Baby farming

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Baby farming is the historical practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment in late-Victorian Britain and, less commonly, in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. If the infant was young, this usually included wet-nursing (breast-feeding by a woman not the mother). Some baby farmers "adopted" children for lump-sum payments, while others cared for infants for periodic payments.

Contents

Description

The use of foster care in 18th-century Britain by middle-class parents was described by Claire Tomalin in her biography of Jane Austen, who was fostered in the 1760s in this manner, as were all her siblings, from when they were a few months old until they were toddlers. [1] Tomalin emphasizes the emotional distance this created.

Important historical context for the practice is the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which denied the poor the right to subsistence. In particular, single mothers were then forced to work in prison-like workhouses.

In late-Victorian Britain (and, less commonly, in Australia and the United States), baby farming was the practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment.[ citation needed ] Though baby farmers were paid in the understanding that care would be provided, the term "baby farmer" was used as an insult, and improper treatment was usually implied.[ citation needed ] Illegitimacy and its attendant social stigma were usually the impetus for a mother's decision to put her children "out to nurse" with a baby farmer, but baby farming also encompassed foster care and adoption in the period before[ when? ] they were regulated by British law.[ citation needed ] Wealthier women would also put their infants out to be cared for in the homes of villagers.[ citation needed ]

Particularly in the case of lump-sum adoptions, it was more profitable for the baby farmer if the infant or child she adopted died, since the small payment could not cover the care of the child for long. Some baby farmers adopted numerous children and then neglected them or murdered them outright (see infanticide). Several baby farmers were tried for murder, manslaughter, or criminal neglect and were hanged. Margaret Waters (executed 1870) and Amelia Dyer (executed 1896) were two infamous British baby farmers, as were Amelia Sach and Annie Walters (executed 1903). [2] The last baby farmer to be executed in Britain was Rhoda Willis, who was hanged in Wales in 1907.

The only woman to be executed in New Zealand, Minnie Dean, was a baby farmer, although in 1926, a male baby farmer, Daniel Cooper (murderer) was also executed for the death of his pregnant first wife and two subsequent infants. In Australia, baby-farmer Frances Knorr was executed for infanticide in 1894. [3] Although John and Sarah Makin were also convicted of infanticide, only John Makin had been executed a year earlier (1893) in Sydney for this crime.

In Scandinavia there was a euphemism for this activity: änglamakerska (Swedish, including Hilda Nilsson) and englemagerske (Danish), both literally meaning a female "angel maker".

Decline

An undercover investigation of baby-farming, reported in 1870 in a letter to The Times , concluded that "My conviction is that children are murdered in scores by these women, that adoption is only a fine phrase for slow or sudden death". [4]

Spurred by a series of articles that appeared in the British Medical Journal in 1867, the Parliament of the United Kingdom began[ according to whom? ] to regulate baby farming in 1872 with the passage of the Infant Life Protection Act 1872.

London coroner Athelstan Braxton Hicks gave evidence in 1896 on the dangers of baby-farming to the Select Committee on Infant Life Protection Bill. [5] One case that he cited was that of Mrs Arnold, who had been "sweating" infants legally by doing so one at a time. [6] At another inquest, the jury were of the "opinion that there has been gross neglect in the case" but were unable to allocate responsibility. They added the rider that "The jury are strongly of opinion that further legislation in what are usually known as baby farming cases is greatly needed, and particularly that the required legislation should extend to the care of one infant only, and that the age of the infant should not be limited to one year, but rather to five years and that it should be an offence for any person undertaking the care of such infant to sub farm it." [7] [8]

The Infant Life Protection Act 1897 finally empowered local authorities to control the registration of nurses responsible for more than one infant under the age of five for a period longer than 48 hours.[ citation needed ]

A series of acts passed over the next seventy years, including the Children Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. 67), under which "no infant could be kept in a home that was so unfit and so overcrowded as to endanger its health, and no infant could be kept by an unfit nurse who threatened, by neglect or abuse, its proper care and maintenance."[ citation needed ]

The Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act 1939 gradually placed adoption and foster care under the protection and regulation of the state.[ citation needed ]

Postwar Britain

In the 1960s and 70s, thousands of West African children were privately fostered by white families in the UK in a phenomenon known as 'farming'. The biological parents were usually students in the UK who also had a job. They placed ads in the newspapers looking for foster families to care for their children. [9] [10]

Known baby farmers with criminal convictions

The following is a list of baby farmers with criminal convictions associated with their operations, categorized by country:

Australia

Brazil

Japan

New Zealand

Sweden

United Kingdom

United States

Related Research Articles

Infanticide is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of resources being spent on weak or disabled offspring. Unwanted infants were usually abandoned to die of exposure, but in some societies they were deliberately killed. Infanticide is broadly illegal, but in some places the practice is tolerated, or the prohibition is not strictly enforced.

Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring in an illegal way, with the intent of never resuming or reasserting guardianship. The phrase is typically used to describe the physical abandonment of a child. Still, it can also include severe cases of neglect and emotional abandonment, such as when parents fail to provide financial and emotional support for children over an extended period. An abandoned child is referred to as a foundling. Baby dumping refers to parents leaving a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intent of terminating their care for the child. It is also known as rehoming when adoptive parents use illegal means, such as the internet, to find new homes for their children. In the case where child abandonment is anonymous within the first 12 months, it may be referred to as secret child abandonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orphanage</span> Residential institution devoted to the care of orphans

An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusive. There may be substance abuse or mental illness in the biological home, or the parent may simply be unwilling to care for the child. The legal responsibility for the support of abandoned children differs from country to country, and within countries. Government-run orphanages have been phased out in most developed countries during the latter half of the 20th century but continue to operate in many other regions internationally. It is now generally accepted that orphanages are detrimental to the emotional wellbeing of children, and government support goes instead towards supporting the family unit.

Female infanticide is the deliberate killing of newborn female children. Female infanticide is prevalent in several nations such as China, India and Pakistan. It has been argued that the low status in which women are viewed in patriarchal societies creates a bias against females. The modern practice of gender-selective abortion is also used to regulate gender ratios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnie Dean</span> New Zealander convicted of infanticide

Williamina Dean was a New Zealander who was found guilty of infanticide and hanged. She was the only woman to be executed in New Zealand. Several other women were sentenced to death, but all of them had their sentences commuted to either life or long duration imprisonment.

The United States Children's Bureau is a federal agency organized under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Today, the bureau's operations involve improving child abuse prevention, foster care, and adoption. Historically, its work was much broader, as shown by the 1912 act which created and funded it:

The said bureau shall investigate and report to [the Department of Commerce and Labor] upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth-rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting children in the several states and territories.

Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions of abuse, providing support and services to protect children, and holding those who have harmed them accountable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Sach and Annie Walters</span> British murderers

Amelia Sach and Annie Walters were two British murderers better known as the Finchley baby farmers.

Child protective services (CPS) is the name of an agency in many U.S. states responsible for providing child protection, which includes responding to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered practices, such as department of children and family services (DCFS). CPS is also sometimes known by the name of department of social services, though these terms more often have a broader meaning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Dyer</span> English serial killer (1837–1896)

Amelia Elizabeth Hobley, popularly dubbed the Ogress of Reading, was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period during the Victorian era.

Child laundering is a tactic used in illegal or fraudulent international adoptions. It may involve child trafficking and child acquisition through payment, deceit or force. The children may then be held in sham orphanages while formal adoption processes are used to send them to adoptive parents in another country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orphan Train</span> U.S. welfare program

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 from about 200,000 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. Criticisms of the program include ineffective screening of caretakers, insufficient follow-ups on placements, and that many children were used as strictly slave farm labor.

Neonaticide is the deliberate act of a parent murdering their own child during the first 24 hours of life. As a noun, the word "neonaticide" may also refer to anyone who practices or who has practiced this.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Knorr</span> Australian serial killer

Frances Lydia Alice Knorr was an English migrant to Australia, known as the Baby Farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling an infant and hanged on Monday 15 January 1894.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Foundling</span> Child welfare agency active in New York and Puerto Rico

The New York Foundling, founded in 1869 by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity, is one of New York City's oldest and largest child welfare agencies. The Foundling operates programs in the five boroughs of New York City, Rockland County, and Puerto Rico. Its services include foster care, adoptions, educational programs, mental health services, and many other community-based services for children, families, and adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coin-operated-locker babies</span> Aspect of child abuse in Japan

Coin-operated-locker babies or coin-locker babies are victims of child abuse often occurring in Japan, in which infants are left in public lockers. There are two main variables that account for the differences in frequency and the type of these child abuse cases: social and economical. Predominantly neonates and male babies, the murder of infants became a form of population control in Japan, being discovered 1–3 months after death, wrapped in plastic and appearing to have died of asphyxiation. The presumption is that such lockers are regularly checked by attendants and the infant will be found quickly; however, many children are found dead. Between 1980 and 1990, there were 191 reported cases of infants which died in coin-operated lockers, which represents about six percent of all infanticides during that period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John and Sarah Makin</span> Australian couple convicted of murder

John Sidney Makin and Sarah Jane Makin were Australian 'baby farmers' who were convicted in New South Wales for the murder of infant Horace Murray. The couple answered a series of advertisements from unmarried mothers seeking adoption of their babies, taking on the care of the infants on payment of a "premium". The remains of fifteen infants were found by police buried in the yards of houses where the Makins had resided. The couple were tried and found guilty in March 1893 and both were sentenced to death, though Sarah Makin's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. After an unsuccessful appeal, which was confirmed by the Privy Council in Britain, John Makin was hanged on 15 August 1893. Sarah Makin served her sentence at Bathurst and Sydney. After eighteen-and-a-half years she was released in April 1911 when her daughters petitioned for her early release.

Infanticide in 19th-century New Zealand was difficult to assess, especially for newborn indigenous Māori infants. Resultantly, many New Zealand women who might otherwise have been sentenced to penal servitude or capital punishment had their sentences commuted to the lesser charge of "concealment of birth" under the Offences Against the Person Act 1867. However, the relative leniency extended only to mothers of concealed or hidden infants who subsequently died. Fathers, grandparents and "baby farmers" like Minnie Dean, the only woman to be executed in New Zealand history, and Daniel Cooper in the 1920s were viewed as more culpable for the death of such infants.

An anonymous birth is a birth where the mother gives birth to a child without disclosing her identity, or where her identity remains unregistered. In many countries, anonymous births have been legalized for centuries in order to prevent formerly frequent killings of newborn children, particularly outside of marriage.

Athelstan Braxton Hicks was a coroner in London and Surrey for two decades at the end of the 19th century. He was given the nickname "The Children's Coroner" for his conscientiousness in investigating the suspicious deaths of children, and especially baby farming and the dangers of child life insurance. He would later publish a study on infanticide.

References

  1. ↑ excerpt from Jane Austen: A Biography
  2. ↑ ""Baby Farming" – a tragedy of Victorian times". Capital Punishment U.K.
  3. ↑ Laster, Kathy (2005). "Knorr, Frances Lydia (Minnie) (1867–1894)". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  4. ↑ "Baby Farming". Times [London, England]. 14 July 1870 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  5. ↑ "Minutes of Evidence Taken Before The Select Committee on Infant Life Protection Bill" (PDF). 1896. pp. 43–55.
  6. ↑ "THE ALLEGED BABY FARMING CASE". Morning Post [London]. 28 September 1888 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ↑ "THE BABY FARMING CASE AT NEWPORT PAGNELL. ADJOURNED INQUEST—REMARKABLE EVIDENCE. THE CHILD'S STOMACH TO BE ANALYSED". Northampton Mercury. 18 May 1889. p. 11 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ↑ "The Baby-Farming Inquest at Newport Pagnell. The Verdict". Northampton Mercury. 1 June 1889. p. 10 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ↑ "'Farmed': why were so many Black children fostered by white families in the UK?". the Guardian . 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  10. ↑ "Why thousands of West African children were privately fostered by white families". ITV News. 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  11. ↑ "EastEnders to air identity storyline involving George Knight".
  12. ↑ "'Haunted Collector': Cigar Bar Used To Be A 'Baby Farm' That Abused Children (VIDEO)". Huffpost TV. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
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