Widows and Wenches: Single Women in Eighteenth-Century Urban Economies

This chapter presents a demographic outline of poverty in the Portuguese Jewish community in early modern Amsterdam. It has become clear from examining records of the numbers of people on poor relief that at times the community was larger than used to be assumed. Behind the beautiful façade of prosperity and grandeza that the community liked to show to the outside world, the kahal had to wrestle with the ever more pressing dilemma of having to look after paupers, who had flocked to Amsterdam expecting to find there a safe and sheltered life, free of persecution, war, and economic depression. By the end of the seventeenth century, a third of all Portuguese Jews were drawing permanent poor relief and almost half were drawing either permanent or temporary poor relief. Portuguese on welfare were often found in small families, mostly headed by women; larger families tended to be headed by men. In the eighteenth century, the character of Portuguese poverty changed. From then on—with the exception of single women—the poor were dominated by men trying to support their families through the economic slump with financial help from the Portuguese community.

Download Full-text

Por necesidad y solidaridad:

Naveg@mérica. Revista electrónica editada por la Asociación Española de Americanistas ◽

10.6018/nav.461621 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

José Luis Cervantes Cortés

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Mexico City ◽

Single Women ◽

Economic Conditions ◽

Colonial Mexico ◽

Family Ties ◽

Late Eighteenth Century ◽

Late Eighteenth ◽

Kinship Relations ◽

Las Mujeres

La condición de soltería posicionaba a las mujeres del México colonial en una situación vulnerable; muchas de ellas se vieron limitadas para mantenerse por su propia cuenta, por lo que aquellas que carecían de lazos familiares tuvieron que agruparse con compañeras en un hogar compartido, para ayudarse mutuamente. En este trabajo exploraremos las principales características de los hogares compuestos exclusivamente por mujeres solteras y viudas que no tenían vínculos de parentesco entre sí, que vivieron en la ciudad de México a finales del siglo XVIII. Para realizar esta investigación partiremos del análisis del Censo de 1790 y complementaremos la información de este documento con la revisión de otras fuentes, con la finalidad de tener una visión más amplia sobre las situaciones domésticas, las condiciones económicas, la existencia de vínculos afectivos y la construcción de redes de solidaridad entre las mujeres que vivieron con compañeras. The single status placed women of colonial Mexico in a vulnerable situation; many of them were limited to support themselves, so those lacked family ties had to group with friends in a shared home, to help each other. In this work we will explore the main characteristics of household integrated exclusively by single women and widows who had no kinship relations, who lived in Mexico City in the late eighteenth century. To do this research, we will start from the analysis of the Census of 1790 and we will complement the information of this document with the review of other sources, in order to have a broader vision of domestic situations, economic conditions, the existence of affective ties and the construction of solidarity networks among women who lived with partners.

Download Full-text