What Every Mother Should Know; or, How Six Little Children Were Taught The Truth

by Margaret Sanger

As all the children were still too young to go into the details of either menstruation or venerea diseases, it was considered best to dwell on the early tribes of man on up to marriage, and wait for future developments before going further. The tree dwellers and cave dwellers were already familiar stories to them. The fact that people lived together very closely; that the woman had great freedom in choosing the man whom she wished to be the father of her child, even as freely as the animals chose their mates; that in this freedom great mistakes were often made, such as that for a period some mothers chose their sons or brothers, or fathers to be the father of the new little one; that after a time it was found that this was very injurious to this new little child, for he often could not walk, or talk, and was weak, and sometimes a cripple—and more often died very young.

So the chiefs of these tribes got together and said this must not be, for if this continued there would be no strong young men or women to till the soil or fight off the animals, wild beasts or the enemy. Then a law was made that only those of the different tribes or families should choose each other for the parents of the future children, and here the lesson of the Buttercups came in—that often Mrs. Buttercup would reject the pollen from the stamen in her own house, but would accept the pollen from another buttercup house and become fertilized with that.

The part the two sexes took in different ways to strengthen and develop the race seemed of great interest to the children.

The work of hunting and fishing was left to the men of the family, while equally important work, that of cleaning and cooking the food, was for the women. Men spent much time in making tools and weapons. They were able to save much time and energy when the bow and arrow was invented, for, instead of taking all the time to creep upon a beast or enemy with a knife or sharp stone, he could remain at a distance and do the same work. Thus, men got a little more leisure time. With every new invention their labor and energy was saved, but it took much longer for labor-saving inventions for the women to come into use.

Gradually the marriage form came into existence, as these new tools and weapons became more valuable. Men wanted these to go to their very own children, so it came to pass that the man could choose any woman he wanted to have for the mother of his children by getting consent from the captain or chief of the tribe. If he received this consent then she, the woman, must live with him, love him, honor him (no matter what he did), and obey him in everything. Absolute submission was the law for the wife. If she objected to this and ran away she was cast out and was beaten. Other tribes had the same laws and dared not take her in, so she was left to die. If she did not like her husband and took another for the father of her child she was often not only cast into prison, but either stoned to death or burned at the stake.

Naturally, after years of this treatment, she became submissive and so dependent on man for her living that she dared not express herself aloud, merely as her husband allowed her to do so. If she was very beautiful she was not made to work, but the prisoners of other tribes who had been captured, were made to work for her. Often the captain or chief had several wives, but the wife was allowed only one husband.

As the children had been taught the lives of the mother flowers, frogs, birds, bees and mammals, there was no reason why the history of woman should not be taken up until they were ready for older work.

They loved to hear about this, and it seemed just as interesting to them as the other stories.

It is important that mothers teach children the true history of the race, and get the seed of truth planted for future cultivation.

The marriage laws have had many changes for the man, they were told, but few as far as the woman is concerned. The different customs of women in different countries can be told them, and the general development of both men and women can occupy a great deal of time until the children are more ready to understand the true or real significance of the studies to be later dwelt on.