In 1816 a group of white, affluent women in Natchez, Mississippi founded the Female Charitable Society, one of many ladies' associations in the early republic devoted to the care of poor and orphaned children. Born during a pervasive evangelical awakening, the Society established a charity school then, after a few years, constructed an orphan asylum. In doing so, benevolent women created not only a shelter for parentless boys and girls but a "civic household" of which they served as a collective head. Supported by charitable contributions rather than tax revenue, the orphan asylum functioned as a model environment, one that would rear prepubescent white children to be moral and industrious in trades that befit their born condition. The asylum also represented an opportunity for personal spiritual renewal on the part of donors as well as a landmark of municipal refinement. By promoting themselves as the natural caretakers of poor young children and fostering a culture of sympathy for them, benevolent women challenged the primacy of the statutory system of juvenile relief, which dated back to the earliest days of colonial settlement. Gradually, the Female Charitable Society raised the standard of relief for prepubescent indigent minors, diverted them from bound apprenticeship, wrested jurisdiction over them from male county officials, and gathered them into the household. The female-run orphan asylum largely supplanted apprenticeship as the preferred system of juvenile relief in Natchez, mirroring developments in other cities around the country. This study investigates why and how the orphan asylum emerged as a prominent form of juvenile relief in the United States. Using Natchez as a case study, this work underscores the role of benevolent women in effecting concrete transformations within the community as well as the impact of changes in domestic familial relations on child welfare. This study also expands the notion of "republican motherhood" to include "civic motherhood," that is, the public cultivation of maternal authority over poor children. Members of the Natchez Female Charitable Society positioned themselves as the rightful guardians of white, indigent boys and girls and was eventually granted legal authority over them by the State of Mississippi. / text

As Lower Canada/Quebec industrialized, the system of poor relief that developed followed a private, confessional model. While the Catholic Church controlled services for Catholics, the lay Protestant elite controlled the relief network for their community. Elite women played a major role in this network, managing most of the charities for women and children. / This thesis uses the two most important female-directed Montreal charities---the Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Montreal Ladies' Benevolent Society---to study Protestant charity and particularly child charity from 1822 to 1900. It examines the organization and work of female charity committees as well as the services offered, the relevance of gender to charity management, and attitudes to childhood and family. Extensive source material, from the archives of the two societies, enables an analysis of the characteristics of the children admitted, as well as of the management committees, and their policies. / In this period, serving on a charity board was an expected activity for elite women. As a result, committees had many members. However, this thesis reveals that only a small number of women actually participated in the substantial administrative and organizational work that was involved in running a charity. This lack of participation made it more difficult to supervise the institutions and to organize fund-raising events. / Formed by the elite to regulate as well as to help the poor, these charities permit an examination of working-class agency. Organisers used their control of admissions and discharges as well as the institutional regime to impose their values of parenting and work. Nonetheless, the study of these two charities shows that families managed to use charities to shelter their children temporarily, occasionally circumventing restrictive access rules or challenging a charity's refusal to discharge children. / As "ladies" acting in public, the women in control of these charities were influenced by restrictive gender ideologies, particularly that of "separate spheres." Gender conscious and conservative, they respected social conventions in their public appearances and deferred to men in critical areas such as investments. Yet, at the same time, they affirmed their abilities and defended their authority and their autonomy in areas considered in the women's sphere, including child-care and charity management. / Understanding charity from within a conservative culture that emphasized religion, tradition, and values like work, family, and social hierarchy, these benevolent women sought to relieve the poor but they also sought to train useful citizens. In their charity work, they faced many complex questions connected to child abuse, changes in apprenticeship systems, adequate training for children, and the rights of parents. This study argues that both their conservative approach and their women's culture, centered on a personal approach, influenced the way they dealt with these issues. Of equal importance, however, was the experience they had acquired over years of child-charity work. As a result of these factors, their emphasis on protecting the children under their care increased over time. Consequently, the policies they developed in favour of helping families with temporary care and in favour of using apprenticeship and finally extended training in the institution itself diverged from those advocated by late-century reform groups, which opted for placing children in families instead of institutions and which advocated more restrictive, scientific charity methods.

No description available.

Submitted by Leonardo Lima (leonardoperlim@gmail.com) on 2016-04-11T14:27:11Z No. of bitstreams: 2 O Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito em Pelotas.pdf: 7186207 bytes, checksum: 9501700f515369298978ca896f83506d (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2016-04-11T15:02:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 O Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito em Pelotas.pdf: 7186207 bytes, checksum: 9501700f515369298978ca896f83506d (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2016-04-11T15:07:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 O Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito em Pelotas.pdf: 7186207 bytes, checksum: 9501700f515369298978ca896f83506d (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-11T15:07:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 O Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito em Pelotas.pdf: 7186207 bytes, checksum: 9501700f515369298978ca896f83506d (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / A presente dissertação consiste em uma pesquisa histórica no âmbito da História da Educação, mais precisamente na História das Instituições Educativas. A pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar aspectos históricos do Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito, atual Instituto São Benedito, fundado no início do século XX na cidade de Pelotas/RS para abrigar meninas negras. A delimitação temporal deste estudo corresponde as primeiras décadas do século XX, tendo como ponto de partida a fundação da instituição em 1901. Para poder analisar a trajetória educativo-institucional do asilo, buscou-se fazer alguns apontamentos sobre a institucionalização da infância desvalida no Brasil, contextualizar a cidade de Pelotas a partir do século XIX e a situação da comunidade negra dessa cidade depois da Abolição da Escravatura. Com o respaldo da Nova História é que se recorreu à prática historiográfica da micro-história e aos referenciais da História Vista de Baixo para a análise do corpus documental, constituído por documentos escritos, narrativas orais dos atores educativos e algumas fotografias referentes ao Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito. A função desempenhada pelo asilo foi fundamental na vida das meninas carentes, pois durante muitos anos, a obra assumiu ao mesmo tempo o papel da família, da escola, da Igreja e de setores da sociedade que tinham interesse na manutenção dessa instituição A instrução primária, moral e religiosa ofertada às meninas, contribuiu para torná-las boas mães, boas esposas e aptas para o trabalho doméstico. A partir deste viés é que se buscou investigar aspectos do Asilo de Órfãs São Benedito: o lugar da órfã na sociedade, características da educação institucionalizada, o estereótipo de mulher formada no Asilo de Órfãs e a relação da sociedade pelotense com a instituição. / This dissertation consists in a historical research of History of Education, specifically the History of Educational Institutions. The research aims to analyze historical aspects of São Benedito Orphan Asylum, São Benedito Institut currently, founded in the early twentieth century in the city of Pelotas / RS to harbor black girls. The temporal delimitation of this study correspond to the first decades of the twentieth century, having as the starting point the foundation of the institution in 1901. In order to analyze the educational and institutional trajectory of the asylum, we attempted to make some notes about the institutionalization of an underprivileged childhood in Brazil, contextualize the city of Pelotas from the nineteenth century, and the situation of the black community in this city after the abolition of slavery. With the backing of the New History is that resorted to historiographical practice of the micro-history and to the referential of the History view from below for analyzing the documentary corpus, constituted of written documents, oral narratives of the educational actors and some photographs relating to the Orphan Asylum São Benedito. The function performed by the asylum was underlying in the lives of those underprivileged girls, because for many years, the work assumed at the same time the role of family, school, church, and sectors of society that had an interest in maintaining this institution The primary instruction, religious and moral education offered to those girls, helped make them good mothers, good wives and suitable for domestic work. From this bias is that we sought to investigate aspects of the São Benedito Orphan Asylum: the place of orphans in the society, characteristics of institutionalized education, the stereotype of the women formed in the Orphan Asylum and the relationship of the Pelotense's society with the institution.