The City Had A ‘Bastard Problem’ in the 1790s

Mederic-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery.
Artist: James Sharples

Imagine a Frenchman with the nerved to declare that Philadelphia is a city full of bastards. 

He wasn’t referring to our politicians but an abundance of fatherless children.

During the French Revolution, a chap by the name of Moreau de Saint-Mery escaped to America and opened a book shop in Philadelphia. He also wrote a good deal about his experiences and thoughts on the new nation and especially Philadelphia.

“Bastards are extremely common in Philadelphia,” Saint-Mery wrote in the late 1790s. He declares there are two reasons for the problem – religious and economic.

“The city is full of sects, but none of them give their clergymen any authority to enforce obedience. Consequently there is no way of inspiring shame in women who become mothers for no reason but for the pleasure they get out of it.”

Saint-Mery continues: “In the second place, once an illegitimate child is 12 months old, a mother can disembarrass herself of him by farming him out for 21 years. This makes it possible for her to commit the same sin for a second time.”

A few observations:
Saint-Mery was accustomed to the strict rules of the French Catholic church. And, yes, there was an apprentice system where children could be indentured to a craftsman or farmer, but we seriously doubt that anyone would take a 12-month-old baby to help on a farm or shop.

Also, Saint-Mery seems to forget that bastards are created by men who then refuse to be fathers.