Charleston Orphan House
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€38.99
A01=John E. Murray
adulthood
america
american
antebellum
apprentice
Author_John E. Murray
benefactors
carolina
Category=JKSB1
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
childhood
children
class
classism
coming of age
community
education
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
equality
family
growing up
historical
history
inequality
orphanage
orphans
political
politics
poverty
public
sickness
social studies
south
southern
true story
united states
welfare
Product details
- ISBN 9780226924090
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 03 Jan 2013
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The first public orphanage in America, the Charleston Orphan House saw to the welfare and education of thousands of children from poor white families in the urban South. From wealthy benefactors to the families who sought its assistance to the artisans and merchants who relied on its charges as apprentices, the Orphan House was a critical component of the city's social fabric. By bringing together white citizens from all levels of society, it also played a powerful political role in maintaining the prevailing social order. John E. Murray tells the story of the Charleston Orphan House for the first time through the words of those who lived there or had family members who did. Through their letters and petitions, the book follows the families from the events and decisions that led them to the Charleston Orphan House through the children's time spent there to, in a few cases, their later adult lives. What these accounts reveal are families struggling to maintain ties after catastrophic loss and to preserve bonds with children who no longer lived under their roofs.
An intimate glimpse into the lives of the white poor in early American history, "The Charleston Orphan House" is moreover an illuminating look at social welfare provision in the antebellum South.
John E. Murray is the J. R. Hyde III Professor of Political Economy at Rhodes College and the author of Origins of American Health Insurance.
