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The work of children and female servants in 19th-century rural Estonia
| This paper presents the little known case of Estonian children and female servants during the 18th and 19th centuries, in other words during the crisis and eventual abandonment of the feudal system of agricultural serfdom. This was a period in which rural Estonia, like the northern Baltic in general, witnessed the arrival of the monetary economy and a new trend towards flexible labour. Under such circumstances, what effect did serfdom have on the lives of children and servants? Did the erosion of serfdom manifest itself in increasing mobility? Estonian sources indicate a tendency towards larger households and extended families in the south of the country as the living conditions of peasants deteriorated and the labour duties imposed by the feudal manor owners increased. In order to cope with their labour obligations serfs hired more servants or treated their own children as hired labour. Young girls were taken into the household as foster children to nurse small children, while landless women were taken on as wet-nurses and living-in indoor servants, paid in kind, whose duties included nursing and looking after children, and helping with the housework and urgent farm work outdoors. The presentation is largely based on primary sources, the most important of them being demographic registers, available from the 18th century onwards, that list all houses and households. They provide information on the individual members, including their status in the household and whether or not they were able to read.
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