founded 1851 by 24 philanthropists

[arbeka]

((Кажется, "сиротские дома" были и в России.

Но, не знаю, имели ли они американский размах.
Отдельный нюанс. Можно ли утверждать, что эти дела фурыкали в годы Гражданской войны 1861—1865 годов? ))

"Например, о «сиротских поездах». Благодаря этой программе в конце 19 – начале 20 века больше двухсот тысяч детей были переправлены с перенаселённого востока США в приёмные семьи в центральных и западных штатах.
В основном это и в самом деле были сироты – но не все. Многих попросту отбирали у неблагополучных родителей, с городского дна Нью-Йорка и других крупных городов побережья. Программа «сиротских поездов» прекратилась только в двадцатых годах, когда и в западных штатах начались проблемы с собственными беспризорниками, и была создана централизованная система приёмных семей.
(via иванов-петров)

Англ. Вика уточняет детали:

"The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating about 250,000 children. The co-founders of the Orphan Train movement claimed that these children were orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless, but this was not always true. They were mostly the children of new immigrants and the children of the poor and destitute families living in these cities.

Three charitable institutions, Children's Village (founded 1851 by 24 philanthropists),[1] the Children's Aid Society (established 1853 by Charles Loring Brace) and later, the New York Foundling Hospital, endeavored to help these children. The institutions were supported by wealthy donors and operated by professional staff. The three institutions developed a program that placed homeless, orphaned, and abandoned city children, who numbered an estimated 30,000 in New York City alone in the 1850s, in foster homes throughout the country. The children were transported to their new homes on trains that were labeled "orphan trains" or "baby trains". This relocation of children ended in the 1920s with the beginning of organized foster care in America.

Comments

1729

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

The first orphanage in the United States was reportedly established in 1729 in Natchez, MS,[2] but institutional orphanages were uncommon before the early 19th century. Relatives or neighbors usually raised children who had lost their parents. Arrangements were informal and rarely involved courts.[2]

10,000 to 30,000 homeless children

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

Around 1830, the number of homeless children in large Eastern cities such as New York City exploded. In 1850, there were an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 homeless children in New York City.

At the time, New York City's population was only 500,000.

to 1978

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

Widespread use of the term "orphan train" may date to 1978, when CBS aired a fictional miniseries entitled The Orphan Trains.

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

And many teenage boys and girls went to orphan train sponsoring organizations simply in search of work or a free ticket out of the city.

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The first Orphan Train

The first group of 45 children arrived in Dowagiac, Michigan, on October 1, 1854.[4] The children had traveled for days in uncomfortable conditions. They were accompanied by E. P. Smith of the Children's Aid Society.[4] Smith himself had let two different passengers on the riverboat from Manhattan adopt boys without checking their references.[8] Smith added a boy he met in the Albany railroad yard — a boy whose claim to orphanhood Smith never bothered to verify.[4] At a meeting in Dowagiac, Smith played on his audience's sympathy while pointing out that the boys were handy and the girls could be used for all types of housework.[4]

In an account of the trip published by the Children's Aid Society, Smith said that in order to get a child, applicants had to have recommendations from their pastor and a justice of the peace, but it is unlikely that this requirement was strictly enforced.[4] By the end of that first day, fifteen boys and girls had been placed with local families. Five days later, twenty-two more children had been adopted. Smith and the remaining eight children traveled to Chicago where Smith put them on a train to Iowa City by themselves where a Reverend C. C. Townsend, who ran a local orphanage, took them in and attempted to find them foster families.[4] This first expedition was considered such a success that in January 1855 the society sent out two more parties of homeless children to Pennsylvania.[4]

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

Brace's system put its faith in the kindness of strangers.[9] Orphan train children were placed in homes for free and were expected to serve as an extra pair of hands to help with chores around the farm.[5] Families expected to raise them as they would their natural-born children, providing them with decent food and clothing, a "common" education, and $100 when they turned twenty-one.[4] Older children placed by The Children's Aid Society were supposed to be paid for their labors.[5] Legal adoption was not required.[9]

Few children understood what was happening.

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

Before they boarded the train, children were dressed in new clothing, given a Bible, and placed in the care of Children's Aid Society agents who accompanied them west.[2] Few children understood what was happening. Once they did, their reactions ranged from delight at finding a new family to anger and resentment at being '' placed out'' when they had relatives ''back home.''[2]

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

Most children on the trains were white. An attempt was made to place non-English speakers with people who spoke their language.[2] German-speaking Bill Landkamer rode an orphan train several times as a preschooler in the 1920s before being accepted by a German family in Nebraska.[2]

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Many orphan train children went to live with families that placed orders specifying age, gender, and hair and eye color.[12]

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Orphan Train children

Eden Ahbez songwriter Nature Boy[27]
Joe Aillet[28]
John Green Brady[3]
Andrew H. Burke[3]
Henry L. Jost[29]
Marion Parnell Costello Perry
Frank Raymond Elliott

See also

Home Children - similar program in the UK

только в 1970-х годах.

[belkafoto.livejournal.com]

Home Children («домашние дети») — термин, которым обозначают систему детской миграции[en] (депортации), основанную Анни Макферсон[en] в 1869 году, в рамках которой более 100 000 детей было принудительно отправлено из Великобритании в Австралию, Канаду, Новую Зеландию и Южную Африку, где они использовались в качестве рабов и подвергались физическому и сексуальному насилию. Изначально в рамках этой системы в британские колонии отправлялись только дети-бродяги, однако впоследствии в колонии стали отправлять детей из бедных семей на основании решения суда. Также действовала нелегальная система похищения детей. Кроме того, детей обманывали, обещая им «райскую жизнь» в колониях. Эта система прекратила свою работу только в 1970-х годах.

Австралия принесла официальные извинения за вовлечённость в детскую миграцию в феврале 2010 года (премьер-министр Великобритании Гордон Браун извинился перед семьями пострадавших детей). 16 ноября 2009 года канадский министр по иммиграционным вопросам Джейсон Кенни сообщил о том, что Канада не будет извиняться перед вынужденными мигрантами.