Home Sweet Home: Around the House in the 1800s (Daily Life in America in the 1800s)

In rough frontier cabins, tidy farmhouses, and elegant townhouses, Americans in the 1800s were dedicated to living as well and as comfortably as their circumstances allowed. The American home was a sacred institution, the seat of family life where the patriarch ruled with Mother at his side as guardian of the home, and the children were raised with strict discipline and strong values. Changes in taste and fashion, improvements in technology (indoor plumbing and a host of new labor-saving devices), and social change transformed home and family life in the 1800s, as opportunities for leisure activities and commercially produced consumer goods came within reach of the average American. But the strong American tradition of the sanctity of the home, consumerism, and the importance of a happy family life has its roots in the homes of nineteenth-century Americans. Home Sweet Home: Around the House in the 1800s In rough frontier cabins, tidy farmhouses, and elegant townhouses, Americans in the 1800s were dedicated to living as well and as comfortably as their circumstances allowed. The American home was a sacred institution, the seat of family life where the patriarch ruled with Mother at his side as guardian of the home, and the children were raised with strict discipline and strong values. Changes in taste & fashion, improvements in technology (indoor plumbing and a host of new labor-saving devices), and social change transformed home and family life in the 1800s, as opportunities for leisure activities and commercially produced consumer goods came within reach of the average American. But the strong American tradition of the sanctity of the home, consumerism, and the importance of the happy family life has its roots in the homes of nineteenth-century Americans. Describes what the American home was like in the 1800s, discussing how developments in taste, fashion, technology, and social change influenced home and family life and exploring the leisure activities, values, consumer goods, traditions, and events that defined nineteenth-century Americans Describes what life was like for nineteenth-century American women, exploring how they worked hard to care for their families and homes in urban areas and on the frontier, and discussing how they were impacted by various social movements