Traditionally the care and treatment of children was controlled by the male head of house. Governments would not intervene regardless of the behavior. This changed in 1601 when England passed the Poor Law Act which gave the government the power to separate children from poor parents and place them in alternative care or apprenticeship until the age of maturity (21 for males and 16 for females). From 1660 on the Court of Chancery continued to regulate the treatment of children and their belongings.
In colonial America the treatment of children was based on the English systems. One of the core differences was the government's power to remove children from homes that were providing "poor breeding", lack of education, training in trade skills, or idle, unchristian, or incapable. In 1825 new laws in the USA were enacted allowing neglected children to be collected and placed in almshouses, orphanages, or with other families.
In 1835 the Humane Society founded the National Federation of Child Rescue agencies to investigate the mistreatment of children.
In 1874 in the neighbors of 9 year old Mary-Ellen expressed concern over her well-being. She was whipped, malnourished, locked in a darkened room and rarely let out of the apartment. The child living with Mary and Francis Connolly, was claimed to be the illegitimate child of Mrs. Connolly's first husband, however Mary-Ellen had been placed there by the cities Department of Charities illegally after her real father went into debt. Mrs. Etta Angell Wheeler, a concerned neighbor, sought help for the child, but found that the current laws were vague and local law enforcement was reluctant to intervene. (read her own account of the story here http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/etta-wheeler-account.html)
Wheeler turned to the America Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) for help. They brought a court case based on the theory that the child was a member of the animal kingdom and entitled to the same protection that the law gave to other animals.
“My father and mother are both dead. I don’t know how old I am. I
have no recollection of a time when I did not live with the Connollys.
…. Mamma has been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every
day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip—a raw hide. The whip
always left a black and blue mark on my body. I have now the black and
blue marks on my head which were made by mamma, and also a cut on the
left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors. She
struck me with the scissors and cut me; I have no recollection of ever
having been kissed by any one—have never been kissed by mamma. I have
never been taken on my mamma’s lap and caressed or petted. I never
dared to speak to anybody, because if I did I would get whipped…. I do
not know for what I was whipped—mamma never said anything to me when
she whipped me. I do not want to go back to live with mamma, because
she beats me so. I have no recollection ever being on the street in my
life” Mary Ellen, April 10, 1874, (Watkins, 1990).
The court agreed that the child should be protected and Mary-Ellen was removed from the home.
The charges included
- regular and severe beatings
- insufficient food
- being forced to sleep on the floor
- having no warm clothes to wear in cold weather
- being frequently left alone inside a darkened, locked room
- being forbidden to go outdoors, except at night in her own yard
One year later the case let to the founding of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC). The first child protective agency in the world.
Mary-Ellen was placed in a home for adolescent girls, but Mrs. Wheeler intervened again and was able to have her placed with her mother, Sally Angell of northern New York. When Ms.
Angell died, Etta Wheeler’s youngest sister, Elizabeth, and her husband
Darius Spencer, raised Mary-Ellen. Mary-Ellen went on to marry a widower at 24 and had two daughters, one named Etta after Etta Wheeler. Mary Ellen
died in 1956 at the age of 92.
The NYSPCC's efforts helped many new laws pass including
- acts requiring custodians to provide food, clothing, medical care
and supervision, prohibiting child endangerment and regulating child
employment (1876);
- acts prohibiting the sale of intoxicants to minors and mandating their separation from adults when arrested (1877);
- acts providing juvenile parole
for those under 16, prohibiting children in saloons unless accompanied
by a parent or guardian and prohibiting gun dealers from selling or
giving weapons to minors (1884);
- acts prohibiting the employment of children in sweatshops and factories and limiting child employment to 60 hours a week (1886);
- acts regulating obscene material with respect to children (1887) and providing protections for messenger and telegraph boys (1888);
- acts prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors and prohibiting them from living in drug dens and houses of prostitution (1889).
And, all because the law once said you had to treat animals better than children.
-Professor (Uncle) Walter
