In The Beginning
In the 7th century Arch bishop of Canterbury ruled that a man could not sell his son into slavery if the child was past his 7th birthday. In the 1600 and 1700's in Europe children were often times given to others for an apprenticeship where the child would learn labor in a trade. Often times the Master of the child <the one who was doing the teaching> was allowed to beat a child. The child was known as a slave. The earliest record of child abuse was in 1639 in Salem Ma. Where Maramaduke Perry was charged with killing his apprentice. The child had suffered a fractured skull but the child had told a concerned neighbor that he had fallen therefore obtaining the injury. Marmaduke was acquitted and served no time. In 1643 a Master was executed for killing his servant. In 1644 in Plymouth Ma a master was found guilty of killing a servant boy and lost all his property as a result. For the most part Master's were just warned to ease up on the discipline. In 1700 Virginia passed a law to end the maltreatment of servants. Few family cases are founding history for abuse. The few cases brought before the courts were due to refusing to make a child work and/or refusing to attend church therefore the courts felt that the house was unsuitable for a child to live in. Abuse was never an issue.
In the middle ages the Roman Catholic Church declared that deformed babies were a bad omen and should be put to death. Later on in the 1700 and 1800's teacher's parents and minister's justified child abuse by saying that it was God's will to "beat the devil out of the child" or to "spare the rod and spoil the child" Though it should be noted that the "rod" that the bible speaks of is a rod to lead sheep in the right direction and not to beat them with.
It was in the late 1800's that child abuse was finally addressed in some form. Children were beginning to be viewed as little adults. In 1874 Mary Ellen Connolly was found beaten and cut by a church social worker. The social worker turned towards the ASPCA for help and then challenged the courts that Mary Connolly was an animal and should be protected under the law. The courts there granted and Mary's mother served 1-year labor as punishment,
1909 a proposal to end child abuse was put before President Taft who signed a law in 1912 for research to provide more information. In 1916 the Child's Bureau promoted passage of Keating-Owen act limiting children n factories or mines though it did not limit labor that a child could do at home or in a sweatshop. In 1921 it Child Bureau again helped in the Sheppard-Towner Act to help with getting prenatal care for mothers. In 1935 Child Welfare Services were put into effect to help with the cost of orphans and unwanted children and in 1962 it was reformed into Aid to Family with Dependent Children <AFDC> Another change took place with AFDC in 1980 allowing foster parents to seek funding from another program separate from AFDC.
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