History of Adoption In America

Adoption has been an age old practice all over the world. Since ancient times we get to read in stories from different cultures where adoptions have taken place. These are due to various reasons like infertility, lack of sustenance and also when a child lost either of its parents or became an orphan, a family in the village or town considered adopting and looking after it. The laws of adoption may have changed with time but the concept has always been there and will continue to do so in the near future. Children need protection, and love which they can get only from elders who can replace their biological parents.

History has also noticed adoption in the days of monarchy when kings wanted to continue their lineage have adopted sons only because they couldn’t beget children to continue their dynasties. Adoptions have also taken place due to reasons of labor and property. Natal kinship was not much of importance in the history of adoption which is the same even today. The basic reason in the history of adoption for ages has been to continue the legacy of the family, and even sometimes out of sympathy for a child having lost its parents and other reasons associated with formation of a family.

One of the earliest adoption laws passed in American history was the “Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act” in the year 1851. This was one of the first modern adoption laws passed among the other nations of the world. This was the first law which was to be monitored by the judiciary to ensure the process of adoption was happening properly and systematically. Then in 1854, the New York Children’s Aid and Society started the Orphan trains. The reformer Charles Loring Brace launched this campaign to ensure proper homes for orphans. But the great revolutionary change came in 1868 when the Massachusetts Board of State Charities started paying children to live with families. This was a great movement to ensure children received family care and attention. The consecutive year, an agent was appointed to monitor the conditions of children living in family homes. This was the first initiative of placing children in family homes instead of orphanages.

Later on, in 1909 the First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children decided not to make poverty as the lone grounds for adoption or separating them from biological parents. The legislation included “other reasons” whenever it would be considered necessary to facilitate them. These were the initial law reforms which saw a gradual and great improvement in the history of adoption in the USA.

Over the years America has seen a great number of adoption agencies increasing along with a gradual rise in families adopting children. There were about 175,000 adoptions recorded annually in the twentieth century. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 was enacted to allow international adoptee to become American citizens upon entry into the country. This has happened for the first time in the history of adoption in the United States to allow citizenship to adopted children born out of the USA.