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"The Help" moved me to tears!
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<blockquote data-quote="donna723" data-source="post: 458115" data-attributes="member: 1883"><p>It pretty shocking when you think about it, but I guess in those days people didn't see it that way. These maids were entrusted to raise their children for them but couldn't sit at the same table or use the same bathroom!</p><p></p><p>I think some of it is a carry-over from earlier days when families were big and even people of fairly modest means had household help that were people of even more modest means. In those days before welfare, social security and programs to assist the needy, people got by however they could. I've been doing a big family tree project on Ancestry and had always been mystified by my maternal grandfathers' family. All I knew was that there were several children, the first mother died, eventually the my g-grandfather remarried and had more children. Now from looking at old census records I'm piecing together what happened. My grandfather was the youngest of the six children of the first g-grandmother who died when he was three. My g-grandfather had to work to support the family, there was no day care, no nothing. So the three oldest daughters, still just children themselves, apparently were farmed out to relatives to raise, which is where I lose track of them. There really was no alternative back then. Years later when they were teenagers, they reappeared on the census records living with other families and listed as 'servants'. As soon as they were old enough to earn a living, they were put to work, living with other families to earn their room and board. They did household chores, helped with cooking and child care. They all went on to marry and have their own homes and families. Looking at the old census records, many families had these 'servants', some had several, and some were as young as 13 or 14 years old. Apparently it was very, very common back then.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="donna723, post: 458115, member: 1883"] It pretty shocking when you think about it, but I guess in those days people didn't see it that way. These maids were entrusted to raise their children for them but couldn't sit at the same table or use the same bathroom! I think some of it is a carry-over from earlier days when families were big and even people of fairly modest means had household help that were people of even more modest means. In those days before welfare, social security and programs to assist the needy, people got by however they could. I've been doing a big family tree project on Ancestry and had always been mystified by my maternal grandfathers' family. All I knew was that there were several children, the first mother died, eventually the my g-grandfather remarried and had more children. Now from looking at old census records I'm piecing together what happened. My grandfather was the youngest of the six children of the first g-grandmother who died when he was three. My g-grandfather had to work to support the family, there was no day care, no nothing. So the three oldest daughters, still just children themselves, apparently were farmed out to relatives to raise, which is where I lose track of them. There really was no alternative back then. Years later when they were teenagers, they reappeared on the census records living with other families and listed as 'servants'. As soon as they were old enough to earn a living, they were put to work, living with other families to earn their room and board. They did household chores, helped with cooking and child care. They all went on to marry and have their own homes and families. Looking at the old census records, many families had these 'servants', some had several, and some were as young as 13 or 14 years old. Apparently it was very, very common back then. [/QUOTE]
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"The Help" moved me to tears!
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