Between 18, as many as 400,000 urban children were taken from the streets and tenements of New York City to new homes in rural America on what became known as “The Orphan Train Program,” a social experiment of unprecedented scope.Ĭhildren as young as infants were included in the program, which was the forerunner of modern foster care. In 1853, the Children’s Aid Society was born, with the goal of getting homeless and abused children “utterly out of their surroundings and to send them away to kind Christian homes in the country.” The Society raised the necessary funds, arranged discounted train fares, and, if parents could be found, obtained the legal permission needed for relocation. Horrified by their plight, Brace came up with the idea of creating an organization to help these “children of unhappy fortune,” as he called them, in an effort to provide them hope for the future. He learned that many were the offspring of poor immigrants from Ireland, Italy, or Germany, speaking only broken English. Living hand-to-mouth and often running in gangs, thousands of destitute boys and girls, called “Street Arabs,” were in a desperate battle for day-to-day survival. When Charles Loring Brace, a young minister from a prominent Connecticut family, went to New York City in the early 1850s to finish his schooling, he was appalled at the number of street children he saw there. Many found their parents unable or unwilling to care for them, and turned to the streets to sell newspapers, beg for food or steal to get by. Small wonder the children of these families suffered terribly.
Worse, dangerous jobs meant numerous accidents and no safety net for those who suffered disabilities. A steady supply of willing replacements meant low wages and appalling conditions. There were few jobs available, no labor unions, no sick leave, no insurance, and no welfare. In most cases they discovered conditions were little better for them in the new world. Picture the plight of the poor immigrant, leaving poverty and oppression to come to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.