn to sing or play an instrument yourself, listen to a family member who could, or use a phonograph (early record player) to play a record.  Phonographs, developed in 1877 by Thomas Edison, commonly were of the wind-up variety, so no electricity was needed.  They were elderly adults by the time home radios were invented, and not all would have lived to see it.

Those who were still alive would have been in their 80s and 90s during the Great Depression, although many who were born in this decade would not have lived to see this period of history.  By then, many of them would have been grandparents, and some may have even been great-grandparents.  Their grandchildren or great-grandchildren could have been among those who lost their jobs or were struggling to find work while still providing for their families.

Children born in this decade would also have read books from the following decade, the 1850s, in their youth. However, children who were old enough to read some of the books published in the early part of this decade when they were first sold would have been born in the preceding decade, the 1830s.

Children’s Authors Were Children, Too!

Everyone was young once, and I’d just like to take this opportunity to remind readers that authors born around this time would have grown up like other children of their time, witnessing the same events and reading the same books as they grew up.

Children’s authors born in this decade:

Andrew Lang – March 31, 1844 – Compiler of The Color Fairy Books (1889-1913) with his wife, Leonora Blanche “Nora” Lang

Kate Greenaway – March 17, 1846 – Author and illustrator of Kate Greenaway’s Book of Games (1889)

Joel Chandler Harris – December 9, 1848 – Folklorist known for his collections of Uncle Remus stories, which provided the inspiration for Disney’s Song of the South

Frances Hodgson Burnett – November 24, 1849 – Author of A Little Princess (1905) and The Secret Garden (1911)

Other Resources

Documentary Films

CrashCourse

CrashCourse is a YouTube channel with fun educational videos on a variety of topics and different periods of history. The videos are fairly short for educational lectures. Most are less than 15 minutes long. These videos are intended for teenagers and older, so be aware that there may be topics and language inappropriate for younger children.

THE ULTIMATE FASHION HISTORY The 1830s & 1840s

An educational lecture about fashion in the 1830s and 1840s and how it relates to culture and events of the time. It explains about the life of Queen Victoria and covers topics like child labor.

Getting Dressed – Queen Victoria – Christmas 1848

Shows a woman getting dressed as Queen Victoria in her Christmas dress. Also discusses Queen Victoria’s life. Also explains how German Christmas trees became an English tradition under Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. By CrowsEyeProductions.

Getting Dressed in 1848 – Price Albert

Shows a man getting dressed as Prince Albert and discusses his life and legacy. By CrowsEyeProductions.

For more about 1840s culture:

The People History: 1840 to 1849 Important News, Key Events, Significant Technology

Wikipedia: 1840s

Lists of 1840s children’s books:

Nineteenth-Century American Children & What They Read

Explains about the lives of children in the 19th century and books and magazines that they read. The focus seems to be on the 1870s and earlier.

Wikipedia: 1840’s Children’s Books

A list of children’s books published in the 1840s.

Books By Decade

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