Philanthropic Networks for Children at Risk in Nineteenth‐century Europe

Abstract

In the first half of nineteenth‐century Europe, the founding fathers of the philanthropic network developed a specific network for the care of children at risk. This network eventually resulted in institutionalized solutions for the care of these children. In this article, three topics are looked at: the meaning of the general concept of networks for this specific network; the building up of the network; and, finally, the working of the network at close quarters. It is concluded that the members of this network worked on the basis of reciprocal activities, were organized in an informal and horizontal way, knew each other very well and were regular philanthropic tourists across the frontiers of their respective countries.

¹ The first sketch of this paper was presented at the workshop on “Europe of Networks”, European University Institute, Florence, November 2001, a second version at the ISCHE ISWG on Cross‐cultural Influences in Geneva, July 2004. I thank the organizers, respectively Peter Becker and Raffaele Romanelli (EUI), and Klaus‐Peter Horn and Christoph Lüth (ISCHE) as well as the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Notes

¹ The first sketch of this paper was presented at the workshop on “Europe of Networks”, European University Institute, Florence, November 2001, a second version at the ISCHE ISWG on Cross‐cultural Influences in Geneva, July 2004. I thank the organizers, respectively Peter Becker and Raffaele Romanelli (EUI), and Klaus‐Peter Horn and Christoph Lüth (ISCHE) as well as the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

³ Zijderveld, A. C. The Institutional Imperative: The Interface of Institutions and Networks. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2000: 121.

² Buchannan, M. Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks. New York–London: Norton, 2002: 19, 18, 106–20; Breiger, R. L. Explorations in Structural Analysis: Dual and Multiple Networks of Social Interaction. New York: Garland, 1991; Barabási, A.‐L. Linked: The New Science of Networks. New York: Plume, 2003. Comprehensive on social networks is Scott J., ed. Social Networks. Basingstoke: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2002. For a methodological approach, Doreian, P., and F. N. Stokman, eds. Evolution of social networks. Amsterdam: OPA, 1997, and Wasserman, S., and K. Faust. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Application. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, for use in historical research, Erickson, B. H. “Social Networks and History. A review Essay.” Historical Methods 30 (1997): 149–59, and Cotts Watkins, S. “Social Networks and Social Science History.” Social Science History 19 (1995): 295–311, and in building communities, Gilchrist, A. Community Development and Networking. London: Community Development Foundation, 1995, and Wellman, B. Networks in the Global Village: Life in Contemporary Communities. Boulder–Oxford: Westview Press, 1999.

⁴ Ibid., 128.

⁵ Id. Institutionalisering. Meppel: Boom, 1974 [original work published in 1966]: 30, 37; id. The Institutional, 19–122, 128. Cf. Eisenstadt, S. N. “Social Institutions.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. London–New York: Macmillan, 1972 [original work published in 1968]: 414; Dekker, J. J. H. “The fragile relation between normality and marginality: marginalization and Institutionalization in the History of Education.” Paedagogica Historica 26 (1990): 13–29, 15–17. On cultural transmission, id. “Cultural Transmission and Inter‐generational Interaction.” International Review of Education 47 (2001): 77–95; Harris, J. The Nurture Assumption. New York: Free Press, 1998: ch. 9; Siegel, H. “Education and cultural transmission/transformation: philosophical reflections on the historian’s task.” Paedagogica Historica. Supplementary Series 2 (1996): 25–46.

⁶ Innes, J. “Church and Voluntarism.” In Charity, Philanthropy and Reform. From the 1690s to 1850, edited by H. Cunningham and I. Innes. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1998: 15–65, 38; Stone, L. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977: 661; Owen, D. English Philanthropy, 1660–1960. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1964: 1–3, 169.

⁷ Gaillac, H. Les maisons de correction 1830–1945. Paris: Éditions Cujas, 1991 [original work published in 1971]: title of ch. I. On Stephen, Barret‐Ducrocq, F. “La mobilisation philanthropique à Londres dans la période victorienne: une sainte violence.” In Philanthropies et politiques sociales en Europe (XVIII^e–XX^e siècles), edited by C. Bec. et al. Paris: Anthropos, 1994: 17–44, 20.

⁸ On De Bye, Leonards, Chr. De ontdekking van het onschuldige criminele kind. Bestraffing en opvoeding van criminele kinderen in jeugdgevangenis en opvoedingsgesticht 1833–1886. Hilversum: Verloren, 1995: 88–93.

⁹ Gouda, F. Poverty and Political Culture: The Rhetoric of Social Welfare in the Netherlands and France, 1815–1854. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1995: 56; Heywood, C. Childhood in Nineteenth‐century France: Work, Health and Education among the “classes populaires”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988; Cunningham and Innes, Charity, passim; Luddy, M. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth‐Century Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995; Krans, A. “Armenwesen, Wohlfahrtspflege, Sozialarbeit.” In Handbuch der deutschen Bildunggeschichte, Band III 1800–1870, edited by K.‐.E. Jeismann and P. Lundgreen. München: C. H. Beck, 1987: 317–31, 318–9.

¹⁰ Classic Evangelical texts are A Practical View of Christianity by Wilberforce and Essay on the Principle of Population by Malthus. Hilton, B. The Age of Atonement: The Influence of Evangelicalism on Social and Economic Thought, 1785–1865. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991 [original work published in 1988]: 4–6. Owen, English philanthropy, 132; Stone, The Family, 667. Dupont‐Bouchat, M.‐S. “Entre charité privée et bienfaisance publique: la philanthropie en Belgique au XIXe siècle.” In Bec, Philanthropies, 29–44. Duprat, C.m and J.‐G. Petit. “Introduction.” In ibid., v–x, vi, on the differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant countries, and Cunningham, H. “Introduction.” In Cunningham and Innes, Charity, 1–14, on the similarities between the utilitarian and Evangelical approaches. On the European bourgeoisie, Kocka, J., and A. Mitchell, eds. Bourgeois Society in Nineteenth‐Century Europe. Oxford: Berg, 1993; on Germany, Nipperdey, T. Deutsche Geschichte 1800–1866. Bürgerwelt und starker Staat. München: C. H. Beck, 1983: 405–6; Peukert, D. J. K. Grenzen der Sozialdisziplinierung. Aufstieg und Krise der deutschen Jugendfürsorge von 1878 bis 1932. Köln: Bund‐Verlag, 1986: 44. On the French Revolution, Furet, F., and M. Ozouf. Dictionnaire critique de la Révolution française. Paris: Flammarion, 1988. A classic on conservatism and romanticism is Talmon, J. L. Romanticism and Revolt: Europe 1815–1848. London: Thames & Hudson, 1967; cf. Willinsky, J., and A. Rosenberg, eds. The Educational Legacy of Romanticism. Waterloo, Ont: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1990; Wu, D., ed. A Companion to Romanticism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998; McLane, M. N. Romanticism and the Human Sciences: Poetry, Population, and the Discourse of the Species. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

¹¹ Cf. New Catholic Encyclopaedia. New York: McGraw‐Hill, 1967. Vol. III: 464–5. Cf. Brockhaus Enzyclopädie in zwanzig Bänden. Wiesbaden: F. A. Brockhaus, 1967. Vol. III: 610.

¹² Innes. “State, Church and Voluntarism.” In Cunningham and Innes, Charity, 32; Hendrick, H. Child Welfare: England 1872–1989. London–New York: Routledge, 1994.

¹³ Kluit, M. E. Het protestantse Réveil in Nederland en daarbuiten 1815–1865. Amsterdam: Paris, 1970: 11, 227, 124, 336; Hendrick, Child Welfare; Röper, F. F. Das verwaiste Kind in Anstalt und Heim; ein Beitrag zur historische Entwicklung der Fremderziehung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976.

¹⁴ The journey to America was popular. A. de Tocqueville, Charles Lucas, and F.‐A. Demetz wrote extensive reports upon their return, see de Tocqueville, A. C. J. M. Écrits sur le système pénitentiaire en France et à l’étranger [Oeuvres, Papiers et correspondance d’Alexis de Tocqueville, vol. 4] Paris: Gallimard, 1984; Lucas, Ch. Du système pénitentiaire en Europe et aux États‐Unies. Paris: Bossange, 1828–1830; Demetz, F.‐A., and G. A. Blouet. Rapport sur les pénitenciers des États‐Unies. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1837. Cf. Dupont‐Bouchat, M.‐S. “Enfants corrigés, enfants protégés. Genèse de la protection de l’enfance en Belgique, en France et aux Pays‐Bas (1820–1914).” Droit et Société 32 (1996): 89–104, 95. On agricultural colonies, Gaillac, Les maisons, 77; Lebrun, J. “Cloîtrer et guérir, La colonie pénitentiaire de la Trappe, 1854–1880.” In L’impossible prison. Recherches sur le système pénitentiaire au XIXe siècle, edited by M. Perrot. Paris: Seuil, 1980: 236–76, 244.

¹⁵ On Germany, Röper, Das verwaiste Kind.

¹⁶ Carlier, C. La prison aux champs. Les colonies d’enfants délinquants du nord de la France au XIXe siècle. Paris: Les Éditions Ouvrières, 1994: 211–16.

¹⁷ Dupont‐Bouchat, “Enfants corrigés, enfants protégés,” 93; Suringar, W. H. My visit to Mettray. Leeuwarden: G. T. N. Suringar, 1847.

¹⁸ For Belgium, Dupont‐Bouchat, De la prison; on the European continent, Carpenter, Reformatory Schools, in particular on the Rauhe Haus, 335–8. On Carpenter, Manton, J. O. Mary Carpenter and the Children of the Streets. London: Heinemann Educational, 1976; Selleck, R. J. W. “Mary Carpenter: A confident and Contradictory reformer.” History of Education 14 (1985): 101–05; Watts, R. E. “Mary Carpenter: educator of the children of ‘the perishing and dangerous classes’.” In Practical Visionaries: Women, Education and Social Progress 1790 to 1930, edited by M. Hilton and P. Hirsch. London: Longman, 1999: 39–51.

¹⁹ Carlier, La prison, 211–20, 218; cf. Ruchat, M. “Pédagogie de la conscience.” Sociétés & Représentations 3 (1996): 269–76.

²⁰ Hendrick, Child Welfare, 23–24; id. Images of Youth: Age, Class, and the Male Youth Problem, 1880–1920. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990: 17; Hurt, J. S. Outside the Mainstream. A History of Special Education. London: Batsford, 1988: 69–70. Cf. Dekker, J. The Will to Change the Child. Re‐education Homes for Children at Risk in Nineteenth Century Western Europe. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001: 24–33, “The Philanthropic Network.” Ruchat, M. “Nommer l’enfant vicieux au XIXe siècle. La violence des mots dans la ‘protection’ de l’enfance, à l’exemple de la ville de Genève.” Traverse (1995): 99–111, 103: “un danger pour l’ordre public: les enfants des classes populaires”.

²¹ Cf. Van Damme, D., F. Simon, J. J. H. Dekker, and B. Kruithof, eds. Beyond the pale—behind bars: Marginalization and Institutionalization from the 18th to the 20th Century. Paedagogica Historica 26, Special Issue (1990).

²² Gaillac, Les maisons, 26–27; Carlier, La prison, 154–8, 163; Nolen, Th., ed. Het Vraagstuk van de verzorging der verwaarloosde kinderen. Amsterdam: S. L. van Looy, 1898: 144; Petit, J.‐G. Ces peines obscures. La prison pénale en France 1780–1875. Paris: Fayard, 1990: 45–50; Lascoumes, L., P. Poncela, and P. Lenoël. Au nom de l’ordre. Une histoire politique du code pénal. Paris: Hachette, 1989.

²³ Quoted by Owen, English Philanthropy, 153; on Hill, Hilton, The Age, 402, 269; Stephen, L., and S. Lee, eds. The Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. IX. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1917–: 853–55.

²⁴ Foucault, M. Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard, 1975: 300; Petit, Ces peines, 283–97. Genet’s novels Miracle de la rose and L’Enfant criminel were based on his stay at Mettray, see Dichy, A., and P. Fouché. Jean Genet, Essai de chronologie, 1920–1944. Paris: Bibliothèque de littérature française contemporaine de l’Université Paris, 7, 1988, and Bourquin, J., and E. Pierre. “La colonie agricole de Mettray.” Sociétés & Représentations 3 (1996): 205–17, 206.

²⁵ Dekker, The Will, 61–68; Wines, E. C. The State of Prisons and of Child‐Saving Institutions in the Civilised World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1880.

²⁶ Demetz, Fondation d’une colonie agricole, 19, quoted by Carlier. La prison, 226–27. On Demetz, see D’Amat, R., and R. Limouzin‐Lamothe, eds. Dictionnaire de Biographie Française. Paris: Letouzey, 1933–: X, 986, and Pierre, E. F.‐A. “Demetz et la colonie agricole de Mettray. Entre réformisme ‘romantique’ et injonction administratives.” In Philanthropists and Bureaucrats in the 19th Century, edited by J. J. H. Dekker and P. Becker. Doers. Paedagogica Historica 38, no. 2/3, Special Issue (2002): 413–795, 451–66.

²⁷ Suringar, My visit, 4, 14–15.

²⁸ Life in the colony was regulated down to the smallest details. The rulebook contained over 245 articles and was supplemented by a code of order, Bourquin and Pierre, “La colonie agricole de Mettray,” 205–17; cf. Foucault, Surveiller, 300–1.

²⁹ Carpenter, Reformatory Schools, 327; Ramsland, J. “The Agricultural Colony at Mettray: A 19th century approach to the institutionalization of delinquent boys.” In Stockley, D., ed. Melbourne Studies in Education 1987–1988. La Trobe University Press, Bundoora, Victoria, 1989: 64–80, 69. On numbers, Rapport Annuel adressé à MM. les membres de la Société Paternelle, Colonie agricole et pénitentiaire de Mettray, douzième année. Tours: Colonie agricole de Mettray, 1854: 7; Gaillac. Les maisons, 84, n. 1; Carpenter. Reformatory Schools, 327; Owen. English Philanthropy, 153.

³⁰ Carpenter. Reformatory Schools, 327; Wines. The State, 342; Suringar. My visit, 9; Gaillac. Les maisons, 83, quotes Ferrus.

³¹ Turner, quoted by Carpenter. Reformatory Schools, 325–7, was to become inspector of reformatories, Stephen and Lee. Dictionary. Vol. LVII: 357; Foucault. Surveiller, 301.

³² Dupont–Bouchat, M.–S. and E. Pierre, together with J–M. Fecteau, J. Trépanier, J–G. Petit, B. Schnapper & J. J. H. Dekker. Enfance et justice au XIXe siècle. Essais d’histoire comparée de la protection de l’enfance (1820–1914). France, Belgique, Pays–Bas, Canada. Paris: PUF, 2001: 179–92 on Mettray.

³³ Suringar. My visit.

³⁴ Wines. The State, 398, 697–8, 400–2.

³⁵ Dekker. The Will, 141–6.

³⁶ On these visits, Ibid., 141.

³⁷ Quoted by Dupont–Bouchat, M–S. De la prison à l’école. Les pénitenciers pour enfants en Belgique au XIX^e siècle (1840–1914). Kortrijk–Heule: UGA, 1996: 42–43.

³⁸ Ramsland. “The Agricultural Colony,” 72; Rapport Annuel (1854): 8–9. Carpenter. Reformatory Schools, 328; according to Wines. The State, 82, 95% “of all the colons […]” had “been saved to themselves and to society.”

³⁹ Ferrus in Gaillac. Les maisons, 84.

⁴⁰ Becker, P. and J. J. H. Dekker. “Doers: The Emergence of an Acting Elite.” In Dekker and Becker. Doers, 426–32.