Jacqueline Swaidan "'O, for assurance!': Children, Uncertainty and Community in Restoration England, 1660-85"
Topic:
How were children in Restoration England (1660-85) educated to deal with uncertainty in their life and their world?
Why and How I Came to this Topic:
I was originally interested in doing work on the London Plague of 1665 and child mortality for a seminar paper. As I started that project, I found many primary documents concerned with children, education and family life. This project is my effort to use these fascinating sources to better understand how people thought about childhood, and how children learned to cope with the pressures of growing up in a tumultuous time.
Travel and Funding I Have Done/Received:
I spent a semester in England, and took a Children’s Literature class there.
Sources:
- Religious educational books for children
- Children’s alphabets, primers, and guidebooks
- Parent advice books and pamphlets
- Archeological finds such as toys and miniatures