Orphan Train Research Paper

Starting in the 1850s, there were great increases in urbanization. Movements such as The Great Migration lead to huge populations in newly industrialized cities. In addition, there was a great increase in immigration, especially from families of eastern and southern European descent. The Orphan Train Movement’s purpose was to give the thousands of children in New York City that were left without homes due to increased urbanization and industrialization a new family out west with good living conditions and values and to increase the number of farm workers. The children mostly were placed with good families, but some children were treated as slaved by their families. Additionally, most of the children were excited to work; however, some were

Orphan trains is a documentary about children in New York, being sent on trains to other parts of the country, in order to find families and be taken care of. There are stories from, adults that actually rode on these trains when they were children. The Orphan Trains was started by a man named Charles Loring Brace in 1854. Brace, had traveled to New York in the early 1850’s, and was horrified at the conditions of all the children he saw on the street. Brace felt that it was a duty to help these children out, and decided that the only way to help these children was to get them away from their surroundings, and send them away to be raised in nice, Christian homes around the country. So, in 1853, Brace founded the Children’s

Some of the Orphan Train children were eventually adopted, but many were not. Some were “indentured,” which means their labor was sold to waiting farmers and were considered to be not much more than slave labor. Many were taken in as one of the family and raised as if they had been adopted, whether or not the actual adoption paperwork had been completed.

Orphan Children living in the 1800s were living on overcrowded streets of cities. Over 30,000 abandoned kids were placed into new families throughout Canada and the United States using what were called ‘orphan trains’ . This movement was one of the first documented for foster care in America. The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that operated between 1854 and 1929. These kids faced many obstacles, a rough childhood, and their family life could be torn apart or challenging for them.

Orphan trains and Carlisle and the ways people from the past undermined the minorities and children of America. The film "The orphan Trains" tells us the story of children who were taken from the streets of New York City and put on trains to rural America. A traffic in immigrant children were developed and droves of them teamed the streets of New York (A People's History of the United States 1492-present, 260). The streets of NYC were dirty, overcrowded, and dangerous. Just as street gangs had female auxiliaries, they also had farm leagues for children (These are the Good Old Days, 19). During the time of the late 1800's and early 1900's many people were trying to help children. Progressive reformers, often called

Many people have certain symbols in their life that bring them comfort and represent who they are as a person. In Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train, symbols function to convey Molly and Vivian’s desire to maintain their connections to their pasts, their search for self-identity, and the trauma and loss they experience. Molly’s turtle tattoo exemplifies Molly’s personal identity and represents much of the loss she has experienced as a child. The loss, trauma, identity and longing to stay connected to her loved ones that Vivian has and experiences is symbolized by her Claddagh necklace. The charm necklace that Molly wears signifies the connection to her late father, her own character, and the loss she has experienced.

One of my all time favorite musicals as I was growing up was always Annie, about a sweet little orphan who through determination and a little positivity found a better life. But sadly as hard knock as Annie’s life was, it is nothing compared to the actually reality. The early foster system was established in the 1500s in order to care for children who were removed from their parents. Foster care was intended to be a short-term solution until the child is either adopted or reunited with their family. However, because of how few people there are willing to take in these kids, the average child will spend over two years waiting to be adopted. But the flaws in this system run much deeper.

In the 1500 English poor laws allowed people to make children indentured servants until they became adults and were able to live alone and be free. This event ended up coming to the united states and they decided to put those kids in foster care. Even though indentured servants were looked down upon they thought it was better than putting them in almshouses where kids were abused unhygienic and didn't learn trade or any basic knowledge that they will need for when they become adults

Because immigrant parents could not afford to keep their babies, they were abandoned to the street where there was “not one instance of even a well-dressed infant having been picked up…” (Riis, 68). With majority of the abandoned infants coming from such poor conditions and left in even worse, those in the upper and middle class became horrified with the circumstances immigrants were living in when they came to America. Because very few men could not find jobs and women were culturally forbidden (with their native culture) to work, many women worked as “nurses” for abandoned babies, possibly even ones they may have left themselves (Riis,

In her book, The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction, Linda Gordon argues that the events of October 1904 in Clifton-Morenci, and the Supreme Court’s case that followed, were to blame for the development of a more obvious racial hierarchy in the US’southwestern states. The events covered in this book include the New York Foundling Hospital’s use of orphan trains to attempt to place New York orphans with Catholic families in Arizona, the Anglo-Protestant community’s negative reaction to the NYFH’s process, and the legal battle which resulted from this. To support her argument, Gordon illustrates the three way battle of motives between the sisters sent by the NYFH, the Mexican adopters, and the Anglo kidnappers of 1904 Arizona.

Adoption did not emerge as the preferred system of child care in the early nineteenth century because elite families with whom the children were placed often treated them as servants rather than family members. Most significantly, Porter finds that rather than the happy, successful adoption outcomes often portrayed by those favoring adoption, 20 percent of adopted children had negative family experiences. (Carp 3-4)

The Underground Railroad was an intricate system of households and farmhouses alike that were all connected throughout many towns and villages in the mid 1800s. It was formed by the common goal of people taking a stand against the law and helping thousands of black slaves escape from the south to gain their rightful freedom in the north. This happened because many people began to see slaves as human beings with value, rather than brutes that were valued less than a human. Throughout the mid 1800s, there were many cases of runaway slaves attempting to escape to freedom without anywhere to hide or anyone to help. A lot of people realized that this was a very impactful movement so they began to open up their minds and homes to these fugitive slaves as an attempt to help them make it into the north. Many people helped these runaway slaves because they believed it was morally right, that black oppression was a crime; slaves held value and deserved to keep their family together and lead a life as any other man or woman would, and former slaves shed light on these critical issues.

By the year 1967, all U.S. states had child abuse reporting laws. “Child abuse reporting laws and enhanced awareness of child abuse produced an increase in intervention” (Myers, 2013). As reporting laws came into affect, more and more cases of child abuse and neglect were shown. By the mid 1970s, over 60,000 child abuse cases were reported and the extremely high rate of children in foster care alarmed government officials. In 1980, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA) was passed. This act required every state to make reasonable efforts in keeping children with their families, and when removing the child was not avoidable, the child was required to have a plan to be placed back in the home or have their parents’ rights revoked. For the children whom returning home was not an option, Congress offered financial incentives for adoption. This effort to preserve the families was a main objective of AACWA. An influential investigation pertaining to this was done by Henry S. Mass and Richard E. Engler, as explained by Sribnick (2011). They concluded that many children were living a majority of their childhood years in foster care and institutions. Their findings showed that if a child stayed in foster care for more than a year and a half, it was not likely that he or she would ever be reunited with his or her family or be adopted. In response to this, the Child Welfare League of America lobbied for child welfare workers to consider

The Social Security act benefited many people. Those who fell in this category were workers, victims of industrial accidents, unemployed insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the handicapped. This Social Security act was later signed into law, by current president at the time, Roosevelt. (Social Welfare History Project, n.d.) Moving along the line in 1970 was when the CWLA helped establish the National Foster Parents Association. In August 1971, this CWLA program received a three-year grant to create an organization based for foster parents. This association was established as an outcome of the concerns of the independent groups. The people felt that the country needed a program to meet the needs of the foster families in the U.S (Family Plus, n.d.). In 1980 the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare became law. The tenacity was to create a program of adoption assistance to ultimately serve different criteria’s. Its purpose was to strengthen the program of foster care assistance for the needy and dependent children, improve child welfare as well as social services and aid to families with dependent children programs (child Welfare Information Gateway, 2012). There are a myriad of different historical information that can lead and relate to the cause of the Child Welfare services. These are all just bits and pieces of importance that historically gives this program

Throughout the novel Orphan Train, there is the reoccurring importance of names for characters. Niamh receives a total of three different names in her lifetime, each name representing a different persona. Niamh is naïve and acts her age, Dorothy experiences hardships and is forced to suppress her emotions, Vivian is identified as the Neilson’s child and has a more stable home life. On the other hand, Molly has a significant name to her culture that helps her to relate to her culture with the events she has gone through in her life.