Negotiating Memory and Restoring Identity in Broken Families in Eighteenth-century Denmark

Abstract

Early modern tugt workhouses are often seen as chaotic, multi-purposed institutions, mixing hardened criminals with marginal people like beggars and troublesome family members. In this article, I focus on the negotiation of family memory and identity between family and authority in cases when disobedient children were committed to these institutions for education and improvement. I argue that these negotiations provided an opportunity to restore parental authority by adjusting private family memory to the state’s expectations of good Christian households and responsible parents. Thereby, the private parental memory of disobedient children and the actions taken to deal with them also contributed to legitimizing the tugt institution by confirming its stated purpose in society, to provide improvement, and education.