Lyddie: Voices from the Field - Chapter 02 Farm families

Farm families in nineteenth-century New England might choose to hire out or indenture their children if they found themselves in debt. A farm provided a home and a way to grow food and make a living, but it was also hard, physical work that depended on the weather and land quality for success. It was not uncommon for farm families to find themselves in need of cash for taxes or debts. Getting a paying job in a farming community was difficult, however, because people often lived many miles from a town.

Faced with these challenges, one option was to indenture, or hire out, children. An indenture was a legal contract that assigned guardianship to someone who was not the child’s parent. The adults who accepted an indentured child into their home were obligated to provide food, clothing, housing, and some education. In exchange, the child worked for the adult in whatever trade or job the person did to earn a living, ideally learning new skills in the process.

During the early nineteenth century, children were indentured to dressmakers, sailors, blacksmiths, millers, and tavern keepers, or to work on farms and in homes. Some children were paid a small amount for their labor, with money going to their parents. Others were not paid at all. Indenture contracts typically lasted until children were between 18 and 21 years old, at which point they were considered capable of living on their own.

In Lyddie, Charlie is indentured to a miller and later, due to that man’s affection for him, taken on as his apprentice. He is fortunate. As an apprentice, Charlie would be taught valuable skills that opened the door to a more secure future. With the knowledge he gained, he would have the possibility of running a business himself, perhaps eventually purchasing the mill where he was apprenticed or even receiving it as an in-kind gift for his labor.

The indenture system did two things for parents who had financial problems: it relieved them of the financial pressures of providing for children, and it sometimes offered them a small amount of money for the child’s labor. Families in financial crisis indentured older children who were good workers, and they used that financial savings and income to care for younger children not yet old enough to work. There were very few alternatives for struggling families, especially if relatives could not take children into their homes. Towns and villages in New England operated poor houses, sometimes called poor farms or almshouses, during this time. These places provided housing and food for local residents who could not provide for themselves. If children were sent to these places, officials usually tried to find a family to take them in through an indenture, because that was viewed as better and safer. Sending children to an orphanage was another option, but the first orphanage in Vermont did not open until 1854.

Indenturing children to strangers did not come without risk. Parents were not always aware of how their children were being treated, and it was hard for children to communicate outside the indenture if they needed help. There were not always enough adults assigned to check up on these children and make sure they were safe. Sometimes teenagers and young adults who were placed out resented working without being paid, and they ran away, either to find a paying job or to reunite with their family members. These and other concerns, as well as new laws that required children to go to school, eventually ended the practice of indenturing children in the early 1900s. Orphanages, payments to foster families, and new programs of direct aid to parents in need took their place.

About the Author

Dr. Megan Birk, Professor of History at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and author of The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms