increased dramatically, for the only way to “care” for a child, was to abandon them. A mother’s instincts
are loving, protecting and caring unconditionally for their child. Through the early times, the birth rate of
newborns was insignificantly high, due to many reasons, one being the lack of way to avoid pregnancy.
The consequence of mothers was having to "get rid" of their babies, for their dreams of becoming
mommies was "smothered by poverty and want" (p.68). Thousands of hopeless infants left on the porches
and streets for the in taking of anyone...
The years ranging from 1890s to the 1920s are also known as “The Progressive Era;” A period
in time …show more content…
During the progressive era, people that put their best foot forward
in ending all deleterious laws in our country were called the "progressives." Progressives were mostly
bourgeois men and women, white Americans, and collegiately educated. These individuals desired for the
The document is a small section of Riis’ book, informing and describing the process of what
would or what was happening to poor “waifs” (pg.68) of the late 1800s. In the 1890, a well-known
book called “How the Other Half Lives” (p.67) was published. The book was written by (most famous
for his journalism), Jacob Riis. Jacob Riis at the age of forty, revealed the ongoing abandonment of
infants and other hidden horrors of the “New York slums” (p.67). “The New York slums” (p.67) were
immensely poor neighborhoods that were occupied by large amounts of unprivileged beings. Hence the
poor population, “Young mothers without wedding-rings” started leaving their newborns on doorsteps
of the wealthy, hoping the owners of the house would gladly take in a helpless baby. Sadly, the wealthy
did not take in poor babies left on their porch. “It never happens outside the story-books that a baby