Abstinence before marriage is the only sure way to avoid pregnancy and disease...

Antigone said:

I think the nobility married earlier, but then again they didn't need to save money to start a household.

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The nobility had arranged marriages but common people actually had a choice in marriage. Yes, farmers didn't marry until they could get their own farm, which often was well past 30.

Rebekka said:

What do you mean by 'relatively recently'? See post #30. Teen marriages (even in late teens) have been abnormal over here for more than 400 years and probably longer.

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In America (or at least my part of it) marriage at 16-18 has been the norm, and it's still far from uncommon. But one important factor that made early marriage more common here is that for nearly 100 years people could get 100 acres of land for free as long as they agreed to farm it. In the Oklahoma land run they could stake even bigger claims than that.

Sarcalogos Deus said:

In America (or at least my part of it) marriage at 16-18 has been the norm, and it's still far from uncommon. But one important factor that made early marriage more common here is that for nearly 100 years people could get 100 acres of land for free as long as they agreed to farm it. In the Oklahoma land run they could stake even bigger claims than that.

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OK thanks for explaining, I didn't know that. 16-18 is extremely young.
My country is tiny, we can't get land for free - I wish we had that luxury. I love emptiness and absence of people.

Rebekka said:

OK thanks for explaining, I didn't know that. 16-18 is extremely young.
My country is tiny, we can't get land for free - I wish we had that luxury. I love emptiness and absence of people.

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Oh we can't anymore. I know the Netherlands developed some extremely productive farming practices to get the most out of the land they had.

But yeah when we were settling the West, Congress passed the "Homestead Act" which allowed anyone to claim up to 100 acres of land for free as long as they agreed to farm it. So land ownership was never a factor in delaying marriage here.

Even now in places like Wyoming and Montana we still have vast tracts of unpopulated land.

Elysium said:

also hpv isnt spread thru sex
just skin to skin contact
so if someone has a moment of weakness and gets naked with their bf/gf before changing their mind and deciding not to have sex... hpv is still a risk
it is a serious disease for women because it causes cervical cancer and genital warts
and you dont even have to have sex to get it

scary

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Skin to skin contact pretty much always occurs during sex so yes, HPV can be spread via sex.

Even in America in the past couple centuries, people were usually marrying in their 20s, not at 16-18
i dont know where you got that number
i got mine from a history textbook

Elysium said:

Even in America in the past couple centuries, people were usually marrying in their 20s, not at 16-18
i dont know where you got that number
i got mine from a history textbook

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Depends where (North vs. South) and who was getting married. There's reason and a basis for why a few states allow someone as young as 15 or 16 to wed.

Brooklyn Knight said:

Depends where (North vs. South) and who was getting married. There's reason and a basis for why a few states allow someone as young as 15 or 16 to wed.

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Bingo. In the South it was usually earlier, and every single person in my family was married before their 20's.