Abstract
ABSTRACT While marrying was an expected event in 19th-century Western society and has been subject to much historical research, there are few studies on how disabilities influenced people’s marriage patterns and spouse selection. The aim of this analysis is to contribute clarification on this issue by examining with whom disabled men and women married and the marital age and socio-demographic characteristics of them and their spouses. In total, 188 disabled individuals born in the first half of the 19th century and who married in the Sundsvall region, Sweden, are studied. The results reveal that disabled men and women did not marry each other, and they entered into marriage at a slightly higher age than the average, although there was usually no marked age gap between them and their spouse. Endogamous patterns were primarily found regarding the socio-spatial background of the two spouses. This analysis is one of the few studies identifying the marriages among a comparatively large number of disabled people using demographic data. Their participation in the partner pool highlight their agency historically and emphasize that disability did not lead to distance from social life in past society.
Highlights
Marriage was one major goal of young people in the past, and it has been subject to considerable historical research (e.g. Alter, 1991; Hajnal, 1965; Lundh & Kurosu, 2014; Reher, 1998; van Leeuwen & Maas, 2019)
There is little knowledge on the marriages of disabled people in the past, because they are overlooked in historical sources, and because disability is often perceived to make people less possible as partners
This study examined who they were and who they married in order to find further clues to – or even question – how disability distanced people from social integration in past society
Summary
Marriage was one major goal of young people in the past, and it has been subject to considerable historical research (e.g. Alter, 1991; Hajnal, 1965; Lundh & Kurosu, 2014; Reher, 1998; van Leeuwen & Maas, 2019). Knowledge on the lives and possibilities of disabled people is limited, especially regarding their role as possible partners in marriage One reason for this is because they constitute a minority in populations rarely recognized in sources, except from occasionally in records on poor relief or from institutions or asylums (Anderson & CardenCoyne, 2007; De Veirman, 2015; Förhammar & Nelson, 2004; Haage, 2017; Stiker, 1999). Not recognizing their agency and possibilities, such records and studies suggest that they led passive or dependent lives being faced with marginalization in the labor and marriage markets or from society at large. This study answers these questions and others regarding the demographic and socio-economic features of disabled men and women and the spouses they married
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