The questions I had were:
Whether there were as many young orphan girls in South Carolina as there were boys, and if they were in the orphanages why weren't they mentioned much? And if there were not as many, why, where did they go if they left the state, and how typical were the ratio of girls to boys in similar orphanages...?
This morning I was reading Peter Bardaglio's book Reconstructing the Household (1995) and found a reference to an 1896 statute in Tennessee which stated:
''...Said board of managers, directors or trustees may, at their discretion, require the parents of such indigent children to surrender all right and claim to the control of them, and to consent for the said asylum to provide homes for them… for the purpose of caring for and educating them, teaching them trades and household duties generally.''
Statues like these were introduced during the 1890s around the South, giving orphanages the right to take children away from their family if the guardians were deemed unfit to care for them.
I knew I had to follow this up, and find some more primary source material to help me answer my questions, though when first looking I wasn't particularly looking for gender-related evidence. I managed to find a range of documents on http://docsouth.unc.edu, unsurprisingly mostly relating to North Carolina as the website's material comes primarily from the libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Two of them however were 1861 sources which discussed the (white) Orphan House in Charleston. The N.C documents consist of annual reports of both black and white institutions between 1899 and 1911, along with different pleas for donations, such as the one pictured below.
Image from 1939 pamphlet 'My Future Depends Upon You!' at http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/myfuture/myfuture.html
The Oxford Orphan Asylum was North Carolina's first orphanage, opened in 1873, and took in white children. Ten years later the The Colored Orphan Association of North Carolina was opened in the town of Henderson in August 1883.
The Charleston Orphan House was opened much earlier in 1790, showing South Carolina was way ahead of its neighbor state in provision for poor and destitute children.
The Jenkins Orphanage band, however, South Carolina's first orphanage for black children, was opened in 1891: 8 years after North Carolina's first African American orphanage.
Studying these institutions did not give me direct answers to all of my questions, but certainly gave me a clearer picture of some comparisons that can be drawn between Charleston and elsewhere in the South.
From examining the documents it is apparent that in the case of the Colored Orphan Asylum located at Oxford, N.C, the ratio of boys to girls was actually 2:3 between 1899 and 1911. This rather suggests that orphanages were somehow more inclined to take female children in than male children. In comparison to the Jenkins orphanage, this is surprising as it is the male children that are referenced far more in advertisements and newspaper articles. It is likely that the Jenkins orphanage in the neighboring state of South Carolina followed a similar pattern of taking in more girls than boys, though clearly the girls were less talked about by outsiders.
In the white orphan house in Charleston, the By-laws of the institution in 1861 say that $150 is given annually to the clothing of the boys, and that $80 is given by the City Council 'for the purpose of aiding the object of the State Legislature in the provision made for the education of the boys of this Institution.' (http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/orphan/orphan.html)
Interestingly it is 'boys' that are mentioned here; no such provision for girls are listed, although girls are talked about elsewhere in the document. Reading the document through the language is very gendered: nearly twice as many references are made to boys than girls.
Strikingly, there is a significant different between the state provision of the North Carolinian and South Carolinian black orphanages. ‘The Legislature of North Carolina in the year 1891 granted an annual appropriation of $1,000 to the Asylum; in 1893 it was increased to $1,500; in 1895 to $3,000; and in 1897 the Legislature raised it to $5,000.' Yet I have not found evidence that the state of South Carolina donated to the Jenkins orphanage, except that the city of Charleston itself gave only $1,000 annually to the orphanage. 1912 donations from the North and collections by the Jenkins orphanage band exceeded donation from the city by ten times.
Yet the Jenkins bands were not the only orphanages sending out travelling choirs - the white Oxford Orphan Aslyum in North Carolina sent out groups of three or four children during the summer accompanied by teachers to give singing performances throughout the US to raise funds. It is quite definite that the sort of music the white children sang was very different to the rowdy and innovative brass bands of the Jenkins children!
Common goals of the documents show these orphanages were seeking 'racial uplift', to change the accepted view of African Americans as criminals into a more positive one. Ideas of education, apprenticeship and training are clearly in line with Booker T. Washington's promotion of industrial and vocational education for southern African Americans when he opened Tuskegee University in 1881, where students were expected to work hard and have skills in areas other than academics. This certainly compares to the orphans' industrial work on the farm opened by Reverend Daniel Jenkins alongside his Orphanage in Charleston.
Another common theme between these white and black orphanages is of course religion, and the message that helping the orphans is what God wants is seen in many references to Jenkins Orphanage. The 1900 annual report of the Colored Orphan Asylum in Oxford was organized by the Wake Baptist Association and the Shiloh Baptist Association, and had originally been named "The Colored Baptist Orphan Association of North Carolina," Soon the name was changed and the religious association was removed, so that 'when the doors of the Asylum were first opened . . . the most needy colored orphan children were invited to come, regardless of denomination"’ (http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/asyl1900/asyl1900.html)
These reflections do not answer all of my questions on the gender balance in the orphanages, but it is clear that while there are clear similarities between orphan houses in North Carolina and South Carolina at the turn of the century, there are also some marked differences. Girls appear to be better represented in the North Carolina orphanages, both black and white. The ratio of black children in orphanages in North Carolina were two girls to one boy, though I am not much closer to answering why the representation is lower in material on the Jenkins Orphanage.
Image courtesy of http://avery.cofc.edu
The question of gender in southern orphanages during the Jim Crow era is something I will of course carry on researching, and I will hopefully be able to update my blog soon with more answers!
The Oxford Orphan Asylum was North Carolina's first orphanage, opened in 1873, and took in white children. Ten years later the The Colored Orphan Association of North Carolina was opened in the town of Henderson in August 1883.
The Charleston Orphan House was opened much earlier in 1790, showing South Carolina was way ahead of its neighbor state in provision for poor and destitute children.
The Jenkins Orphanage band, however, South Carolina's first orphanage for black children, was opened in 1891: 8 years after North Carolina's first African American orphanage.
Studying these institutions did not give me direct answers to all of my questions, but certainly gave me a clearer picture of some comparisons that can be drawn between Charleston and elsewhere in the South.
From examining the documents it is apparent that in the case of the Colored Orphan Asylum located at Oxford, N.C, the ratio of boys to girls was actually 2:3 between 1899 and 1911. This rather suggests that orphanages were somehow more inclined to take female children in than male children. In comparison to the Jenkins orphanage, this is surprising as it is the male children that are referenced far more in advertisements and newspaper articles. It is likely that the Jenkins orphanage in the neighboring state of South Carolina followed a similar pattern of taking in more girls than boys, though clearly the girls were less talked about by outsiders.
In the white orphan house in Charleston, the By-laws of the institution in 1861 say that $150 is given annually to the clothing of the boys, and that $80 is given by the City Council 'for the purpose of aiding the object of the State Legislature in the provision made for the education of the boys of this Institution.' (http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/orphan/orphan.html)
Interestingly it is 'boys' that are mentioned here; no such provision for girls are listed, although girls are talked about elsewhere in the document. Reading the document through the language is very gendered: nearly twice as many references are made to boys than girls.
Strikingly, there is a significant different between the state provision of the North Carolinian and South Carolinian black orphanages. ‘The Legislature of North Carolina in the year 1891 granted an annual appropriation of $1,000 to the Asylum; in 1893 it was increased to $1,500; in 1895 to $3,000; and in 1897 the Legislature raised it to $5,000.' Yet I have not found evidence that the state of South Carolina donated to the Jenkins orphanage, except that the city of Charleston itself gave only $1,000 annually to the orphanage. 1912 donations from the North and collections by the Jenkins orphanage band exceeded donation from the city by ten times.
Yet the Jenkins bands were not the only orphanages sending out travelling choirs - the white Oxford Orphan Aslyum in North Carolina sent out groups of three or four children during the summer accompanied by teachers to give singing performances throughout the US to raise funds. It is quite definite that the sort of music the white children sang was very different to the rowdy and innovative brass bands of the Jenkins children!
Common goals of the documents show these orphanages were seeking 'racial uplift', to change the accepted view of African Americans as criminals into a more positive one. Ideas of education, apprenticeship and training are clearly in line with Booker T. Washington's promotion of industrial and vocational education for southern African Americans when he opened Tuskegee University in 1881, where students were expected to work hard and have skills in areas other than academics. This certainly compares to the orphans' industrial work on the farm opened by Reverend Daniel Jenkins alongside his Orphanage in Charleston.
Another common theme between these white and black orphanages is of course religion, and the message that helping the orphans is what God wants is seen in many references to Jenkins Orphanage. The 1900 annual report of the Colored Orphan Asylum in Oxford was organized by the Wake Baptist Association and the Shiloh Baptist Association, and had originally been named "The Colored Baptist Orphan Association of North Carolina," Soon the name was changed and the religious association was removed, so that 'when the doors of the Asylum were first opened . . . the most needy colored orphan children were invited to come, regardless of denomination"’ (http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/asyl1900/asyl1900.html)
These reflections do not answer all of my questions on the gender balance in the orphanages, but it is clear that while there are clear similarities between orphan houses in North Carolina and South Carolina at the turn of the century, there are also some marked differences. Girls appear to be better represented in the North Carolina orphanages, both black and white. The ratio of black children in orphanages in North Carolina were two girls to one boy, though I am not much closer to answering why the representation is lower in material on the Jenkins Orphanage.
Image courtesy of http://avery.cofc.edu
The question of gender in southern orphanages during the Jim Crow era is something I will of course carry on researching, and I will hopefully be able to update my blog soon with more answers!
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