Suffer the Children, Don’t Let Them Suffer: 1920s Child Welfare Services and Reforms in the Queen City

Abstract

Suffer the Children, Don’t Let Them Suffer1920s Child Welfare Services and Reforms in the Queen City Brandon Borgemenke (bio) early movements in child welfare Throughout American history, some children have always been cared for by individuals other than their biological parents, but the ways in which they have been cared for have changed. Stemming from the basic issue of “unworthy vs. worthy poor,” the philosophy of the Elizabethan Poor Laws was the foundation of the American welfare system in the years leading up to and following the American Revolution.1 Children were categorized, under this set of laws, to be “worthy” of public welfare support, which was primarily offered through group housing and apprenticeships. The Elizabethan Poor Laws fed into a conception of child welfare that persisted in America for roughly another 150 years after they were first established.2 Under the British system, politicians and community leaders in colonial America hoped that dependent and neglected children who required out-of-home care would be reformed by their apprenticeships and acquire skills to be molded into contributing members of society. This sentiment carried over into the early years of the American nation. In the early days of the American Republic, for example, it was common for children to be indentured to families outside of their biological parents so that they might work and learn a trade. This was an accepted way of caring for all [End Page 42] types of children, ranging from orphans and other dependent children to children from other classes as well.3 Until the middle of the nineteenth century, orphan asylums provided communities with the means to deal with runaway children from impoverished families. Simultaneously, changing conceptions of childhood effectively narrowed the use of indenture to children from very poor families.4 In the 1850s, “placing-out” emerged as an alternative to indenture and began moving children from poor urban families to rural homes. Unlike indenture, placing-out was partially inspired by anti-urban, anti-immigrant ideologies.5 In the 1880s and 1890s, some agencies began to pay foster parents for boarding young children, so that the children would not be forced to work. Additionally, foster parents cared for children who were difficult to live with or who had special needs.6 the push for orphanages Orphanages began to spring up in the early 1800s as part of a concerted effort in America to build up its institutions. The United States was a very young country—socially unsettled and all but devoid of institutions.7 Many Americans could not escape the feeling that they had lost the established social order imbued by the British colonial system, but there had been nothing with which to replace it.8 In Republican society, the traditional British dichotomy of rank and privilege no longer existed. Historian Matthew A. Crenson writes about Republican society in his research on the prehistory of the American welfare state. Crenson claims, “The population was literally in motion, with workers moving into cities and mill towns to take jobs in the newly industrializing northern economy; other people migrating westward to settle new land in the territories; and immigrants arriving by the boatload in eastern seaboard cities.”9 Things we take for granted in our modern society did not yet exist. In [End Page 43] the early 1800s, there were few social services, public health institutions were almost nonexistent, and a system of public education was rudimentary.10 To many, society had become dangerously unstable and unhealthy. Social critics cited runaway ambition and the frantic pace and flexible principles of the marketplace for increases in crime and insanity.11 In response, many communities in the United States began to embrace the idea of asylums.12 The asylum was designed to take people who were at risk or who were causing harm to society and isolate them. The idea was that if one were to remove a problematic individual from bad influences and unhealthful conditions and put them in a regimented, regulated environment, you might restore them to health or turn them into a responsible citizen. If it was a child who was problematic, many individuals believed that if you removed them from the corrupting influence...