Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood (2004) by American historian Steven Mintz is an extensive investigation of childhood in the USA from colonial times to the early 21st century.

The key theme is that history shows childhood to be a social construct rather than there being a ‘natural’ way of raising children.

Minz has 3 historical eras he explores over 17 chapters:

Colonial Era to mid – 18th century: It wasn’t unusual at this time for children in New England often between the ages of 7 & 12. The fostering out—or indenture—was a way by which even non-orphaned children learned the ‘discipline’ of work as they laboured as “servants or apprentices” (p. 23).

Modern Childhood (1750-1950): Mintz argues that the American Revolution (1763-1783) contributed to an ending of children being indentured as servants & to rejection of patriarchal rule. Slavery continued though & “On the eve of the Civil War [1860-1861], four million southerners were enslaved. Fully half were children under the age of sixteen (p. 94).”

- Child labour by the unenslaved also continued during the 19th century, eg, boys in coal mining families received as little as 5 years of schooling
- Then there’s the history of ‘assimilating’ Native American children by having them put into boarding schools.

Modern Childhood (1750-1950): Children moved from working on farms to working in factories & contributing to their households economically. This period also saw the rise of compulsory schooling, the juvenile justice system, as well as child protection.

The postwar period was a time a period of conformity when gender distinctions were “heavily emphasised” (p. 282) & when mothers wanted their children to blend in rather than to be “outstanding”. Although the 1950s “is considered especially family oriented” (p. 282), there were various external institutions which were considered important, particularly to middle class parents. Scouts & Girl Guides, for example.

Chapter 8 is entitled “Save the Child” & covers the time from the 1790s when philanthropists & reformers were considered by children on the streets. Minz covers the rise of “orphan asylums” from 1800 & that by 1850s, he says, they’d already acquired their “Dickensian image, as drab, regimented facilities”. Adoption emerged during the mid-19th century including that many took place without any legal involvement.