Key Points, Redefining Family

The "Redefining Family" story line explores the effects of changes in society between black, white, and Native American families that resulted in the development of a new American family.

Thesis

During the eighteenth century, customs of family life inherited from Europe underwent alterations that had a profound effect on the way family members defined themselves in relation to one another and to society at large. Gradually, these changes brought the "modern American" family into being.

The Seventeenth Century

Harsh conditions of everyday life, which made the formation of stable families difficult for the first generations of European and African immigrants, began to ease by the end of the seventeenth century. Native American family patterns, by contrast, continued to be altered by disease, displacement, and warfare.

The White Family

The European family was patterned after a patriarchal ideal in which the father exercised supreme authority over an extended family, at least in theory. Reality often deviated from that ideal.

The Native American Family

European observers misunderstood traditional Native American work and family relations, and interaction with Europeans further undermined the structure of the traditional Indian family and ultimately threatened its survival.

The Black Family

Enslaved Africans, torn from their homeland and denied the stability of legal marriage, created distinctively African-Virginian family structures based on African concepts of extended kinships.

The Family Transformed

A more openly affectionate, child-centered family that reflected egalitarian republican sentiments and changing roles for men and women began to emerge in gentry and middling white families after the middle of the eighteenth century.

Conclusion

The redefined American white family became accepted as an important part of the ideal for the new American nation. Notwithstanding, some white families, especially poor whites, retained their patriarchal-based status. By contrast, Native American and African-American families remained virtually unaffected by egalitarian, republican sentiments.