Vol.65/No.33
August 27, 2001
Letters
Faith-based charity
I recently came across the following description of "faith-based charities" in England in the 1700s: "Of all the procedures [of committing infanticide] the most unobjectionable was simply to leave the infant at some church entrance or in a secluded doorway, in the hope that perhaps someone would rescue him. Most of these abandoned children died quickly of exposure or starvation.... In the countryside foundlings were ... assigned to the parish workhouses, which [were] called 'slaughter-houses of infants' because the mortality was well-nigh total. In order to save trouble and money parish officers assigned the infants to paid nurses, who were universally detested and nicknamed 'killing nurses' or 'she-butchers' because no child ever escaped their care alive."
Robert Dees
Palo Alto, California
The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of interest to working people. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.
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