
By Megan Birk
Drawing on establishment documents, correspondence from childrens and location households, and kingdom experiences, Megan Birk scrutinizes how the farm procedure developed--and how the youngsters concerned could have turn into a few of America's final indentured employees. among 1850 and 1900, as much as one-third of farm houses contained young children from open air the kinfolk. Birk unearths how the nostalgia hooked up to lost perceptions approximately fit, family-based exertions masked the realities of abuse, overwork, and loveless upbringings endemic within the procedure. She additionally considers how rural humans cared for his or her personal kids whereas being bombarded with dependents from somewhere else. ultimately, Birk strains how the ills linked to rural placement ultimately compelled reformers to transition to a procedure of paid foster care, adoptions, and kin preservation.