Children and Youth in Adoption, Orphanages, and Foster Care: A Historical Handbook and Guide (Children and Youth: History and Culture)

241 Pages·2005·12.76 MB·English

by  Lori Askeland

Children and Youth in
Adoption, Orphanages,
and Foster Care
Recent Titles in
Children and Youth: History and Culture
Miriam Forman-Brunell, Series Editor
Children and Youth in Sickness and in Health: A Historical Handbook and Guide
Janet Golden, Richard A. Meckel, and Heather Munro Prescott
Asian American Children: A Historical Handbook and Guide
Benson Tong, editor
Children and Youth in
Adoption, Orphanages,
and Foster Care
A Historical Handbook and Guide
EDITED BY LORI ASKELAND
Children and Youth: History and Culture
Miriam Forman-Brunell, Series Editor
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Children and youth in adoption, orphanages, and foster care : a historical handbook and
guide / edited by Lori Askeland.
p. cm.—(Children and youth: history and culture, ISSN 1546-6752)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-313-33183-9 (alk. paper)
1. Adoption—United States—History. 2. Adoption—United States—History—
Sources. 3. Orphanages—United States—History. 4. Orphanages—United States—
History—Sources. 5. Foster children—United States—History. 6. Foster
children—United States—History—Sources. 7. Child welfare—United States—History.
8. Child welfare—United States—History—Sources. I. Askeland, Lori. II. Series:
Children and youth (Westport, Conn.)
HV875.55.C45 2006
362.73'0973—dc22 2005022189
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2006 by Lori Askeland
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005022189
ISBN: 0-313-33183-9
ISSN: 1546-6752
First published in 2006
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Copyright Acknowledgments
The editor and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of the following mate
rial:
Adoptions from the Heart. "Future Contract Agreement, New York." Copyright 2005. All
rights reserved. Used by permission.
Bastard Nation: The Adoptee Rights Organization. "Mission Statement" and excerpts from
"The Basic Bastard." Excerpted from the Bastard Nation website, http://www.bastards
.org/. Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Buchwald, Arthur. From Leaving Home: A Memoir. Originally published by G. P. Putnam, now
part of the Penguin Group. Copyright 1992. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). "Minimum Safeguards in Adoption." Ap
proved by Vote of the Board of Directors of the Child Welfare League of America, Novem
ber 5, 1938. Copyright 1938, CWLA Press. All rights reserved. This material appears by
special permission of the publisher. Neither this publication nor any part thereof may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ
ing photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Child Welfare League of America,
Washington, DC (http://www.cwla.org).
National Association of Black Social Workers. "Statement on Transracial Adoption." Copy
right 1972. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
National Council for Adoption (NCFA). "Mission," "Agenda," "Concerned about Privacy?"
("Why Privacy?"), and "Correct Adoption Terminology," from the NCFA website,
http://www.ncfa-usa.org/. Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Paton, Jean. Excerpt and drawing from The Adopted Break Silence: The Experiences and Views of
Forty Adults Who Were Once Adopted Children. Philadelphia: Life History Study Center. Copy-
right 1954. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private and International Law. "Conven
tion of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercoun-
try Adoption," Collection of Conventions, 1951-2003. Antwerp, Belgium: Maklu Uitgevers N.V.
Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Reed, Helen Doss. Excerpt from "All God's Children," chapter 12 of The Family That Nobody
Wanted. Boston: Little, Brown. Copyright 1954. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Contents
Series Foreword by Miriam Forman-Brunell ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Part I Essays 1
1 Informal Adoption, Apprentices, and Indentured Children
in the Colonial Era and the New Republic, 1605-1850 3
Lori Askeland
2 Adoption Reform, Orphan Trains, and Child-Saving,
1851-1929 17
Marilyn Irvin Holt
3 Science, Social Work, and Bureaucracy: Cautious
Developments in Adoption and Foster Care, 1930-1969 31
Dianne Creagh
4 Civil Rights, Adoption Rights: Domestic Adoption and
Foster Care, 1970 to the Present 45
Martha Satz and Lori Askeland
5 International Adoption 63
Elizabeth Bartholet
6 The Orphan in American Children's Literature 79
Claudia Nelson
Vlll CONTENTS
Part II Documents 93
7 Multicultural Forms of Adoption and Foster Care
before 1850 95
8 "Orphan Trains," Child-Saving, and the Modernization of
Adoption Law, 1851-1929 105
9 Science and Secrecy: Adoption, Orphanages, and Foster
Care, 1930-1969 117
10 Contemporary Issues in Domestic Adoption, 1970 to
the Present 131
11 International Adoption Law 145
12 Orphans in Literature for American Children 157
Part III Bibliography 169
13 General Adoption and Child Welfare History References
and Online Resources 171
14 Orphans, Orphanages, and Orphan Stories: Early Forms
of Adoption and Fostering in Multicultural and
Interdisciplinary Perspectives 179
15 Secrecy and Adoption: Infertility, Illegitimacy, Parental
"Fitness" Standards, and the Move to Openness in the
Twentieth Century 191
16 Crossing Boundaries: Issues and Controversies in
Contemporary Foster Care and Adoption 199
Index 209
About the Editor and Contributors 221
Series Foreword
P
ocahontas, a legendary figure in American history, was just a pread-
olescent when she challenged two cultures at odds to cooperate in
stead of to compete. While Pocahontas forged peace, many more now
forgotten Native American, Anglo-American, African American, and other
children contributed to their families' survival, communities' development,
and America's history in just as legitimate, though perhaps less legendary
ways. Contracts and correspondence from colonial Chesapeake reveal that
even seventeenth-century toddlers labored. But the historical agency of the
vast majority of children and adolescents has been undervalued and over
looked in dominant historical narratives. Instead, generations of Americans
have credited fathers and other hoary leaders for their actions and achieve
ments, all the while disregarding pivotal boyhood experiences that shaped
skills and ideals. Reflecting these androcentric, Eurocentric, and age-based
biases that have framed the nation's history, American history texts have re
inforced the historical invisibility of girls and boys for centuries. For stu
dents searching libraries for scholarly sources and primary documents
about children and adolescents in various historical contexts, this near ab
sence of information in master narratives has vexed their research.
The absence of children in standard history books has not only obscured
children's history but also the work of scholars who have been investigat
ing youth's histories and interrogating their cultures since the turn of the
last century. A new curiosity about children in times past was generated by
the progressive era agenda which sought to educate, acculturate, and ele
vate American children through child study and child welfare. In Child Life
in Colonial Days (1899), "amateur historian" Alice Morse Earl drew upon
archival sources and material culture in order to examine the social history