Uprooted
384 pages, 7 x 10
Hardcover
Release Date:20 Feb 2008
ISBN:9780774815406
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Uprooted

The Shipment of Poor Children to Canada, 1867-1917

UBC Press

Some 80,000 British children - many of them under the age of ten -were shipped from Britain to Canada by Poor Law authorities andvoluntary bodies during the 50 years following Confederation in 1867.How did this come about? What were the motives and methods of thepeople involved in both countries? Why did it come to an end? Whateffects did it have on the children involved and what eventually becameof them? These are the questions Roy Parker explores in a meticulouslyresearched work that brings together economic, political, social,medical, legal, administrative and religious aspects of the story inBritain and Canada. He concludes with a moving review of evidence frommore recent survivors of child migration, discussing the lifelongeffects of their experiences with the help of modern psychologicalinsights.

His book - humane and highly professional - will capture and holdthe interest of many: the academic, the practitioner and the generalreader; and they will include the relatives and descendants, both inBritain and Canada, of the children around whom this studyrevolves.

This is an excellent historical analysis of the push and pull factors that not long ago engineered the transportation of thousands of children to live with homestead families or in institutions in Canada. Professor Emeritus John Triseliotis, University of Edinburgh
This is a sober, scholarly study of the forces that fed and restricted the forced emigration of British children to Canada, largely to Canadian farms. It does not neglect the most emotionally poignant stories, but nor does it dwell on them. … This is truly an interdisciplinary study, giving due weight to a stunning number of factors…. Suanne Kelman, Literary Review of Canada, Vol.16, No.6, July-August 2008
Roy Parker is Professor Emeritus of Social Policy atthe University of Bristol. Formerly he taught at the London School ofEconomics and Political Science. His research and writing reflect alongstanding interest in the politics of social policy and in thecondition and needs of disadvantaged children.

Part I: Setting the Scene

one The Background

I Prelude

II The Pressure for Emigration Grows

III The Ups and Downs of Official Policies

IV Maria Rye’s Appearance on the Scene

V The Scene is Set

two Early Initiatives

I London: Rye, Macpherson and Stephenson

II Liverpool: Nugent and Birt

III Quarrier and Glasgow

IV Middlemore in Birmingham

V The Networks

Part II: Setbacks and Anxieties

three Checks and Balances

I Orphans,Waifs, Strays and the Deserted

II Asking the Children

III The Pros and Cons of Emigration

IV Growing Anxieties

V The Doyle Inquiry and the Moratorium

four The Issue of Inspection

I The Canadian Answer to Doyle’s Report

II The Response of the Local Government Board

III A Second Canadian Offer

IV A Particular Case

V Eventually Something is Heard of the Children

Part III: The Field Expands

five The Second Wave of Organised Protestant ChildEmigration

I Enter Barnardo

II Shaw and Manchester

III Fegan’s boys

IV The Established Church

six The Catholic response

I The Context

II Liverpool: Preserving the Faith

III Westminster and the French Connection

IV Southwark and Different Policies for Girls and Boys

V Salford Records the Details but Soon Withdraws

VI The Amalgamation and New Policies

VII The Disapproved

VIII The main features

seven The ‘Unorganised’ Emigrationists

I The Examples

II Emma Stirling Confronts the Law

III The Pady Scandal

IV Confusion:The Bristol Emigration Society

V The General Pattern

Part IV: The Canadian Dimension

eight Canadian Demand for Child Labour

I The Farm Family

II Girls as Domestic Servants

III Ages and Wages

IV The School Lottery

nine Canadian Opposition to Child Immigration

I The Setting

II Organised Labour Takes a Stand

III The Disquiet of the Civic Authorities and the Charities

IV The Doctors Express Alarm

V Opposition in the Press

VI Needed but Not Wanted?

ten The Management of the Opposition in Canada

I May and June 1888

II Developments after 1888

III A Charge Repudiated

Part V: Ambiguities and Obfuscation

eleven The Reformatories and Industrial Schools

 I The Background

 II Rising Unease

 III The Royal Commission and Child Emigration

 IV The Repercussions of the Royal Commission’sReport

 V Canadian Vacillation

 VI Uneasy Politics  

Part VI: The Children and Their Parents

twelve What Befell the Children

I Letters from Canada

II The Unwanted and the Runaways

III Removing the Ill-treated

IV Seduction, Sexual Assault and Rape

V Repatriation and Deportation

VI Citizenship

Thirteen Parents’ Rights, Consent and Legislation

I A Changing Pattern

II The Campaign to Limit Parental Rights

III The Legislation

IV Parents’ Complaints and Where They Stood

Part VII: A Chapter Closes

fourteen Into the Twentieth Century

I The Quest for Improvements

II Many or Few?

III The Newcomers

Part VIII: A Review

fifteen Explanation and Assessment

I Why?

II Outcomes and Evaluation

III Hearing from the Survivors

IV Later Voices

V Confirmation

VI A Reckoning

Notes

References

Index

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