Week of 10/6/14 Report

This week, although I have been very ill and am still trying to catch up on everything, I have been researching my topic. I originally decided to write my paper on single mothers in England in the 1700s. The more I have looked at this topic, the more I have come to the conclusion that it is entirely too broad. Instead, I would like to focus on women who had bastard children in England in the 1700s. I am debating two different ways of writing my paper. The first way looks somewhat like this:

I.               Introduction

II.             Body

A. The society’s view of women and bastard children of the time

B.     By what means single women became pregnant

C.     How the single women took care of their bastard children

D.    Women who killed their infant bastard children

III.           Conclusion

The second way is a bit of a different approach and talk about individual women:

I.               Introduction

II.             Body

A.     Isabella Cousins

1.     became impregnated by her employer, John Byron, and then was fired, thus having no means of supporting herself or her child.

B.     Sarah Boyer

1.     had three bastard children with one man

2.     they got married then he left her after the birth of their fourth child

3.     she had a fifth child and it is unknown who the father was

4.     her and son were tried for theft but were not convicted

C.     Ann Hurlock

1.     servant who fell in love with another servant and had sex with him because he promised to marry her

2.     did not marry servant

3.     had a baby in her master’s house without telling anyone

4.     slit the crying baby’s throat as soon as it was born

III.           Conclusion

I definitely think that I could join these two together, but I am not sure how to do that to the most effective extent.