Child migrants

February 1, 2007 12:04 AM

A moving, four-part audio documentarytells the story of as many as 150,000 children of the British poor, sent to populate Australia, Canada, and other colonies with "good, white stock".
posted by serazin (5 comments total)

The radio story is a few years old, but it was news to me. Further research turned up the church apologizing for a pattern of whippings, rapes, and other abuses, various aid efforts,, and this page: a bit hard to follow, but full of links regarding the homes that children were sent to, shipping records, and contemporary news articles.
posted by serazin at 12:06 AM on February 1, 2007

The Leaving of Liverpool is also an excellent mini-series on the topic.
posted by goo at 12:13 AM on February 1, 2007

Amazing, thank you.
posted by amyms at 12:32 AM on February 1, 2007

Rapes in religious schools? Like, nuns and priests, or lay (ahem) workers?

Geez, I can't seem to get away from tales of sex abuse of kids in the blue today. I guess I'll go look at the Minnesota politician thread.
posted by pax digita at 11:20 AM on February 1, 2007

Being the wrong religion or the wrong skin color has been a liability at many times and places in history, but being poor has always been out of style, ever since the concepts of "wealth" and "poverty" came into being.

A great degree of oppression throughout history is sometimes immediately associated as religious or racial persecution, when it is really just the persecution of the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder.

Of course, it was often no accident that certain groups occupied that bottom rung.
posted by Ynoxas at 12:50 PM on February 1, 2007