The American Family

Family is the smallest unit of society. It is the basis for how society is constructed, because the products of families are the members that constitute of the society. So how has family structure and ideology affected society? And how has the change in society affected the structure and ideology of the family in the America. This paper is going to summarize how we got from huge families farming in the wilderness to the private nuclear family entities of the industrialized America we know and greatly appreciate.
Family was the core of society back in the time of wilderness and farming. Families were large in size. Why? Because farming was a time consuming, tasking job that required more manual labor than a nuclear family could provide, so people

Slave children were not raised to be remarkable members of society that went on to get high-ranking jobs like working in court, they were trained to become slaves and continue the work of their parents, which typically involved crafting or farming. Children from slaves’ families quickly learned that there was little their parents could do to protect them from white power. Children were more likely to get sold away from their families. Nonetheless, parents taught their children morality and self-identity, showed them love and the ability to adapt in whatever adverse situation they

The Victorian family ideology took a more progressive approach to family life. Spouses shared mutual love and affection and were partners of almost equal standing in a marriage. The patriarchal family was shunned and condemned as “repressive and incompatible with the spirit of the time.” They believed children should be raised with care, love and affection, taught to be responsible and self-disciplined. Rather than breaking the will of the child they sought to develop the child’s conscience and encourage