Welfare Reform in the Early Republic: A Brief History with Documents

In the decades following the American Revolution, elected officials, moral crusaders, and relief administrators scrutinized the public welfare programs that assisted thousands of impoverished people. Seth Rockman uses documents ranging from sermons to almshouse admission rolls to show how reformers investigated the causes of poverty and pursued solutions that ranged from massive institutionalization of the poor to the total abolition of public charity€"issues that are remarkably similar to the welfare debates of today. Also included are headnotes to the documents, questions for consideration, an annotated chronology, suggestions for further reading, and an index.

Table of Contents:

Part I: Introduction: Poverty "in a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey"

Poor Relief in Early America / The Growing Problem of Poverty and Its Victims / Religious Reform and Moral Benevolence / Public Responsibility for the Poor / Structural Solutions for Poverty / The Legacy of Welfare Reform / A Note about the Text

Part II: The Documents

Elite Perceptions of Poverty as a Moral and Social Crisis

1. The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Economy, 1817

2. The New York Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, 1818

3. On Doing Good to the Poor, 1818 (Heman Humphrey)

4. Of Intellectually and Morally Neglected Children, c. 1828 (Joseph Tuckerman)

Private Benevolence and Moral Cures for Poverty

5. The Friendly Society of St. Thomas's African Church, 1797

6. The Providence Female Society for the Relief of Indigent Women and Children, 1801

7. The Female Humane Association Charity School, 1803

8. Preacher to the Poor in New York, 1811 (Ezra Stiles Ely)

9. The Boston Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor, 1819

10. Subjects of the New York House of Refuge, 1825 1830

11. Letter to Graduates of the House of Refuge, 1829

12. Subjects of the New York Colored Orphan Asylum, 1837 1838

Public Institutions

13. Rules for the Government of the New York Almshouse, 1801

14. Rules and Regulations of the Salem Almshouse, 1816

15. The Boston House of Industry, 1821

16. Inmates of the Baltimore Almshouse, June 1825

17. Report of the Trustees of the Baltimore Almshouse, 1827

18. Philadelphia Board of Guardians of the Poor, 1827

Structural Explanations and Cures for Poverty

19. Petition of New Jersey Working Widows to the U.S. Senate, 1816

20. The Working People of New Castle County, Delaware, 1829

21. Rights of Man to Property, 1829 (Thomas Skidmore)

22. Lecture on Existing Evils and Their Remedy, 1829 (Frances Wright)

23. Address to the Wealthy of the Land, 1831 (Mathew Carey)

24. The Manayunk Working People's Committee, 1833

25. On Wage Slavery, 1836 (Philadelphia National Laborer)

Appendixes: A Chronology of Welfare Reform (1788 1840) / Questions for Consideration / Selected Bibliography