Early Welfare Programs in the United States
History of Welfare: Early Welfare Programs in the United States
Introduction to Early Welfare Programs
The American colonists essentially imported the framework of the British Poor Laws. By the early 19th century, states required that counties or municipalities provide for the poor and needy. The local governments carried out this responsibility in one of four ways: by auctioning off the poor to bidders who could use them as workers; by contracting with wealthier families to take care of them, either as charitable acts or for pay or free labor; by placing the poor and needy in public institutions (workhouses); or by providing them with assistance in cash or goods.
Citizens and politicians publicly expressed their concerns about welfare from the country’s beginnings. In the 1820s and 1830s, a reform movement swept many states. Local communities tried to replace all outdoor relief-the giving of cash and goods to the poor-with workhouses. These reforms were intended to rehabilitate the poor and replace frivolous welfare use with a work ethic.
In the 1880s and 1890s, a second wave of reform efforts designed to curb the use of outdoor relief emerged. The scientific charity reform movement emphasized counseling the poor to improve their social functioning. Reformers also encouraged independence through social casework. In this approach, caseworkers visited poor people regularly and instructed them in morality and a work ethic. Supporters of scientific charity opposed the idea of unconditional relief. In some parts of the country these reformers were able to temporarily halt distributions of cash relief almost entirely.
Welfare did not disappear, however. From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, the Congress of the United States sponsored various programs that expanded public provision for the poor. In 1862 Congress passed legislation for a Civil War Pension Program, which eventually made economic, disability, and old-age benefits available to all Civil War veterans and their families. Between 1911 and 1921, 40 states established mothers’ pensions. In these programs, states offered income support to poor mothers, mostly widows, upholding the notion that motherhood was appropriate as a sole occupation. In the early 20th century, a handful of states experimented with workers’ compensation programs to insure workers against industrial accidents and with unemployment compensation programs to insure workers against labor market uncertainties.” (1)
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about Early Welfare Programs in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia
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