Bastardy bonds and 1850 census data from Wake County, North Carolina are
used to examine the extent of out-of-wedlock childbearing in that county. Women who bore
children out of wedlock lived in female headed households, and the fathers were more likely to
be well-off heads of households. The same women recurred in the bonds, as did some of the same
men. Rates of white out-of-wedlock births were found not to differ greatly from those of 1970.
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