| Charles Loring Brace |
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| 1826 births | |
| brace, charles loring | |
| american anthropologists | |
| 1890 deaths | |
| human migration | |
| orphan trains canada | |
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Charles Loring Brace ( 1826 in Litchfield, Connecticut - 1890 ) was one of the greatest contributing Philanthropists in the field of Social Reform . Mr. Brace graduated from Yale in 1846 and then went on to study Divinity and Theology at Union Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1849 . Shortly after, he married Miss Letitia Neill in Belfast , Ireland , who proved to be a great support to her husband’s social reformation efforts. In 1852 , at the age of twenty-six, Mr. Brace was serving as a Methodist minister, he decided he wanted to fulfill his humanitarian efforts in the streets rather than in church. Mr. Brace became aware of the impoverished lives of the children in New York and for this reason his focus was concentrated on improving children’s situations and their future. A year later in 1853 , Charles Loring Brace established The Children’s Aid Society in New York . Mr. Brace witnessed many children in New York City who lived in poverty with parents who abused Alcohol , engaged in criminal activity, and who were unfit parents. The children of these individuals were sent to beg for money in the streets and sell newspapers and matches. These children became known as “street Arabs” or “the dangerous classes” due to the street violence and gangs they inevitably became a part of. In some cases, children as young as five years old would be sent to Jail s where adults were imprisoned in as well. The police referred to these children, who fell into a life of Crime , as “street rats”. According to an essay written by Brace in 1872 , one Crime and Poverty ridden area around Tenth Avenue was referred to as “ Misery Row ”. Misery Row was considered to be a main seed-bed of crime and poverty in the quarter, and was also an invariable ‘fever nest’.” Other children, who were orphans or runaways, found themselves drifting into this destitute area, as well as the old sheds of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets. Such was the severity of Child Poverty in 1854 , the estimated number of homeless children in New York City was as high as 34,000. Although Orphanage s existed, Brace did not believe they were worthwhile institutions because they merely served the purpose of feeding the poor and providing handouts. He felt that such institutions only deepened the dependence that keeps the poor dependent on Charity . Brace instead focused on finding jobs and training for poor and destitute children so they could help themselves. His initial efforts in Social Reform included job placement, training programs, reading rooms, and lodging houses for boys. His other belief was to place children into Christian farmer families of the American West into, what is today known as “Foster homes”. This was carried out through “Orphan Trains”, which Mr. Brace is most memorable for. In fact, Charles Loring Brace is considered a father of the modern Foster Care movement. The “Orphan Trains” transported New York City children across country, making stops along the journey to Rural towns in order to place children in environments in which they would be able to thrive in. “In every American community, especially in a western ones, there are many spare places at the table of life,” Brace wrote. “There is no harassing struggle for existence. They have enough for themselves and the stranger, too.” Brace’s vision of migrating children to live with the western Christian farming families was a widely held prosperous and virtuous belief at the time on the east coast. Over the next three quarters of a century, 100,000 to 400,000 children migrated west which resulted in the most profound Migration of children in history. The plan had failures and Critics , but there were many Success Stories as well. Many children placed in the program grew up to become productive citizens. The Children's Aid Society , the Organization responsible for finding homes for these children, made every effort to screen the host families, and follow up on the welfare of placed children. In a report in 1910 , the Children’s Aid Society estimated that eighty seven percent of children placed through “orphan trains” are doing well. While there were occasional abuses of children placed in the foster families, most people agree that over all, the children were better off in foster care than on the streets of big cities without Shelter , Food , Clothes or Healthcare . Charles Loring Brace Served as an executive secretary of Children's Aid Society for 37 years, overseeing this foster care program. He passed away in 1890 from Bright’s Disease . After his death, the Brace Memorial Farm was created for street children to learn farm skills, Manners , and personal Social Skills to help prepare them for live on their own. REFERENCES America Past and Present Online-Charles Loring Brace, The Life of The Street Rats (1872) Available:http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/nash5e_awl/medialib/timeline/docs/sources/theme_primarysources_Labor_3.html End Child Abuse- Champion of Children: Charles Loring Brace Available:http://www.childabuse.org/champions2.htm Jackson, Dave & Jackson, Netta (2001) Charles Loring Brace, The Founder of The Orphan Trains Available:http://trailblazerbooks.com/books/roundup/Roundup-bio.html |
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