encyclopedia of adoption

INTRODUCTION
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ADOPTION	Page 3 of 10 << back \| next >>

Orphaned Children and Adoption in the United States

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Informal adoptions were the norm in the colonial days of early America, long before the passage of the Massachusetts law.

Governor Sir William Phil),, of Massachusetts was allegedly the first recorded adoptive father in the original thirteen colonies. He adopted a child in 1693. The word "adoption" appeared in Governor Phips's will, as well as in the act of the colonial legislature that allowed for the legal name change of the sort.

In fact, it was fairly common for colonial legislatures to pass special bills recognizing the adoption of a child. Some historians have hypothesized that legislators became weary of passing so many bills for individual cases, bills that increased to such a great extent they bottlenecked other legislation. As a result, the legislators may have eased their legislative load by legalizing what was already common.

Laws prior to the 1851 Massachusetts adoption law, for example, in Texas ( 1850) and Mississippi (1846), have not been considered adoption laws by experts because such laws simply enabled individuals to leave their estates to nonrelatives in a similar manner in which property deeds were registered.

The groundwork for a philosophy favoring adoption had been laid well ahead of this time by Thomas Jefferson, who detested the concept of primogeniture and dedicated time during his early political career as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates to eliminate primogeniture in Virginia, ultimately succeeding in 1783. It's interesting to note that some British parents, still shackled by the bonds of primogeniture, sent their second or later-born sons to Virginia subsequent to Virginia's lilting of primogeniture.

Another status granted to children during the colonial era of the United States was that of godchild, and often the godchild did assume the name of the godparent. In addition, godchildren frequently inherited from godparents, although such an inheritance had to be stipulated in the will of the godparent.

According to Kawashirna, one man left his estate to his wife and ordered that after her death the property would be left to a goddaughter, "except for one cow, which was given to the other goddaughter."

In his 1694 will, New Yorker William Moncom bequeathed half his property to his godson and the other half was divided among his three children.

Some colonists informally fostered orphaned children, treating them as adopted children. These early "foster families" frequently developed great affection for the children, and in some cases, the children inherited property when the "master" died; for example, as early as 1769, William Russell of Georgia provided a dowry of 300 pounds to Anna Hunter, a child who resided with him, to be paid "on the day of her marriage or when she became of age."

Another key problem of the period was that illegitimacy was seen as evil and a shocking rip in the fabric of socially acceptable behavior and norms. Many people believed that it they solved the problem of the out-of-wedlock mother and child by arranging for another family to raise the child, they were condoning her "sin" and "making it easy" for her. Instead, it was believed she should be forced to raise her child, whether she wanted to or not, an opinion that continues to be held by some individuals today.

The effect on the child of pressuring the mother into parenting (or seeing the child reside in an orphanage and contributing money toward the child's support) was not of concern to society at large because the child was illegitimate and many people presumed the child was probably "bad," too. The severe shunning that Hester Prynne faced in the book The Scarlet Letter gives an idea of the prevalent view toward women who bore children out of wedlock and their children.

In later years, states began to create laws requiring investigations of the prospective adoptive parents. Michigan's 1891 statute was the first to order such an investigation (the precursor to today's home study) to further protect the child.

However, it should be noted that child protection laws were not passed until many years after the adoption statutes of Massachusetts and other states were legislated. It was not until an incident occurred in 1874 in New York City, in which Mary Ellen Wilson was severely beaten and abused by her parents, that any type of formal action was taken to protect children.

Outraged neighbors were unable to convince anyone to intervene to help Mary Ellen. Finally, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals intervened to protect children, and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first organization in the world to protect children from abuse, was subsequently formed in 1874.

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