eriod, American families were held together by strict, rigid, and austere religious codes of morality. Further, rural economic conditions required every family member (including young children) to share fully in the workload.
Because children were needed to ensure the family's economic survival, they were given home training and kept in tow by harsh disciplinary measures. However, later, during the Industrial Revolution, the American family assumed particular importance, providing its members the social stability and support needed to withstand the unsettling forces of economic growth and social change.
However, during Colonial times, it was the strict disciplinary view that prevailed. And in this regard, Axin and Levin (1990) note that the measures taken to remove abused and neglected children from the home environment and give them the opportunity to prosper included farming out, indenture, and apprenticeship, each of which was viewed as providing the child with both a governing family structure and a means of productivity.
As the colonies grew and became more financially able, abused and/or neglected children were increasingly placed under institutional care, namely that of the almshouses. However, Wilkerson (1973) has pointed out that even though almshouses were, at least in part, a humanitarian response to what was increasingly coming to be understood as the inhumane treatment of children, most of these institutions were, in reality, harsh and punitive places.
Aries (1962) has noted that during the 1800s, the social response to abused and neglected children slowly turned more beneficent, especially among the more educated upper class. The concept that children were "innocent" began to develop. More importantly in terms of the concept continuing to flourish, this innocence was confirmed by the Church.
According to Lomax, Kagan and Rosenkrantz (1978), the idea of family grew increasingly important with t...