A dimension of private life in Wallachia: violence between parents and children (1830–1860)

Abstract

Violence was present and had different forms in every family during nineteenth-century Wallachia, either rich or poor, in rural or urban areas. Remaining in the shadow, almost never discussed between its members or even in public, this social act shocked the penal courts when it reached a critical point. But, during the century, violence between parents and children knew a constant evolution, visible in normative texts and in any written evidence left behind by the contemporaries. Thus, violence became a dynamic element in defining childhood and parent–child relationships.

Keywords::

• South-Eastern Europe
• nineteenth century
• family history
• childhood history
• violence

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully thanks Alistair Ian Blyth for the English translation of the text.

Notes

^1. Biblioteca Academiei Române, Documente Istorice [Romanian Academy Library, Historical Documents], CMXXXI/110–111, leaf 190.

^2. Arhivele Naţionale Istorice Centrale [Department of National Archives] (hereafter ANIC), Logofeţia Dreptăţii, 1079/1836, leaf 2.

^3. In Dicţionarulexplicativ al limbii române (1998), copilărie (childhood) is defined as follows: “Period of human life from birth to adolescence; the period when someone is a child (…).”

^4. For Heimann Hariton Tiktin (1850–1936), a Romanian Jewish linguist and academic, the term copilărie (childhood) was first mentioned as such in a late edition of Anton Pann's work, Povestea Vorbii, from 1881. Anton Pann is one of the most important Romanian poets and folklorists of the first half of the nineteenth century. His major work, Povestea Vorbii, represents a unique collection of what he presented as folklore, although Anton Pann as a schoolteacher, printer and publicist was very much influenced by what he read and experienced within Romanian society. The collection was published for the first time in 1847.

^5. Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1820–1873) was the first reigning prince to rule over both Moldova and Wallachia (1859–1866). His new status was officially recognised by the Ottoman Empire in 1861, and only for the period of his reign. During these seven years Cuza and his ministers made many reforms that changed Romanian society (confiscating the monastic assets [secularisation]; Agrarian law; education law; the civil and penal codes, etc.). The aim was to modernise the State and to throw aside the oriental ascendency in becoming more familiar with what happened in the West.

^6. ANIC, Vornicia temniţelor, 377/1836, leaf 1 and ANIC, Mănăstirea Dintr-un Lemn, 3/1827, leaf 48.

^7. ANIC, Schitul Ostrov, 1/1834, leaf 47.

^8. National Archives. Mehedinţi County, Tribunalul Mehedinţi, 297/1838, leaf 4.

^9. ANIC, Înaltul Divan, 114/1839, leaf 7.

^10. ANIC, Diviziunea Judiciară–Arh. II. Corespondenţă. Ţara Românească, file 88/1847, leaf 2.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by National Research Council and Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding, Romania [grant number PN-IIRU-PD-2011-3-0207] (UEFISCDI).