We Three Kings - Part 3 - Adoption History

Coming to America

<< | Part Two

The first state adoption law in the United States was enacted in 1851 in Massachusetts.

In order to understand what happened to orphaned, abandoned, and uncared-for children in this country until that time (and beyond in states other than Massachusetts), we need to look to England.

According to Law Professor Ruth-Arlene W. Howe, most of our laws were based on English law. But, "Adoption was never part of the English common law; England only recognized it in the mid-1920s." And so, in the absence of legal precedent, the founders of our country, those men who drafted our Constitution and served in legislative capacities in our young nation, brought with them a history of informal practices and customs from the land of their ancestors: England.

The England of "Oliver Twist"

Charles Dickens' 1838 classic wasn't far off the mark. In England, adoption existed, but without standard legal statutes. Other options for orphans, abandoned, and destitute children were workhouses, children's homes, orphanages, and kinship care.

During the time period 1597-1866, it was common for children who had been convicted of crimes to be deported to America or Australia together with adult criminals. And Child Migrantswere sent from Britain and Ireland to the colonies as early as 1618. These children, generally between the ages of 5 and 12, were taken from children's homes and orphanages with the express purpose of culturally swamping "the native peoples by increasing the white population." They were often institutionalized or indentured when they arrived, and were notoriously ill-treated.

Back in the USA

Against this backdrop, our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and established a new government... with no formal state laws governing adoption, foster care, or the treatment and care of orphans and destitute children.

All Roads Lead to Rome

As mentioned in part two of this series, our adoption law here in the US derived from Roman law, and when Massachusetts drafted the nation's first state statutes in 1851, many of the precepts of Justinian law were included; however, not all states were ready for such action, most notably, New York.

The Trains

In 1853, Rev. Charles Loring Brace founded the Children's Aid Society of New York. This charitable institution grew out of Brace's concern over the growing number of street children - orphans, runaways, young prostitutes, abandoned children. These vagrant children were often arrested and then transferred to institutions to be trained for work.

Brace's solution was to "get these children of unhappy fortune utterly out of their surroundings and to send them away to kind Christian homes in the country."

The Children's Aid Society staff gathered children from orphanages, reformatories, and the homes of the poor. The children were put on trains, in groups of of 6-150, accompanied by two adults, and they set off for the midwest. Ads were run in local newspapers at each stop on the journey, and the children were "displayed" at each place. Children who were not selected at the first stop were loaded back onto the train for the next destination.

In a parallel movement, the New York Foundling Hospital sent children to the south and midwest on "mercy trains" or "baby trains," in a program coordinated through the Catholic church.

There were several differences between the two programs:

Kids on the Block: According to Connie DiPasquale, whose work is on display at the Kansas Collection, The Children's Aid Society secured a release from a parent or guardian if the child was not an orphan. Advance notices would be placed in newspapers along the train's planned itinerary, and a committee of some sort in each town was responsible for finding potential families. The children were put on display for inspection and selection. Siblings were often separated. "Placing agents" were responsible for securing another family for children if a placement wasn't working.

Matched to Order: The Foundling Hospital (Catholic Charities) placements were restricted to Catholic families. However, unlike Brace's program, children were not sent out without a specific destination family. Families would send "requests" for a child with certain physical characteristics to the Foundling Hospital and a "matching" child would be sent.

From that first train in 1854, until the last in 1930 (long after New York enacted its first adoption law in 1873), it is estimated that between 150,000 and 400,000 children were placed in foster or adoptive families in Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Texas and other states.

Reference Materials

• Adoptees, Fosterees and Others: A Biographical Directory - compiled by Roger Ridley Fenton
• New York Adoption History - history of state law
• Orphan Trains of Kansas - by Connie DiPasquale
• The Adoption History Project - created by historian and educator Ellen Herman
• The American Orphan Trains - PBS Transcript

<< | Part Two

© Nancy Ashe

---

Library of Articles

Adoption Profiles

Val & Sandra Pediatrician and former kindergarten teacher searching for an infant to share our home and love with. We are an active couple & are committed to our... [more] other adoption profiles | add your profile A service of Adoption Profiles, LLC