Foster Care- The History



I’m not much of a history buff, so I’ll keep this part short and to the point. For those of you that are more into history, there are a variety of articles on the subject out there that you can read.

The history of foster care dates back to the 1500s, when the English Poor Law carried over to the states from England. In colonial days, poverty was considered a sin, and work was the way to salvation. With the English poor law, public responsibility for the poor was placed on the towns, and Parens patrie (the ruler’s power to protect minors) came to be broadly interpreted in America as justification for governmental intervention into the parent-child relationship in an attempt to enforce parental duty or supply substitute care. (Schene, 1991).

That attitude began to change in the late 19th century. The development of public concern and policy for dependent, neglected and abused children was largely due to the initiative of large, private non-profit agencies. In 1875, the first Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ASPCC) was established in New York City, after the highly publicized case of Mary Ellen Wilson. A concerned citizen, frustrated in trying to get help for Mary Ellen from various public agencies in New York City, finally convinced the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to provide assistance to the child as a member of the animal kingdom. As a result of these efforts, Mary Ellen was protected and legislation was enacted to protect children from abuse and neglect.

9-year-old Mary Ellen Wilson was an illegitimate child whose parents were dead. The New York Commission of Charities and Correction had given her to Mr. and Mrs. Connolly. The Connollys were supposed to care for her and report annually on her progress. Instead, they abused her. She was beaten, locked in a room, and rarely allowed to go outside. She also wasn’t given adequate food or clothing. A neighbor told a mission worker about Mary Ellen’s screaming, but because there was no ground for a crime being committed, the authorities couldn’t get involved, as they did not have legal custody.

An appeal was made to Henry Bergh, the founder and president of the ASPCA. He believed that Mary Ellen should be entitled to at least the same protection against cruelty that was already provided, by law, to animals. He was able to persuade a judge to hear her case. Mary Ellen came into the courtroom wrapped in a horse blanket. This is what the newspaper reported that she told the judge:

My father and mother are dead. I don’t know how old I am. I call Mrs. Connolly mama. I have never had but one pair of shoes, but I cannot recollect when that was…My bed at night has been only a piece of carpet stretched on the floor underneath a window Mama 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. (Mama 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 Mama. Whenever mama went out I was locked up in the bedroom. I do not want to go back to live with mama, because she beat me so.

Mary Ellen was removed from the people who had mistreated her, and her case stirred public attention and complaints began to pour in to Henry Bergh. So many cases of child-beating and cruelty to children came to light that a community meeting of citizens was called, and an association for the defense of outraged childhood was formed. That association gave rise to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC), which was formally incorporated the year after Mary Ellen’s case. You can read more about Mary Ellen in a new book about her life, authored by Eric Shelman and Stephen Lazoritz.

By the end of the 1920s there were more than 250 SPCCs.

Today there is a movement to provide services to families in their homes prior to having to remove children, to prevent the trauma to the children when they are removed from the home due to neglect and abuse. This sounds good, but the reality is that the majority of the parents of the children in these situations are not able to function on a cognitive level required to understand what will happen to their kids if they don’t participate. Due to the massive methamphetamine epidemic, there are more and more kids entering the system, overwhelming an already saturated situation.