The Orphan trains : placing out in America/ Marilyn Irvin Holt

Notes

Includes index.

"Between 1853 and 1929 at least two hundred thousand children and several thousand adults participated in a migration unique in America's history. 'Placing out,' a relocation system that attempted to find homes in the West for the urban poor, is perhaps best known today by the 'orphan trains' that carried the children to their new homes. Based on the records of placing out institutions, on newspaper stories of the time, and on firsthand accounts of those who were placed out, [this book] explains how the system was established and how it functioned into the third decade of the twentieth century. It examines the institutions that practiced placing out, details who the placed out were and how they were selected, and conveys what the experience was like for the orphan-train riders, some of whom endured conditions worse than those they had left, but most of whom thrived in their new homes"--Book jacket.

"Since placing out focused on children, from infants to older teen-agers, emphasis is on this group. Some mention of adult placements is made, particularly those of women during times of economic crisis. This is ultimately the story of child relocation, however. The focus here is the placing-out system instituted by the New York Children's Aid Society, its imitators, and its reasons for being an end. Of interest is the system in which 'homeless waifs' [found] themselves in comfortable and kind homes, with all the boundless advantages and opportunities of the Western farmer's life about them"--Introd.

Includes bibliographical notes.

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