Family Structures and Population of Craftsman Households in Cossack Ukraine in the Second Half of the 18th Century

Abstract

This article focuses on the history of the family and households in eighteenth-century Ukraine. The aim of the article is to observe the demographical characteristics of craftsman guild families and households in the Cossack Hetmanate (an autonomous Cossack territory situated on the Left Bank of the Dnieper River) in the cities of Poltava, Pereiaslav and Nizhyn. Calculations are based on the General Description of the Left-bank Ukraine of 1765–1766. In the article, population size indicators for the artisan households and their families are established. Family household types are defined on the basis of works by Peter Lasslett and Cezary Kuklo. Craft specialization is taken into account for clarifying the influence of the occupation on the size of the households and family household types. The calculations were made separately for the crafts that were the most widespread in all the cities: weaving, blacksmithing, tailoring, shoemaking and butchering.

Keywords

• Cossack Hetmanate
• household
• family
• craftsmen
• guild
• apprenticeship