History of Social Welfare and Child Welfare in the United States

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical concepts, acts, amendments, and child welfare movements from the lecture notes.

Buddhism (400 B.C.)

A belief system founded in 400 B.C. teaching that even if a person follows all rules, having selfish tendencies or anger diminishes spiritual value.

Feudalism System

An 11th-century government system where landowners held political power and protected workers from hazards such as sickness, unemployment, and old age

• Were protected by their lords or masters from against such ahzars such as sickness, unemployment, and old age

• Those who did not receive this protection wre helped by social, craft,and merchant guilds

Statute of Laborers Act (1349)

Law created by Edward III following the Black Death that fixed maximum wages, restricted movement of unemployed persons, and forced jobless individuals to work.

Act for the Punishment of Sturdy Vagabonds and Beggars (1536)

English law that imposed severe penalties (branding, enslavement, execution) on able-bodied beggars while providing work training for poor children and relief for the sick and elderly.

• Gave relief to children who were begging by putting them into work and aid to poor sick people and aged as well

• Kids that were under fourteen and above the age of 5 years old got appointed to go work for masters of husbandry or given other crafts or labors to be taught. They got their living when they became of age

Elizabeth Poor Laws of 1601

English social welfare legislation that made family members legally responsible for needy relatives, created parish taxes for relief, and categorized the poor into able-bodied, impotent, and children

• People refusing to work were whipped, branded, put in pillories/stoned or put in a house of correction

• Established three categories: able-bodied(capable of working who were involuntarily unemployed), impotent(elderly, blind, sick, and disabled), and children

• Gov gives you the minium amount of relief to prevent person from homelessness

Indoor Relief

A form of assistance requiring nonworthy poor individuals to live and work inside an institution (such as almshouses or workhouses) while learning skills.

Outdoor Relief

Assistance provided directly to worthy poor individuals (such as widows, elderly, or disabled) in their homes without requiring them to enter an institution.

Mutual Aid

Reciprocal support groups where individuals assist one another within a community without relying on outside aid or government sources.

“Warning Away”

Boston's selectman prohibited entertaining strangers in homes for more than two weeks without securing permission, if they stay longer and become a public burden they are denied permission. Those who who came anyway disregarding the law, were “warned away” by the selectman, those who did not go willingly were forcibly removed out

Apprenticeship (Colonial Era)

Removing coauoer, illegitimate, or orphaned white children from their families and apprencitnce out if they were not learning a trade

• Seen as good method to discipline children

Quincy Report (1820) & Yates Report (1824)

Influential reports that advocated for the abolition of the auction system and outdoor relief, favoring indoor relief institutions like almshouses and poorhouses

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County Poorhouse Act of 1824 (NY)

New York law that made institutional relief (almshouses and poorhouses) the primary form of public assistance and shifted social welfare responsibility from towns to counties.

Second Great Awakening

A period of emotional religious revivals that renewed interest in religion, fostered literacy among freed enslaved people, and spurred social reform movements.

U.S. Sanitary Commission (1861)

The first national public health organization in the U.S., privately funded during the Civil War to educate on sanitary science and reduce soldier mortality.

Organized Charity Movement

A movement that sought to eliminate fraud and inefficiency in relief delivery by investigating cases to differentiate between 'worthy' and 'unworthy' poor.

Friendly Visitors

Forerunners of social workers in the Organized Charity Movement who investigated poor families to diagnose causes of destitution and assign appropriate relief.

Mary Richmond

A prominent Friendly Visitor and charity worker who held the belief that poverty was primarily the result of individual moral failure.

Jane Addams

Settlement house pioneer who argued that poverty stemmed from broader social and economic issues rather than individual moral perversity.

Settlement Houses

Neighborhood centers established in impoverished urban areas where educated, privileged individuals lived and worked to conduct sociological research and assist the poor.

Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872)

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands; the first federal welfare agency, created to assist formerly enslaved people transitioning to freedom through direct aid and schools.

Laissez-Faire

An economic and political doctrine advocating zero or minimal government intervention in economic affairs, heavily supported by Social Darwinists.

Andrew Johnson (Term: 1865-1868)

Vice President who succeeded Abraham Lincoln; permitted Southern states to pass racist policies, refused to break up plantations, and returned land to former owners.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

Constitutional amendment that officially abolished slavery throughout the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

Constitutional amendment granting all citizens equal protection under the law and guaranteeing due process rights.

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

Constitutional amendment prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Nineteenth Amendment (1919)

Constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote in the United States.

Black Codes (1865)

Laws passed by Southern states following the Civil War to restrict African-Americans' freedom and compel them to work in cheap labor forces under mandatory annual contracts.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local legal segregation practices targeting Black people in public institutions, transport, and facilities, reinforced by racial violence.

Third Enforcement Act (KKK Act of 1871)

Federal legislation passed by President Grant that permitted the use of military force to suppress Ku Klux Klan violence and terrorism.

Children's Aid Society (CAS) (1853)

Organization established by Charles Loring Brace in NY to help homeless and immigrant children through trade schools, lodging houses, and educational programs.

Orphan Train Movement (1854-1929)

Also known as the Placing Out Movement; the first foster care system in the U.S., placing up to 250,000 children on trains to live with families in the West, South, or North.

White House Conference on Children & Youth of 1909

First major national conference focused on child welfare under President Theodore Roosevelt, declaring that poverty alone should not separate children from their families.

Child Welfare League of America (1920)

An organization established by social workers to set standard regulations for foster care, child welfare training, state inspections, and family reunification.

Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997)

Federal law designed to shorten the time children spend in foster care and accelerate permanent adoption placement.

Family First Prevention Services Act (2018)

Federal legislation created to support families with services to keep children safely in their homes and prevent foster care entry.

Keating-Owen Act (1916)

First federal child labor law in the U.S., signed by President Woodrow Wilson to restrict child labor.

Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)

New Deal law signed by FDR establishing a national minimum wage, mandatory overtime pay, and strict limitations on child labor.

Child Abuse Prevention Act (1974)

Federal law providing funding and guidelines to states for identifying, preventing, and treating child abuse and neglect.

Dawes Act (1887)

Legislation that broke up communal Native American reservation lands into individual farming parcels, reducing total Native land from 138 million to 48 million acres by 1934.

Indian Adoption Project (1958)

A campaign led by the Child Welfare League that removed Native American children from their birth families and placed them into white adoptive homes.

Indian Child Welfare Act (1978)

Federal legislation establishing strict standards for the removal and placement of Native American children to protect tribal connections and parental rights.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879-1918)

The first government-run Native American boarding school, founded by Lt. Col. Richard Henry Pratt under the assimilationist motto 'Kill the Indian and Save the Man.'

Outing System

A practice in Native American residential schools where students were sent to white families to perform unpaid manual or domestic labor.

Kinship Care

An arrangement where grandparents, extended family members, or close family friends raise a child full-time when biological parents are unable to do so safely.