ddle of the century, but they still expected to be treated with great deference. Letters home were addressed to "Honoured Sir" or "Honoured Madam"
and the quaint Southern American habit of calling one's parents "Sir" and "Ma'am" is, like so many other American oddities, a direct relic of the 17th century.
If given permission to sit in their parents' presence, children sat on stools to emphasise their lowly place, and at table they were expected to stand and wait silently and patiently until offered food.
Parents seem not to have felt any guilt in preferring sons over daughters - an almost universal preference - or, indeed, having favourites. It appeared natural to prefer the nicest or cleverest or most beautiful of your children: parents
did not hesitate to criticise to their face those who lacked these qualities, and exhort them to emulate their siblings. Attitudes to disability left a lot to be desired, and a disabled child of wealthy parents was probably destined to
miserable concealment and the care of servants.
By contrast, disabled children of the poor could earn money by begging, and could be quite an asset to a family if the disability was sufficiently horrific. Indeed it was widely believed that some parents disfigured their own children to
increase their value.
It would be some years before childhood would be seen as anything other than an inconvenient period to be endured before becoming an adult.
© 2011 Ingrid Barton