Policy and sentiment: Attitudes and institutions concerning abandoned children in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France

Jessica J Nelson, Purdue University

Abstract

This study is a study of the institutional establishments for abandoned children in Dijon, France – the Bonnets Rouges and Sainte-Anne – and the response that the state (both on a national and local level), the church, and elites made towards these children. It was a complicated system that involved many people and complex issues. From shifts in sensibility, shifts in charity, shifts in attitudes towards children all the way to changes in one's faith. Abandonment was a major issue in the early modern period along with many other problems that families had to face like poverty, war, death and epidemics. Families in Dijon used the institutions of the Bonnets Rouges and Sainte-Anne as a resource when times were difficult and they needed somewhere to abandon their children. By studying these two institutions we can see how the church, government and elites used several methods such as religion, education, training, and a strict daily routine so that these children became young adults that contributed to society rather than becoming burdens on society. The government, church, and elites – the members of the local government and their wives – worked together with each other to accomplish these goals and each had their role to play. The government took care of the administrative, financial, and admission details; the church handled the education, caretaking, and training of the children; and the elites created foundations that were geared towards training or marriage. These efforts were not just for the children but also for the elites and government officials. They wanted personal salvation for themselves as well. But they were looking to instill specific values, morals, and behavior on these boys and girls. To reach this goal they would focus on the education – both secular and religious – and socialization of the children while they stayed at the Bonnets Rouges and Sainte-Anne institutions. This study will encourage historians to not only continue to look at the history of the institutions of abandoned adolescent children. It will also question the periodization of the process of confessionalization and the role of the Catholic Reformation, the ideas of social control and confinement in regards to institutions like the Bonnets Rouges and Sainte-Anne, the idea of sentiment in the early modern period, the involvement of the national government in institutions outside of Paris, the problem of poverty on a local level, and why the involvement of elites in the lives of these poor children occurred. It will be shown that through the use of confessionalization, education and training, the men and women of Dijon were able to help the children of the institutions of the Bonnets Rouges and Sainte-Anne learn to live strong Catholic, hard-working lives. These two institutions provide information in the registers that has not been utilized until now to understand the lives of these children; who they were, how they lived at the institution, who was helping them, and why. But most importantly this dissertation gives a voice to everyone involved from the children who were abandoned to those that were donating the money to ensure that these institutions could continue to run.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Farr, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Religious history|European history

COinS