Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth-Century New York City

Contents

Contents List of Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 “Children of Accident and Mystery”: Foundlings in History and Literature 13 2 “New York as a Nursing Mother”: Foundlings in the Antebellum City 47 3 “The Murder of the Innocents”: New York Discovers Its Foundlings 85 4 “The Basket at the Door”: The Foundling Asylums Open 129 5 “Out-Heroding Herod”: The Foundlings and the Revolutionary 176 6 The End of the Foundling Asylums 200 7 Conclusion: The Foundling Disappears—Almost 226 Notes 243 Index 311 About the Author 319 vii ...