THE ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY: MINUTES AND FURTHER REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TRADE.

This leads the Comm'ee to lay before the Court Some proposals which have been made to them by Mr. Playten Onely for a Contract to be made with some Lisbon Merchants for Slaves vizt:

For 500 Annualy, Small Slaves Male and Female from 6 to 10 Years old, to be delivered

• at St. Iago at £10 per head
• in the River Gambia at £9
• at Lisbon at £15

to be paid for at Lisbon one Month after delivery, at the rate of 5 sh : 6 d. per mill rec [rei], which will be 540 : 545 Bus 1 per head delivered at Lisbon. In Case the Slaves are delivered in the River Gambia, or at St. Iago, the Payments are to be made in England by the Agents or Corespond'ts of the Contractors in two Months after the Certificates of such delivery shall be by the Company presented to the said Contractors Agents in London.

For .1000 Adult Slaves annually from 12 to 40 Years of Age half Men and half Women, to be delivered at St. Iago according to the time which may be Stipulated at £18 per head to be paid for as above.

If the Company think it their Interest to be concerned in Slaves to be delivered at St. Iago, in order to be transported to the Brazills for their own Account, the Contractors are willing to cover such Slaves under Portuguese Names, as they do their own, allowing about a Moider per head for letting the Said Slaves go to the Brazils in their Names, and allowing Freight to the Ships that carry them of about £5 : 10 to £6 per head, with a Commiss'n to those that sell them at the Brazils of abt 5 per Cent, and the Gold for which they are sold, to be consigned to the Contractors at Lisbon.

It is proposed Mr. Onely may have liberty to treat with Some English Gentlemen at Lisbon of Credit and reputation for any Number of Negros to be delivered annually in such manner as may be agreed on at the Island of St. Thomas at Lao per head half Men, half Women, from 12 Years of Age to 40, to be paid for in Lond'n 2 Months after the Certificates are presented to their Agents here: as also Boys and Girls from 7 to 10 Years of Age at £14 per head.

Mr. Onely proposes in regard to himself, that in case he meets with Success, a Gratuity be made him in proportion to the Service he may do the Company. That an Allowance of about £200 per Anno be granted for his Expences, to Commence from the time of his Setting out, and Submitts to the Consideration of the Court his having already lost an opportunity of going in the Company's Service on this very account.

I was adopted by the Katsu family when I was seven. My age was officially given as seventeen, and the hair at the front of my head was cut off accordingly. 1 As part of the adoption procedure, 2 Ishikawa Ukon-no-shôgen, the commissioner of my unit at the kobushingumi, 3 and his assistant, Obi Daishichirô, came to the house.

"How old are you and what is your name?" Ishikawa asked.

"My name is Kokichi and I am seventeen."

Ishikawa pretended to be taken aback. "Well — for seventeen you certainly look old!" He burst out laughing.

My adoptive father's older brother, Aoki Jinbei, who served at Edo Castle as a member of the Great Guard, acted as sponsor.

Until then I had been called Kamematsu. With my adoption my name changed to Kokichi. My adoptive parents had already died, leaving behind a daughter and her grandmother. It was decided that the two would live at my father's place in Fukugawa. I was completely ignorant of these arrangements and spent my time in play.

I got into another fight over a kite, again with some boys from Mae-chô. There must have been 20 or 30. I took them on alone hitting and punching, but they finally got the better of me. I was cornered on a large rock in an open field and struck over and over with bamboo poles. My hair had fallen loose all over my face, and I was sobbing. I took out my short sword and slashed left and right. 4 But I knew I was beaten and decided then and there to commit hara-kiri. I stripped to the waist and sat down on the rock. As it so happened, a rice dealer by the name of Shirokoya was standing nearby. He talked me into giving up the idea and took me home. After this, though, all the boys in the neighborhood became my followers. I was seven at the time . . . .

When I was nine, my father told me to take judo lessons with Suzuki Seibei, a relative of the Katsu family in Yokoami-chô . . . . As I said, everyone in judo class hated me. On the day that an all-night midwinter session was to be held, we received permission from the teacher to bring food. We took a break at midnight. I had packed a lacquer box full of bean jam cakes and had been looking forward all day to this moment when we would share the food. My classmates had other plans. They got together and tied me up with an obi, 5 hoisted me to one of the rafters and began eating, even helping themselves to my cakes. So I pissed on their heads, spraying the food that had been spread out, and naturally, everything had to be thrown away. Served them right, too.

Why I Taught the Source

At the beginning of a lecture on the daily life of townsmen in Edo (Tokyo), I first presented an image of Tokugawa-period (1600–1868) Japanese children. This detail from an ink painting by Hanabusa Itchô (1562–1724) shows a childhood experience common to both sexes: watching a puppet show. From this unusual starting point, I aimed to address the issue of social class.

In my history of Japan course, which partially fulfills foreign culture or world history requirements for non-history majors, I later discuss how attitudes towards children and their education changed with Japan's modernization. I believe this source would also work well in a world history class on East Asian social history in the 18th century. In such a class, I would discuss women, children, and the family in Qing China and Tokugawa Japan, making occasional comparisons with a Western country, such as France.

I decided to use an image rather than a text because Edo-period paintings and woodblock prints portray both boys and girls from the commoner classes. Texts on children were mainly Confucian treatises on education, health, and wet-nursing. Fiction and autobiographical writing of that era typically did not dwell on childhood. Therefore woodblock prints provide more opportunities for discussion.

How I Introduce the Source

Of course, images from Japan are difficult to introduce without some kind of background knowledge. Before presenting this image, I emphasize that Tokugawa society was divided into four official classes: warriors (samurai), peasants, craftsmen, and merchants. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616), founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, made all family heads register as one of the four classes in the official census. Landowners who chose to register as warriors (samurai) gained status, but they had to give up their hereditary lands in exchange for a stipend and move to a castle-town. Intermarriage between classes was officially forbidden, although by the end of the 18th century, marriage and adoption between classes was not uncommon. In fact, rich merchants were able to buy samurai status.

Young people grew up with a strong class consciousness, but children of all classes enjoyed play and games, songs and folktales, traveling entertainers and shrine festivals (selling sweets and paper toys), and celebrations for children, such as Boys' Day (Iris Festival or Tango no sekku, May 5) and Girls' Day (Doll Festival or Hina matsuri, March 3). Finally, all children did house chores or learned the family trade in the manner of an apprentice.

Reading the Source

I asked my students to start by describing the scene. They immediately noticed the puppeteers on the right before turning their gaze to the children running towards them. From the postures of the children, we recognize eager anticipation. Are they boys or girls? It is hard to tell, although an obi (belt) with a long sash usually indicates a girl. My students decided that the child closest to the puppeteers is definitely a girl. For one thing, she has more hair. Students also asked why the other children were bald with small tufts of hair. I explained that it was a Chinese fashion (believed to minimize lice and skin ailments) made popular in Japan through art depicting Chinese children at play.

Several students wondered about the half-hidden figures watching from a casement window in a gated building and offered different ideas. One suggested that the figures represented upper-class girls who were perhaps more sheltered than the children in the street. The fine gate suggests a well-to-do merchant house.

Reflections

Following our discussion of the image, I provided some further context. I explained that this kind of "old-fashioned" scene led Harvard Zoologist Edward Sylvester Morse (1838–1904) to describe the Japan he visited in the 1870s as the "paradise for children." Pointing to the boy carrying a baby on his back, I remarked that Morse thought it healthy for babies to be taken on rides by older brothers and sisters, instead of being left to cry alone in cribs. Yet Morse was unaware that the children carrying babies could be servants from poor families, entrusted with baby care and house chores in exchange for room and board (so that the master's wife could assist in the shop or the fields). These baby-sitters (komori) had their own mournful songs complaining of abuse and neglect. I also pointed out that itinerant puppeteers were generally social outcasts.

At this point, one may ask whether everyone enjoyed childhood. In this picture, the artist conveys a pleasure of childhood that transcends class, gender, and time period. Some students can relate to the scene. However, when students learn about komori, they begin to see the image in a different light, becoming aware of class inequities that may lurk beneath the surface of an innocent childhood scene.

How Some Children Played at Slaughtering

I

In a city named Franecker, located in West Friesland, some young boys and girls between the ages of five and six happened to be playing with one another. They chose one boy to play a butcher, another boy to play was to be a cook, and a third boy was to be a pig. Then they chose one girl to be a cook and another girl her assistant. The assistant was to catch the blood of the pig in a little bowl so they could make sausages. As agreed, the butcher now fell upon the little boy playing the pig, threw him to the ground, and slit his throat open with a knife, while the assistant cook caught the blood in her little bowl.

A councilman was walking nearby and saw this wretched act. He immediately took the butcher with him and led him into the house of the mayor, who instantly summoned the entire council. They deliberated about this incident and did not know what they should do to the boy, for they realized it had all been part of a children's game. One of the councilmen, an old wise man, advised the chief judge to take a beautiful red apple in one hand and a Rhenish gulden in the other. Then he was to call the boy and stretch out his hands to him. If the boy took the apple, he was to be set free. If he took the gulden, he was to be killed. The judge took the wise man's advice, and the boy grabbed the apple with a laugh. Thus he was set free without any punishment.

II

There once was a father who slaughtered a pig, and his children saw that. In the afternoon, when they began playing, one child said to the other, "you be the little pig, and I'll be the butcher." He then took a shiny knife and slit his little brother's throat.

Their mother was upstairs in a room bathing another child, and when she heard the cries of her son, she immediately ran downstairs. Upon seeing what had happened, she took the knife out of her son's throat and was so enraged that she stabbed the heart of the other boy, who had been playing the butcher. Then she quickly ran back to the room to tend to her child in the bathtub, but while she was gone, he had drowned in the tub. Now the woman became so frightened and desperate that she did not allow the neighbors to comfort her and finally hung herself. When her husband came back from the fields and saw everything, he became so despondent that he died soon after.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE
CLEVELAND PROTESTANT ORPHAN ASYLUM
FOR THE YEAR CLOSING
OCTOBER 31, 1919.

The function of the Orphan Asylum, making a home for children, carries always hope and love and increasing interest. Every year the workers are learning and improving, and accomplishing more satisfactory results. The definite form of service in this Asylum, taking care o f children in this home, finding permanent homes for some of them in a good family, sheltering and eventually returning others to their own family or relatives, goes steadily on. There were two hundred and thirty children admitted during the past year. Three hundred and nine, in all, were cared for. Seventy-four were placed in homes, one hundred and fifty-six were returned to their own friends, and seventy-nine were still in the Asylum on October 31st, 1919.

. . .

The staff of visitors has been increased. This permits us not only to emphasize visits to the homes where our children have been placed, but also to carry on extension and advisory lines of work through visits to the parents of children who are in the Asylum for temporary shelter and thereby help them and their children in the future. The remarkable personal work and thought for every child results in good health, happiness and a helpful spirit toward others. The children were singularly free from illness and contagion for several months of the year. Careful attention was given to the report cards which the boys and girls brought home from school. Days in the open air when all enjoyed picnics to the farm were especially beneficial.

. . .

Respectfully submitted
Mrs. J.R. OWENS,
SECRETARY

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ADMITTING AND PLACING CHILDREN FOR THE YEAR
CLOSING OCTOBER 31st,

Quietly and persistently your Committee on Admitting and Placing Children has carried on its work during the past year. Because of the flu epidermic and the readjustment period following the War the many cases have kept us on the alert trying to help those worthy and counseling those who needed guidance rather than help.

However, our aim is to aid in some way all who call. Visitors ofttimes feel slighted because we do not immediately relieve them of their children and suggest instead other ways and means. Many times the parents need the children with them to act as governors on their own conduct. In other instances the quicker the children are admitted to the Home the better it is for them.

We have cared for three hundred and nine children during the past year. It is interesting to note that of the one hundred and eleven new families helped this year but forty-four were American. The remaining - sixty-seven represented twenty-two different nationalities.

On our records of the year we also note that twenty-four fathers and nine mothers deserted. Twelve mothers were immoral. Eleven families were temporarily broken up because one or the other of the parents was in the hospital. The deaths of twenty fathers and sixteen mothers caused us to take temporary care of the children until other arrangements could be made for them. Fourteen cases were illegitimate.

The present policy of the Institution is the same as in the past in regard to admitting and caring for children. In recent years there have been greater calls for the temporary shelter of children by parents who have for one cause or another been unable to care for their own.

Last year we returned one hundred and fifty-six children to their parents or relations, as we believe in keeping the family together if possible. It is also our aim to thoroughly investigate the relatives of the child with the idea in mind of having them take care of their own kin and not delegate this responsibility to strangers.

During the past twelve months we leave placed but seventy-four children in foster homes. One reason for this is that many children given to us for adoption have been returned to relations whom we have succeeded in interesting in the case. Very often, upon investigation, we found relatives who at first refused to assist the parents in caring for children willingly accept the responsibility when they learned that the parental rights had been legally forfeited.

The real work of the Institution, however, is the same - the receiving of children who are left dependent and are eligible to be placed in foster homes. We are still firm believers in the family life for the child and no one can question the fact that the Institution is a great help in training the child for his future home.

We thoroughly investigate the parents and home before We accept their child for adoption, believing it is but natural that the child should be kept, if possible, in the home of his own people.

It is our plan to move slowly in placing a child, no matter how desirable the home may appear, because people sometimes are impulsive in this as in other important matters and give little thought to the responsibility they would assume. By delaying the placement a reasonable period it gives the parties concerned time to consider all phases of the undertakings. It also gives us a better opportunity to fit the home with the proper child and thus prevent a return or transfer later on. Our experience has shown us that this is the most satisfactory plan.

Every charity organization has on its list people who are habitual troublemakers. The following case is typical in this respect. Several years ago we admitted a family of five children whose parents were of the worst type and who were living under disgraceful conditions. With the possible exception of the boy they could not rightfully be termed borderline, but rather they belonged to that class of child known as difficult. It was only after long periods of training that the children were placed in foster homes.

The boy was transferred three times before he was placed in a home where he finally proved at all congenial. Temperamentally he is easy-going and if let alone he enjoys doing any kind of manual work and is happy when nothing occurs to disturb the routine of his life. He neither smokes, chews nor drinks and seldom leaves the farm. He has a good sized back account and as his needs are few the sum is steadily increasing. He will never add to the world's intellectual store, but the brawn of his class is a mighty factor in caring for a record crop of wheat or potatoes.

It has been our experience that the logical place for a mentally retarded man or boy is the farm provided, however, that he has not in his makeup the trait of cruelty to animals. In the city the chances are that he will be but a tool in the hands of astute criminals but in the rural districts the opportunities for getting into trouble. are reduced to a minimum.

Edith, a sister, was found a home in an ordinary family. They were told she was a difficult child to manage, but they assured us we would not be called upon to solve their petty problems if we would but allow them to take the girl with them. The reports of our visitor show that there were many occasions when the family life did not run smoothly and had her foster parents been less persistent and persevering it is not to be doubted that there would have been an entirely different ending to the story of her girlhood days. She now has a home of her own and knows from experience that caring for children has its sorrows as well as its joys, its moments of pain as well as happiness.

Clara, another sister, was the cause of much solicitation by everyone with whom she came in contact. She was by nature a disturber. If an occasion lacked variety or excitement, this child would find a way to supply the apparent deficiency. Her imagination was constantly at work and the plausible stories, complete with detail, caused more than one family to return her to the Home.

When people would see her among the children in the Girls' Department they could not be convinced that she was not really as demure as she appeared, but after they had had her for a time we invariably received a letter asking for advice or requesting our visitor to call and We knew at once that the same old story was to be repeated.

Upon one occasion she almost caused a separation between her foster parents by her stories. Frequent visitations and letters were necessary but even these would have been of no avail had the people with whom she was last placed wavered in what they considered their Christian duty. Clara, too, is married and now realizes her mistakes of earlier days.

Sadie, a few years older than Clara, was marked with a propensity for wandering and was easily influenced by the older children. She remembered localities and names of streets where she had formerly lived with her own people and she never became really reconciled to her foster home. All efforts to interest her in the better things of life failed. School to her was but a place in which to idle away one's time and her attendance at church was always preceded by many protestations. One day we were notified that Sadie had boarded a train for Cleveland. We afterwards discovered that she had found her own people and drifted back into their ways.

Bessie, the youngest, is still in her foster home. She has been a care in many ways but her foster parents are firm in the belief that she will outgrow her natural tendency for troublemaking. Should this prove true, it will be because she was placed when very young and her careful training will have neutralized the family trait.

We have in mind another family of an entirely different type. Conditions were such that of the five children, only two of them were placed in homes- the others being returned to relatives. In after years the brothers and sisters were brought together. The brother and sister of the foster homes had received college educations and each specialized in a chosen field of endeavor. When the others learned of this they were not to be outdone and immediately began courses of study in widely separated institutions of learning. The germ of achievement had been lying dormant in them thorough the years and needed but a stimulus to produce results. Today they are professional men and women but it is doubtful this would have been so had all of the five children been returned to their friends and relatives, as the educational advantages received by the two placed in foster homes proved an incentive to the others and goaded them on to work and study in order to attain an equality of learning similar to that of their more fortunate brother and sister.

We cannot close this report without a word of appreciation to those people who have taken these dependent children into their homes. Many times it has been their first experience in the intimate care of little ones and they have begun their task with positive opinions in the matter of child-rearing. However, they soon find that some revision is necessary. What seems perfectly plausible in theory does not always work out practically where the child is concerned. This period of adjustment affects the child as it does the parents and if the latter are but half-hearted in the desire for a little one in the home they are unable to stand the strain and the child is returned to the Institution the worse for having been placed.

Many people feel so sorry for the little ones they take that their sympathy rather than good judgment is the dominant note in the child's training. Even a baby will take advantage of the weakness of a foster parent and instead of being governed the child becomes the monarch of all he surveys and every whim must at once be gratified.

We see alike the frailties of the child as well as those of the foster parents who think they are following a wise course when they indulge children but really are in error. It is a simple matter to talk to the little one and point out his mistakes but it requires tact to do this with the foster parents. The latter class differ in their tendencies as do the children. They forget that the act of taking a penny from the kitchens table is an offense of no greater magnitude than it was when they themselves surreptitiously tip-toed to the cookie jar twenty years ago. They cannot see why the child should tell stories occasionally but they forget their own vivid imaginations when they were young.

It is sometimes said that it child is lacking in appreciation but we find in some cases that the foster parents have made very little effort to bring out this admirable trait.

When the foster parent has returned from a shopping tour the child eagerly inspects the purchases hoping that perhaps he may find something for himself. Clothing and the incidental expenses of keeping a child in the home mean very little to the average boy and girl and the juvenile tendency is to take these things as a matter of course, but the aspect of a child"s whole world is changed for him if he is occasionally remembered with a small gift such as a base ball bat or a hair ribbon. Perhaps the mistakes of the foster parents have been legion, but the fact is indisputable that were it not for the many homes opened to these desolate little ones their chances for a normal existence would indeed be slight.

Respectfully submitted,
MR. DOUGLAS PERKINS. . .

1. Ihimaera, Witi, ed. Growing Up Maori. Auckland: Tandem Press, 1998.
   This collection of 37 personal accounts covers a wide spectrum of experiences and provides the best single introduction to Maori childhoods, rural and urban, throughout the 20th century.
2. Gifkins, Michael, ed. Through the Looking Glass: Recollections of Childhood from 20 Prominent New Zealanders. Auckland: Century Hutchinson, 1988.
   In seeking a common theme from the variety of childhood experience reflected in this collection, Gifkins concludes (p. viii) that "the anarchy of childhood" predominates. Each of the contributors attained prominence in his or her chosen field; the majority are writers or poets. Most of the childhoods outlined are set in the 1940s and 1950s.
3. O'Regan, Pauline. Aunts & Windmills: Stories from My Past. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 1991.
   A Catholic nun and social activist, O'Regan recounts childhood episodes of the 1920s and 1930s, set in the small West Coast farming community of Cronadun. School, church, and community activities are complemented by evocative memories of sounds, smells, and tastes.
4. Langkilde Christie, Poula. Candles and Canvas; A Danish Family in New Zealand. Auckland: New Women's Press, 1987.
   Emigrating as a child to New Zealand in 1907, Poula Christie and her sister encountered intolerance, hostility, and suspicion as "foreigners" in a British-dominated society. Her autobiography highlights the cultural difficulties of young "aliens" who sought to be accepted by their peers despite parental anxieties that they should not ignore their cultural heritage.
5. Archie, Carol. Skin to Skin: Intimate True Stories of Maori-Pakeha Relationships. Auckland: Penguin Books, 2005.
   A highly respected Pakeha journalist, Archie has had extensive experience covering Maori/Pakeha issues. This book is based upon her interviews with the members of ten New Zealand families of mixed ethnicity. Particular emphasis is given to the recollections of the (now adult) children. Some 70,000 New Zealand couples were in Maori/non-Maori relationships at the beginning of the 21st century.

by Ryba L. Epstein
(Suggested writing time: 50 minutes)

Societies try to pass on their basic beliefs and values to their children through both official and unofficial channels. The ideals about what children should be taught, how they should be raised, and how they should behave vary greatly from one group to another and over time.

Analyze the documents below and determine the changing attitudes toward children in 19th- and 20th-century New Zealand, as well as the official and unofficial ways those values are shaped.

Your essay should:

• have a clear thesis,
• use all of the documents to support your thesis,
• show analysis by grouping the documents into at least two groups,
• analyze the point of view of the documents, and
• recognize the limitation of the documents before you by suggesting an additional type of document or source to make your discussion more complete or valid.

Documents

1. S. Locke, Annual Report on Native Affairs [Government Document], 1874.
   
   The Maoris in this part of the country are in that position where they find the balance of power turned in favour of the European. They feel the old mana and customs and power of their chiefs are gone: at the same time they have only acquired that amount of knowledge that makes them jealous of the change going on around them, without having, for the altered position in which they are placed, learnt those habits of steady industry and application of general principles for their guidance, to allow their participating freely in the general progress. . . . [There] is a party of industrious Natives in the district who cultivate extensively, paying attention to improving their properties and educating the rising generation. . . . There are two schools established in the district, under the provisions of the Native Schools Act, . . . both of which are conducted in a most satisfactory manner, and the children show a great deal of progress in their knowledge of the English language, considering the short time they have been learning; so much so that it is time to consider some way of providing for some of them by apprenticing them to useful trades. . . .
2. "Shocking Disaster at Cambridge: Three Children Burn to Death." Newspaper article. 1884.
   
   Mrs. Osborne, having some shopping to do in the town, put her infant child to be, and locked it up by itself in the bedroom, so that it would not be disturbed by the other two children [aged 2 and 4 years]. Seeing that everything was safe, there being no fire in the house since breakfast time, she shut up the boy and the girl in the kitchen, and then proceeded to town on her business. I was the usual thing for Mrs. Osborne to shut up her children, believing that did she not do so they would find their way to the river, only a few chains distant. . . . The Coroner . . . referred to the boys’ habit of using matches as described by the mother, and he had no doubt but that the fire originated by the boy getting hold of the matches on this occasion, and in some way setting fire to their clothes or some paper that may have been lying about. . . . He though that the children might have been left with some neighbor.
   
   A juryman informed the coroner that there were no neighbors in the vicinity, and the unfortunate people were not in a position to employ a girl to look after the house in their absence.
   
   A verdict of accidental death by burning was returned.
3. Parliamentary debate over the "Juvenile Depravity Suppression Bill." 1896.
   
   "Mr. W. Hutchinson: There were a number of young children amongst us painfully demoralised – so young, some of them, that the policeman could not think of interfering with them – children suffering from a so-called liberty run unto utter license and lawlessness; and all this arising largely from parental carelessness or positive neglect. . . . These mere children got together at the street-corner or under a dark verandah; they talked, or they listened to talk, not the sweet babble of childhood, mixed with its laugh of innocence, but talk that need not be described; they got into temptations of all kinds before they understood the disastrous results which certainly followed. He ventured to suggest that these young children should be dealt with before they come to those of more advanced age. The Bill before them took no note of this incipiency in vice, yet it was here the mischief began. The Bill was a police Bill, pure and simple; but they needed more. It was an out-worn but still perfectly true axiom that prevention was better than cure."
4. W. E. Spencer, Inspector of Schools, Taranaki Education Office, 1898.
   
   "The causes of bad attendance, exclusive of bad roads and inclement weather, may be classed under two heads - (1) The home circumstances of the pupils, and (2) the school and its authorities. Under the first head I may mention parental indifference or neglect and excessive work required from children of very tender years. I know that during the milking season some children have to milk as many as ten cows every morning, and, if they come to school at all, arrive late, and are so fatigued as to be unfit for the work of the day. . . . Under the second of the above heads there is ample scope for attraction. When a school building is ill-lighted, gloomy, and depressing one cannot wonder at children preferring to stay away more than at their preferring sunshine to dulness [sic]. Then by all means let our schools be cheerful, bright, and attractive, and let the walls be covered with interesting and instructive charts and pictures such as will arouse and sustain curiosity. . . . Let the first impressions of the school-day be pleasant ones. Let us have means by which the children may amuse themselves during the recesses and before school opens, and they will, if possible, come early and regularly for a brief interval of companionship and amusement. . . . Again, the personality of the teacher is a well-known factor in producing good or bad attendance. Lack of sympathy, harshness, carelessness, and incompetency will inevitably lower the attendance. . . ."
5. Female Interviewee (born 1897). Interview by Colonial Childhoods Oral History Project.
   
   "When my brother was born I was just on 12 and the night before he was born, my mother said: "Would you like to go round and stay with Mrs Andrews?" So I stayed the night and I came home in the morning. Mrs Andrews said "Oh, you can go home now." So I went home. It wasn't far from where we were living in Petone. And when I got into the side I saw a most beautiful baby in a basket, on a chair, in the dining room and then I saw somebody rushing round in a starched apron with a cap on her head and I thought, "Well, who are you?" And I said to her, "Who's this in the basket?" She said, "That's your little brother." "Oh," I said, "Well then, I'll go and tell my mother." She said, "Don't you dare open that door. Your mother is very ill." Well, I was nearly 12 and I had no idea in the wild world where my brother had come from or how he got there or anything else – and I think that was quite wrong. I should have been told but I must have been very naïve or an idiot or something, I don't know what, but I never noticed that my mother was any different or having a baby."
6. Code of Honour from The New Zealand Boys' Diary. 1936.
   
   QUALITIES OF A REAL MAN OR WOMAN
   Are you one or only an overgrown baby? Are you faithful in your duties to God? Are you pure in thought, word and action? Do you study to imitate the greatest men or women of the world? Have you the strength of will to eat, drink and play in moderation and such forms of each as will make you better morally, intellectually and physically? Are you determined to work for the betterment of your fellow men?
   
   As a New Zealander, proud of the privilege, yet humble in the enjoyment of it:
   
   You will scorn all dishonesty, of whatsoever form or degree, as petty and mean and altogether unworthy of your family and the high traditions of your school and your Empire.
   
   In all things you will be temperate – in eating, in play, in rest, in work, exercising always the one true discipline – discipline of self. . . .
   
   You will regard coarseness in thought, language, or action, as belittling and degrading, and always and altogether beneath the dignity of a future citizen of this fair Dominion.
   
   You will cheerfully yield reasonable and prompt obedience to your elders, particularly your parents; and you will show a like respect for the rules of your school, the by-laws of your town, and the laws of your country, since you know that rules and laws are not needlessly made. . . .
   
   You will be punctual and orderly and cheerful. You will keep your promises. You will grudge no effort, no matter how small or how great the task, remembering that only your best is good enough.
   
   . . .
   
   You will ever be pure and true, for there are those who daily trust you. You will remember that in the hands of the Children of To-day is the World of To-morrow and you will strive to be not unworthy of the sacred trust.
7. New Zealand School Photographs 1950 and 1964.
8. Sanitarium Weet-Bix Packet [Advertisement], 1990s.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following institutions for primary sources:

• Australasian Conference Association Ltd.
• Colonial Childhoods Oral History Project (CCOHP),
• Statistics New Zealand, and
• Whitcombe and Tombs.

About the Author

Jeanine Graham recently retired from teaching history at the University of Waikato (New Zealand). Her investigations into New Zealand childhood history have combined extensive use of oral history as well as documentary, material and visual sources. She also brings to her research the insights gained from some three decades of teaching at Waikato University, where papers on the history of Aotearoa/New Zealand are delivered jointly with colleagues from the School of Maori and Pacific Development. In addition to working in the fields of social history, cultural encounters and childhood history, Graham maintains an active interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning in History.

About the Lesson Plan Author

Ryba Epstein teaches World History, Advanced Placement World History, Advanced Placement European History, Humanities, and Advanced Placement English Literature at Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois. She is a consultant and table leader for AP World History and has also read for AP European History. Her M.A. and Ph.D. are from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and she received her A.B. from UCLA. Her dissertation was on African oral epic poetry.

The impact of colonization on childhood experiences in New Zealand was diverse and enduring. Although there was never any formal apartheid system, biculturalism continues to be more commonly a characteristic of Maori (of indigenous ancestry) than Pakeha (non-Maori, generally of European descent). Until very recently most Pakeha children grew up with little knowledge of, or familiarity with, Maori language or custom.

Conversely, most of the children who identified as Maori had little option but to engage with the language, practices, and values of the colonial regime. Many of the urban-raised lost access to their own cultural heritage in the process. Only in the late 20th century, under the combined influences of a Maori cultural renaissance and debates over the nature of a post-colonial New Zealand identity, have Anglo-Saxon assumptions of an inherent cultural superiority been challenged.

Culture and circumstance, location, time period, and family support structures all shaped the nature of antipodean childhoods. Formal colonization began in 1840, when Great Britain declared sovereignty over the islands and their inhabitants. The involvement of some 500 tribal leaders in discussions over the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi that year reflected several decades of encounters. In the preceding half-century, coastal tribes had interacted with seamen, sealers, whalers, traders, or missionaries who introduced their language, food, material culture, values, and diseases. European men who had sexual relations with indigenous women also contributed their gene pool.

The children of these liaisons were normally brought up within their mother's community. Apart from the occasional trader or shore-based whaler who lived long-term with a local woman, European fathers were generally unknown to their progeny. Their offspring were not necessarily disadvantaged. Tribal identification, traced through whakapapa (family trees), incorporated the ancestry of both parents, providing indigenous children with an extensive network of relations, allegiances, and obligations. Few immigrant children grew up with comparable family support. Theirs had to be created over two or three generations of living here.

Traditional lifestyles had evolved over the seven or so centuries during which descendants of Eastern Polynesian voyagers adapted to New Zealand's temperate climate. The changes caused by European values, policies, and diseases were abrupt. By the end of the 1850s, the settler and indigenous populations were roughly equal, at some 59,000 and 56,000 respectively. A rapid influx of Europeans over the next two decades, largely in response to gold discoveries, public works schemes, and assisted immigration policies changed the demographic balance. At the same time, rapid land alienation in both islands and conflict in the North over land sales and sovereignty issues destroyed the economic independence and potential prosperity of many tribes.

Children of both cultures were affected by the upheavals of this era. Some measure of charitable or government aid was normally available to the "deserving"—Victorian distinctions between worthy and unworthy recipients of assistance were well-entrenched in colonial thinking. Maori communities adversely affected by the confiscation or sale of productive land were much less likely to receive assistance in the event of crop failure, poverty, or disease. Even the Native School system, established in 1867, required village communities to contribute land and a portion of the costs for each institution. State-funded secular elementary schools, open to all children between 7 and 13 years of age, with compulsory attendance enforced for both Maori and Pakeha at the turn of the century, concentrated on numeracy, literacy, and physical fitness. These schools also served as powerful agencies of socialization through which contemporary values of citizenship, imperialism, and loyalty to the British Crown were imparted.

Childhoods in New Zealand have long reflected the consequences of external as well as internal events. Lacking immunity against introduced infections, the indigenous population declined steadily, reaching its lowest number (42,000 out of a total New Zealand population of 743,000) in the mid-1890s. An eventual demise was widely predicted. Yet a gradual recovery occurred, despite a disproportionately high Maori death rate during the 1918 influenza epidemic. The children of both cultures lost relatives and friends in the carnage of World War I – and lived with those who returned physically or emotionally impaired.

Many youngsters also experienced economic hardship during the years of the Great Depression. State welfare, social security, and education policies of the late 1930s and following World War II sought to establish equal access to services for all children, although government agencies were initially slow to recognize, and respond to, the major population shift that was occurring, as young adults and Maori families moved en masse from rural to urban areas in search of better employment, lifestyles, and living conditions. A demand for unskilled labor also encouraged many Polynesian people to leave their Pacific Island homes for work opportunities in New Zealand.

Schools in the main cities, Auckland and Wellington especially, soon reflected the greater cultural diversity brought to urban communities by Maori and Pasifika families (Tongan, Samoan, Nuiean and Cook Islanders, for instance), a trend that would accelerate in the latter decades of the 20th century as Asian migrants became a significant minority group in the total population. While the insidious inequalities of colonialism are yet to be fully redressed, a more inclusive educational curriculum now provides New Zealand's children with a much richer understanding of its influence than was available to earlier generations of the colonial-born.

Source 1: The Ancient History of the Maori

Although an aged Horeta Te Taniwha recounted his boyhood experience several times for different Pakeha researchers, there was little inconsistency in his accounts. This excerpt can therefore be explored for the ways in which a child responded to a people whose arrival was completely unexpected and whose appearance was different from anything in his life experience so far. The story unfolds as a narrative of the event, with the commentary on each phase reflecting the means by which god-like figures were revealed to be human.

The points of comparison provide evidence of what was "normal" in an indigenous context. Maori used waka (canoes) constantly: the paddlers always looked to the front. All manner of rituals surrounded the partaking of food, which would not be touched personally by a person of high rank. The response of the "strange beings" when offered kumara, fish, and shellfish was not consistent with tribal notions of how an atua (god) would behave. The physical features of the strangers, with their skin and eye color, indicates that brown was the norm in Te Taniwha's world. His was also a society in which there were clear differences of rank, such as rangatira (chief) and tohunga (skilled person, often in spiritual matters). Hence Te Taniwha recognised Captain Cook's standing amongst his men and found it remarkable that Cook should pay attention to youngsters. His gentle touch was significant, given the tapu (sacred) nature of the adult male head in Maori custom, that of a chief or tribal leader especially. Children could be so caressed without causing offence: Te Taniwha and his companions may well have felt honoured by the gesture of this leader of strange men. Sensory perceptions, sound particularly, feature in this account. (In a section not included here but available electronically, Te Taniwha also refers to a dislike of the salted meat which he was given to taste.) The strangers' curiosity about objects of material culture as well as local flora and rocks also made a lasting impression on the indigenous youngster.

Discussion Questions

• What understanding of the lifestyle of an indigenous child can be gleaned from this extract?
  
  A discussion could note the roles played by various groups—elders, warriors, women and children—within this extended family community (hapu). The sequence by which the strangers were deemed to be human, not supernatural, also reflects traditional beliefs. Thirdly, there is information concerning food, adornment and clothing.
• What questions might arise concerning the authenticity of this account, and how might those issues be addressed?
  
  Questions raised might involve discussion of the reliability of memory, amongst older informants especially, and particularly when the stories are repeated frequently. Cross referencing with the published journal entries and artist images from the Endeavour voyage would provide a European perspective on the same encounter, and verify some of the recollections. Comparisons can also be made between the various printed versions of Te Taniwha's account: these show remarkable consistency. It would be important to emphasise the lack of literacy within Maori society at that time. Knowledge was transmitted through song, chant and oratory. Accuracy was essential and mistakes would be challenged in public.

Source 2: Adventure in New Zealand, from 1839 to 1844

Early cultural encounters in New Zealand's history are a story of active engagement by coastal tribes with the practices, foods, belief structures, and material culture of Europeans. Disease excepted, the interaction was selective, with muskets proving to be one of the more disruptive of the new acquisitions, and literacy, disseminated mostly by missionaries, a more beneficial adaptation.

Imbued as they were with their own sense of superiority, European arrivals did not always recognize their dependence upon Maori goodwill, generosity, and assistance. Shore-based whalers, however, were generally aware of the importance of developing good relationships with local iwi (sub-tribes). Moreover, to have a "resident" European was also a status symbol in a highly competitive tribal society. Hence a settlement such as Te Awaiti represented a situation of mutual advantage, and, with the presence of the children, the beginnings of mixed-race founding families.

Discussion of this extract might develop beyond exploring the social attitudes expressed here concerning the "improved" lifestyle of the Maori women and their children. The references to Barrett and Love indicate a ready acceptance of their progeny by Maori relatives: what difficulties might arise later if such children sought a future in a Pakeha-dominated world? Such youngsters could be cultural intermediaries if they were fluent in both languages, yet not all fathers encouraged this, as was the case with trader John Lees Faulkner who objected to his children observing their mother's customs and speaking her language. Essays in the freely accessible online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography provide additional case studies. Students might also consider what particular blend of circumstances ensured that there has never been legislative discrimination against mixed-race relationships (though the personal case studies cited in Carol Archie's work certainly show episodes of intolerance and hostility expressed towards children).

Discussion Questions

• Did children serve as the vanguard of biculturalism?
  
  This question encourages students to think of the ways in which children are often the intermediaries in situations of cultural adjustment (as in cases of migration, for instance). New Zealand's compulsory schooling system taught Maori children English but it did not provide an opportunity for Pakeha children to learn Maori. Colonial assumptions and policies therefore tended to inhibit the development of biculturalism among both populations. Students may wish to clarify what they mean by the terms, vanguard and biculturalism, and to consider whether there are particular "windows of opportunity" in a colony's history when such a concept might apply.
• How might issues of identity have affected 'half-caste' children throughout the colonial era?
  
  This question is prompted in part by the recollections of Mihi Edwards, whose autobiography, Mihipeka: Early Years (Auckland, Penguin, 1990) relates the extent to which she endeavored to disguise and deny her Maori ancestry when she moved, as a young woman, to seek employment in a Pakeha-dominated environment – at a time when eminent Maori politician and scholar, Sir Apirana Ngata (whose mother had a Scottish father), was widely respected in both societies. Students might like to consider the range of circumstances that can influence a sense of identity. The American civil rights movements of the 1960s, for example, had a profound impact in New Zealand, coinciding as it did with the advent of television, the massive migration of Maori to the cities, and the emergence of a significant group of university-educated young urban Maori leaders.

Source 3: Annual report on Native Affairs, 1874

This regional overview formed part of the annual Department of Native Affairs reporting to Parliament. The various Officers in Native Districts (of whom Locke was one) addressed their reports to the Native Minister since he was the politician who had responsibility for that Department. All government department annual reports were tabled in the Lower House of Parliament and "ordered to be printed," which is how they end up in the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives each year. The overall heading for the collected entries under G-2 would be "Reports from Officers in Native Districts."

This extract could be used for emphasizing the importance of historical context when considering the situation of indigenous children in a colonial environment. There might also be discussion of the extent to which children have agency.

In this particular East Coast region, one well suited to the sheep-rearing which was already a mainstay of the colonial economy, there were also intra- and inter-tribal divisions as a consequence of some involvement alongside government troops during the armed conflicts of the 1860s. The comments by Samuel Locke, a Crown Land Purchase Officer on the East Coast of the North Island, suggest a clear distinction in his mind between those who are proving to be cooperative and those who are not: the future prospects for the children of the two groups are similarly distinguished. According to Locke, Maori youth will not play a dominant role in the developing economy, though. Just as the first group of adults must "turn again to labour," so the best-educated of the younger generation will be encouraged to take up trades. There is no suggestion that young Maori might aspire to academic careers or to be the employers of Pakeha labourers. Yet, as the outstanding achievements of a local boy, the later Sir Apirana Ngata 1 would demonstrate, such a future was possible.

In compiling his regional overview for the annual report on "Native Affairs," subsequently tabled in the lower house of the colonial parliament, Locke identifies some negative consequences of colonial legislation to change the nature of tribal land tenure, but never questions the validity of the measures. Yet, notwithstanding the impact of conflict and confiscation on tribes affected by the events of the previous decade, government land policies were already proving to be the single most disruptive and divisive influence on indigenous communities. Children growing up in these environments lost an entire cultural heritage, not just a pecuniary asset, when their tribal lands were sold into European ownership. A tribe's history was known and named in relation to territory. Why were colonial authorities so oblivious to this?

Discussion Questions

• Although formal schooling provided indigenous children with access to the values and language of the colonial regime, what factors might affect their educational prowess?
  
  This question aims to encourage students to think about the home environment of Maori pupils, not just what was happening in the classroom and school playground. Circumstances could vary from one village to another, even within the same tribal rohe (territory). Maori as a language was not to be used at school: this prohibition, and the corporal punishment usually associated with flouting it, could make adjustment to the classroom very difficult. Loss of land also meant loss of traditional food resources. In the later decades of the 19th century, for instance, many tribal communities were affected by the mobility of those whanau (family) groups. Seasonal employment in the sheep-shearing or gum-digging industries, for example, generally affected the school attendance pattern of the children who moved with their whanau. There could also be intergenerational tensions as elders feared a loss of contact with their mokopuna (grandchildren) who became reluctant to speak Maori at home, given the harsh strictures against doing so when at school.
• How did government policies to promote the individualization of Maori land tenure reflect Colonialism?
  
  Discussion might also draw on comparisons with other colonial regimes run by other European powers. The Treaty of Waitangi accorded Maori the status of British subjects. With the passing of the New Zealand Constitution Act in 1852, male suffrage was linked with property ownership. (Universal suffrage by 1893 was not.) Viewpoints vary as to whether the individualization of Maori land tenure represented a genuine effort to expand eligibility for the franchise amongst Maori men; or a desire to overturn the land purchase policies that prevailed prior to the 1860s, in which the right of the chief to speak on behalf of his people was widely recognized. Individualization of title led to increased fragmentation of land, which in turn came to mean multiple ownership of small blocks that were uneconomic to farm and almost impossible to administer productively. (See the online Treaty of Waitangi booklets).

Source 4: "Shocking Disaster at Cambridge" [1884]

The report highlights a key difference between Maori and Pakeha childhoods, in the nineteenth century especially: the availability of whanau (family) support. "No other family members and no neighbours"—the difficulties confronting Mrs. Osborne were not ones that a Maori mother would have shared. Ironically, Maori parents would experience a similar isolation in the middle of the 20th century, when urban migration caused many indigenous children to grow up in nuclear families, away from their traditional extended networks of relatives.

The 1880s was a decade of widespread depression in the colonial economy. Falling prices for export staples, such as wool and wheat, had serious consequences for those who had bought land on capital borrowed during the speculative boom of the 1870s. For small-scale farmers, endeavoring to establish a viable unit with very limited financial resources, older children could be advantageous as a labor force. A young family was quite the reverse. The relative isolation noted by the juryman could be set alongside Mrs. Osborne's comment that she was normally absent for one to two hours when she went to town. Students could estimate average walking speed to ascertain the likely distances involved.

Some indication of the living space and conditions in the house can also be gleaned from the report. Only one bedroom is mentioned, along with the kitchen. Washing facilities were usually in a lean-to at the back of such dwellings; the toilet would be a long-drop at some distance from the house. The house would have been built of timber, with the paper lining on the interior walls adding to the flammable nature of the dwelling. An analysis of settler housing images available through the Alexander Turnbull Library Timeframes website would enable students to gain an impression of the range of living conditions at this time. Comparable investigations could be undertaken for other regions and years, using the online newspapers collection.

Discussion Questions

• How can reports of accidents provide insight into the nature of late-19th-century colonial children's lives?
  
  Discussion might focus on the close relationship between children and their physical environment, since playing outdoors was the norm. Such play was often supervised by older siblings, particularly when child-bearing spread over two decades and mothers had little paid assistance with domestic tasks. Although the New Zealand environment contained no snakes or poisonous insects, trees, rivers, creeks, and horses were generally present in country children's lives, while urban youngsters had street traffic to contend with, usually in the form of tramcars and horse-drawn drays and carts. Comparisons between the activities of children in New Zealand with the lifestyles of youngsters in other colonies or "frontier" communities might also be pursued.
• How do the types of accidents reported here differ from the risks confronting children throughout the 20th century?
  
  This invites consideration of changing technology – from carts to cars, bicycles rather than horses, household bleach or dishwasher chemicals instead of phosphorus heads on matches, for instance. There is also the wider context of the increased supervision of children's lives and the reduction in family size that affects the influence of siblings. Household tasks have also changed. Youngsters used to chop wood and kindling for the kitchen stove or the weekday boiling of water in the copper: few 21st-century children would have occasion to use a tomahawk or axe. The advent of electricity has reduced the risks associated with fire, but introduced the risk of electrocution. The likelihood of drowning in a well has diminished only to be replaced by the incidence of childhood deaths in domestic swimming pools. Safety measures have increased, as with artificial surfaces at public playgrounds, for example, yet obesity is now a major lifestyle risk for children and youth, suggesting that a lack of physical activity may be a greater problem than sports-related injuries. Ipod users face hearing loss; constant text messaging and computer use can result in tendonitis. The relationship between child lifestyles and risks can be explored in a variety of contexts.

Source 5: Juvenile Depravity Suppression Bill [1896]

Using this 1896 statement as the starting point, students could explore the changing relationship between children and the state through use of resources on the Ministry of Youth Development website and that of the Commissioner for Children. The emphasis on children's rights that has characterized policy and discussion in recent decades reflects support for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which New Zealand ratified in 1993.

Students might also seek to define anti-social behavior and aim to set their definition within the wider context of social changes in the 20th century. Youths loitering on street corners in the 1890s were unlikely to be armed (the ubiquitous pocket knife and shanghai were not normally viewed as weapons for use against other people). Late 20th-century youth, "hanging out" on the streets, are more likely to possess a knife or other weapon, and have their outlook impaired by alcohol, drug use, peer pressure, or gang membership, actual or in prospect. Students could explore the two websites above for analyses of the social changes that have contributed to a significant level of gang affiliation amongst Maori and Pacific Islanders. Comparisons between the New Zealand situation and that of "delinquent" youth in other western societies could highlight similarities, for indigenous people especially.

Underpinning the ongoing concerns about child and youth well-being has been a gradual shift in the relationship between families and the state. In the founding decades of the colony, only criminal, neglected, and destitute children were committed to government care, mostly in industrial schools and orphanages. Such interventions were very unlikely to affect Maori children, whose extended family networks provided support and sustenance. The geographical distribution of the two populations, predominantly rural Maori and urban Pakeha, meant that relatively few politicians were aware of the difficult socio-economic circumstances of many Maori communities. By the late 19th century, however, government policies in New Zealand began to reflect trends elsewhere, in Britain and the United States, for instance, concerning the need for state investment in children. As the future income-earners of the country, youth represented a substantial social capital. The Infant Life Protection Act (1896), the Juvenile Smoking Suppression Act (1903), and the 1925 Child Welfare Act all reflect this increased level of state intervention. Late 20th-century interventions are more explicit in acknowledging the citizenship rights of young New Zealanders – as epitomized with the establishment of the Office of the Commissioner for Children in 1989.

Discussion Questions

• How does the work of the New Zealand Commissioner for Children and the Ministry for Youth Development reflect a serious official commitment to the principle of children's rights?
  
  The answer will involve exploration of the Commission and Ministry websites, including the many links to similar agencies elsewhere. The UN Convention is available through the Ministry website. A recent publication by John Barrington, A Voice for Children: The Office of the Commissioner for Children in New Zealand, 1989 -2003 (Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 2004) contains a useful summary overview of achievements during that period (pp. 117-20).
• What arguments can be advanced for and against the proposition that a sense of social alienation is the principal cause of youth offending?
  
  This question aims to encourage students to take an international perspective, rather than a narrowly local or national one. Just as the issue of street larrikins was being debated in Britain, the United States, the Australian colonies and New Zealand in the 1890s, so the problems associated with youth offending, criminal and petty, may well be found in much of the developed world. Students should be able to contest the basic proposition by reference to all the other contributory factors that they can identify. They might also consider what influences or encourages the majority of young people to stay out of trouble with the law.

Source 6: Taranaki Education Office Report [1898]

Some students may find themselves surprised by the child-friendly nature of this official report. It could therefore be used in a context of exploring the assumptions that readers can bring to a document, and how preconceptions can affect the reading of text or image.

The connection between child experience and family circumstance is obvious here. In new farming areas (and there are ready parallels with North American examples), younger siblings had a very different educational path than their older brothers and sisters whose labor was often crucial in the establishment years. Parents could find this situation difficult because they also wanted the best for their children. There might be significant parental differences, with (usually) mothers endeavoring to find a balance between the demands of education and income. Older children, too, might have mixed feelings about the divergent home/school workloads. A sense of pride or achievement could be greater out of the classroom than within it.

Regional and cultural differences might be explored. The national curriculum was mandatory: access to resources varied enormously. A universal school system could not guarantee a universal standard of education, no matter how diligent the teachers or the inspectors. Students might expand on Spencer's analysis to consider a wider range of factors that could affect student attendance and learning – such as urban and rural differences, religion, housing, and gender. The importance placed upon compulsory schooling at this time also merits close analysis. By the late 1930s, all New Zealand children were required to have at least two years of secondary education and the leaving age was raised to 15. Yet the numbers of teachers in training had been reduced during major periods of economic recessions (1880s and 1930s) and men were lost to the profession during and after World War I. Adult recollections of schooling in the first half of the 20th century frequently refer to corporal punishment, authoritarianism, and feelings of fear. Spencer's vision emphasizes enjoyment. How might the different perspectives been reconciled? And can children's voices be heard?

Discussion Questions

• Why did formal schooling become such an integral part of New Zealand (and other Western European) children's lives by the end of the 19th century?
  
  Discussion should encourage students to think about international trends in the spread of elementary education. Within the British Empire, for example, similar curricula and resources could be found throughout all the settler colonies. There are also parallels between North American and British systems at this time. Industrialization and child labor form part of the background, while notions of children as "social capital" are also influential. The broad trends can be sketched from essays in the three-volume Children and Childhood in History and Society. 2
• What perspectives need consideration when trying to ascertain the nature of childhood experiences of schooling?
  
  Much of the published material on childhood experience draws upon adult recollections, written or oral. Students might be invited to write and then analyze their own memories of elementary school before being challenged to identify a range of other factors which may have affected the nature of their school experience. (Examples might include the physical environment of the school; its financial resources; the age, ethnicity, and gender range of the staff; prevailing philosophies of education and of the particular school itself; levels of parental and community support; levels of student representation in school affairs.) Comparisons across culture and time could be developed.

Source 7: Children's letters, Otago Witness [1918]

Children's own voices might be described as an elusive and problematic resource in childhood history. Taking these letters as an example, do the sentences and ideas reflect childhood priorities or can adult influence be detected? Most letters are likely to have been written at the family table, with some degree of supervision or checking of spelling and grammar. Both "Dot" and "Uncle Ned" insisted on high levels of presentation. Formulaic aspects can also observed, particularly in the endings of all three letters given here. (Additional examples from the Otago Witness up to 1909 available here.)

Age, gender, and language differences can be explored in some detail if students access full pages from the digitized collection. Generally, correspondents were under the age of 18, with the majority under 14. A regular Older Writers Week was always well subscribed and younger writers would sometimes refer to the style or content of those letters or try to emulate them. Occasionally, "Dot" would set a topic for correspondence but the general guidelines can be discerned since children were encouraged to write about animals, events of interest in their local area, holidays, school, and home life. The DLF motto was always printed: "We write for the benefit of others, not ourselves."

Analysis of the pseudonyms as well as the letter content gives some insight into the impact of World War I on these children's lives.

Discussion Questions

• How useful are these letters as a source for accessing children's own voices?
  
  This invites consideration of the various filters that may affect the content and style of these letters. The 350-word limit was rarely a problem (save for some of the older writers). Knowing that parents and peers would be reading the published letter could be a constraint on spontaneity. Social conventions, such as not discussing family affairs outside of the home, would also have been observed. There could also have been some apprehension about editorial feedback. Noted children's author, Ruth Park, for example, long remembered a critical response by the editor of the New Zealand Herald's children's page. 3
• What do Children's Pages reveal about the daily lives of youthful correspondents?
  
  Students might consider the extent to which children wrote about normal routines or focused on exceptional happenings. Since approximately 50 DLF letters on average were reproduced with each issue of the Otago Witness, general impressions concerning school, modes of transport, health issues, and contemporary events can usually be discerned - and consistencies or inconsistencies noted.

Source 8: Oral history, Colonial Childhoods Oral History Project

Changing contexts could be explored, using sexuality as the focus. Contemporary students might consider the range of ways in which knowledge of human reproduction, puberty, and homosexuality is disseminated before contrasting the present-day position with the dearth of printed or visual information suitable for children at the beginning of the 20th century. Social conventions also need investigation. Many of the interviewees in the CCOHP gleaned a basic understanding from an older sibling; others gathered a great deal of misinformation from the school playground. What were the dominant constraints affecting public school education on the subject; or parent/child frankness? Was ignorance regarded as a form of protection or were there underlying moral codes that emphasized innocence? Some basic assumptions might also be discussed. Was sexuality a topic that aroused childhood curiosity to any great extent at this time? Analysis of all of the CCOHP comments suggests that, for those under 15, it was not important – yet could this impression result from interviewees making instinctive comparisons with the present as they commented on the past?

The use of oral histories as a source in childhood history might also be investigated, with particular reference to any issues (such as deafness, fatigue, memory loss) associated with interviewing the elderly (defined as over 80 years). How much reliance can be placed upon such recollections? Without necessarily delving into debates over the nature of memory, students could be encouraged to reflect on their own childhoods. Are their memories predominantly of factual detail or of episodes to which they had some degree of emotional reaction, be that fear, curiosity, anger, pleasure, or pain? Questions about the "construction of the past" in an oral interview could also be raised, especially when comparing the relatively unstructured "life narrative" approach with that of the more structured questionnaire style of interviewing.

Discussion Questions

• Why might parents choose not to tell their children about a mother's pregnancy?
  
  Discussion could include some reference to the incidence of maternal mortality, since the risks associated with child-bearing and childbirth, among working class families particularly, were considerable. The registration of midwives (1904) and the establishment of free maternity care for women (1905) made a significant impact in lowering those rates. Concealment was also a way of avoiding awkward questions about reproduction and sex. Moreover, pregnancy was a private, not a public, matter which might be mentioned in a school playground, for example. Women's dress styles assisted with the strategy, as did the usual convention that children did not enter their parents' bedroom spontaneously. Maori children were less likely to be in ignorance than Pakeha, since sleeping and living arrangements were generally more communal.
• Evidence gathered during the CCOHP suggested that there was relatively little openness in dealing with other facets of Pakeha children's lives, especially where alcoholism, violence, or death were concerned. Does such adult reticence reflect contemporary views on child-rearing?
  
  Several of the CCOHP interviewees lost a sibling, friend, or parent during childhood. Generally, though, Pakeha youngsters did not attend funerals, whereas Maori children were present, and older ones involved with food preparation, during any tangihanga (a farewell that was held over several days) in their community. Cultural experiences also differed in terms of remembrance of the dead, with Pakeha generally choosing silence. Maori did not. Alcoholism was a source of shame within a family, quite apart from its disruptive and damaging effects on relationships and children's well-being. Concealment tended to be the preferred option. Essentially, child rearing was seen as a domestic and private matter, and the family was not a realm in which the state should interfere. Gradually, schools became agencies whereby some level of protection for children could be initiated, if necessary.

Source 9: Code of Honour [1936]

After some initial—probably adverse—reactions to the language and content of the Code, students might be encouraged to work in groups, to analyze a selection of the objectives much more closely. Culture and context could be stressed. The Dominion was slowly beginning to emerge from the Great Depression, the impact of which had been severe on a people who had lost so many young men during World War I. The notion of service for Empire had been well instilled prior to 1914, and a heavy price had been paid. It is noticeable that the emphasis within the Code is much more on a sense of identity as a New Zealand citizen, rather than as the citizen of Empire that had been so prominent a theme in School Journal poems, stories, and articles earlier in previous decades. Yet fundamental values persist - of fair play, honesty, integrity, respect for authority, for instance. Students may benefit from some discussion about English public schools, the class background from which pupils were generally drawn, and the ethos that imbued such institutions. They might also be prompted to consider how and why these values became disseminated so widely during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Responses to these questions could include reference to some of the Empire-wide organizations for young people, the Boy Scout and the Girl Guide movements, for instance.

Further analysis of the Code suggests that its focus was on encouraging youth to develop a sense of civic and community responsibility. Improvement of self is vital, but the individual's growth in principle and awareness is intended to enhance social interaction, not individualism.

Lively debates should develop if students are challenged to consider whether there is anything inherently wrong with such a set of personal values. Do these ideals pertain to any one social class or culture? Within the New Zealand context, Maori children growing up in closely-knit rural communities would have had an additional set of guiding principles, those pertaining to their own cultural beliefs and practices (tikanga).

Discussion Questions

• How do these behavioral objectives for young New Zealanders, Maori and Pakeha, reflect social values of the 1930s?
  
  Discussion would draw on student analysis of the key values identified in the Code. They might also note the order in which points are made. The reference to care of property, for instance, comes some way down the list and alludes more to public, than private, property. Students could be invited to consider other "Codes" that would have been well known at the time, such as the Ten Commandments.
• Develop a 21st-century "Code of Honour" that would be relevant for children growing up in contemporary society.
  
  This would involve some preliminary discussions about relating the Code to any particular group of children. Group work would be valuable here, particularly if students were encouraged to identify specific clubs or societies which aim to instill some common principles amongst their members. New Codes could be analyzed to see if they reflect any contemporary attitudes concerning child rearing.

Source 10: School photographs [1950, 1964]

Class photographs are so common in personal collections that they merit analysis to see how useful they may be as a source for childhood history. At one level, they can be explored for evidence of material culture, in terms of clothing, footwear, and hairstyles, for example. There is no sign of "brand" or "label" clothing in the 1950 image, save for the six gymslips that provide some impression of uniformity. Fabric, style, pattern, and color vary considerably. Cardigans and jerseys are hand-knitted; and the varying shapes of the girls' collars reflect the prevalence of home-sewn garments. In both photographs, the girls are all wearing skirts or dresses: only the boys wore shorts. It was still not "proper" for females to wear trousers (though wartime exigencies had made it acceptable then for women in the workforce to do so).

The ethnic composition of both classroom groups reflect population movements of the post-war period and suggest something of the relative isolation which young Maori – and their parents – could feel within the urban school environment. From a roughly equal mix of Maori and Pakeha in the small rural town environment of Kaitaia (15 Pakeha/13 Maori), Maori children in the suburban Auckland classroom were in the minority (29 Pakeha/5 Maori). Discussion could focus on the impact of likely disparities. New urban migrants who came as family units tended to experience difficulties in meeting the costs of city living, so very different from the communal and subsistence patterns of the country. Overcrowded housing and low wages from unskilled work meant that children in these environments had little access to resources or space when doing homework, for instance. Students might also consider how school could also be the principal means by which young Maori could begin to develop networks in their new communities. Church and voluntary organizations, such as clubs for urban Maori, also helped. 4

Discussion Questions

• How would the lives of urban migrant Maori children have differed from those of their peers growing up in rural areas?
  
  Discussion will be aided by a reading of the essays on Maori New Zealanders on the Te Ara website. While the urban-raised had better access to education and employment, many lost contact with their language and culture and were embarrassed to show their ignorance of customary practices. Rural youngsters generally retained much closer links with elders and took part in activities on the marae (meeting place). There was also far more opportunity for rural youngsters to develop traditional subsistence lifestyle skills (hunting, fishing, gardening). Yet these skills could not always be applied in the cities. Underpinning discussion of this question would be an awareness that urban migration was a necessity, given the steady growth of the Maori population and their very limited resource base in country areas.
• How influential was technology in changing children's educational experience in the second half of the 20th century?
  
  Exploration of this question invites students to consider the importance of technology in their own education (within and outside of the classroom) as a preliminary to exploring such changes over the previous half century. Within the New Zealand context, public radio was widely used after WWII, with broadcasts to schools supplementing the universally distributed School Journal. Within vocational courses particular equipment would be used, such as manual typewriters and electric ovens for typing and home economics classes respectively. Going to the Saturday matinee was a popular leisure pastime: newsreels, played before the main feature, normally covered world events. Most families would also listen to the BBC World News, broadcast every evening through the national radio network. The educational impact of television from the 1960s was undermined by commercialization and largely surpassed by access to computers and the Internet.

Source 11: Advertisement

Outdoor activities have long been seen as an integral part of a Kiwi upbringing. The official website of SPARC, Sport and Recreation New Zealand, for instance, describes a (somewhat idyllic) pattern of being on the beach in the morning, the (sports) field after lunch, and on the hills in the evening. In terms of topography, such a routine would certainly be possible throughout much of the country. "Going bush," camping, tramping, mountain bike riding, kayaking: the notion of being close to nature in the "Great Outdoors" is an important element in discussions of national identity. Yet the demonstrable late 20th-century onset of child obesity and related health issues have prompted major government initiatives to encourage more Kiwis, of all ages and ethnicities, to live up to that vision and "get active." (See New Zealand Sport and Physical Activity Surveys and examples of the range of programmes.)

Organized sport in the New Zealand school curriculum stemmed mostly from Britain, as with cricket, rugby football, tennis and hockey. Athletics and swimming also involved large numbers of children, particularly on school sports days. During the 1960s and 1970s, for instance, thousands of children participated weekly in Saturday sporting fixtures, able to do so because of the commitment of teachers, parents, or caregivers, and volunteers. Family financial difficulties, changing workplace patterns, the advent of weekend shopping (and working), and increased workloads on teachers as a consequence of changes within school administration and curricula, are some of the factors affecting children's participation in organized sport outside of normal school hours. Students could be encouraged to consider the influences on their own youthful participation in sport and to consider how these may reflect social or economic patterns.

Discussion Questions

• Food and activity are normally two dominant preoccupations of childhood. What have been the major influences contributing to a reduction in the amount of physical activity undertaken by late 20th-century children and youth?
  
  Discussion could involve modes of transport to and from school and much greater reliance on cars generally; the reduction in childhood autonomy at play as a consequence of urbanization, for instance, more indoor living; and the influence of television and personal computers and other popular pursuits that involve hours of sitting rather than movement. Smaller families mean fewer siblings or relatives to play with, though Maori and Pacific Island youth are frequently active in team sports, such as rugby league, netball, and softball. Students might also consider the costs involved with purchasing equipment.
• Myth or reality? Does sport really contribute to a sense of national identity?
  
  Students could be encouraged to distinguish between amateur and professional sport. The inclusiveness normally associated with the concept of national identity seems to be contrary to the exclusiveness of the professional player. In debating the cultural role of sport, students would need to be mindful of socio-economic differences, gender, and religious or other cultural constraints affecting participation or support. And what might the negative aspects be if sport and identity are closely aligned? What happens to the national psyche when a national team loses?
  
  The SPARC website could be helpful when answering either question.

Source 12: Statistical tables

Risk-taking behavior is a major factor affecting the health and well-being of young New Zealanders. Drug-taking, smoking, alcohol abuse, and unprotected sex are four obvious contributors to low self-esteem, and significant resources have been channeled into remedial and preventative programs for young people. Some focus specifically on Maori for, as the Ministry of Youth Development's 2003 survey, 12 -24: Young People in New Zealand notes, young Maori are more prone to smoke and drink heavily than non-Maori. Students could explore the reports available through this Ministry website and that of Statistics New Zealand with a view to comparing results from the 1996 and 2001 census data. The rate of youth suicide, for example, declined in that period.

Since motor vehicle accidents have consistently been the biggest cause of youth fatalities, students might compare the New Zealand rates with those in other western societies. The particular situation in New Zealand might also be discussed in the context of the age at which youth can drive; the nature of the existing fleet (since air bags are not found in the older cars that young people are more likely to be using); the rapid growth in the number of cars per head of population; the limited public transport systems which contribute to greater personal dependency on cars; the nature of most New Zealand roads (two-lane with barriers only on some motorways and expressways); and the high number of fatal accidents in which both speed and alcohol are factors despite major road safety campaigns against drunk driving. The wearing of seatbelts is compulsory as is using approved child restraints for children travelling in cars. The law is not always observed. The teaching objective would be one of setting the statistical evidence within a wider context to emphasize how external conditions can affect the consequences of personal choices.

Discussion Questions:

• How have the hazards of life changed for young New Zealanders throughout the 20th century?
  
  Discussion would involve some definition and categorization, both of the types of hazards and the age groups involved. Since an earlier source focused on dangers for children earlier in the century, the intention here would be to concentrate on the 15+ group. The influence of consumer advertising, peer group pressure, and transport preferences (cars not bicycles) would be relevant. Socio-economic and family circumstances are important, given the prevalence of alcoholism and domestic violence in affecting young people's lives, with Maori over-represented in those statistics.
• What are the major impediments affecting the employment of 15-19 year-olds and how might these be best addressed by young job seekers?
  
  This question might enable students to draw on their own experiences while also considering the situation facing young people in other countries. Different perspectives to consider include those of employers as well as prospective employees. Minimum wage rates, literacy levels, an increasingly casual youth workforce that encourages part-time employment as a cheaper option, lack of mentoring by older or experienced staff might all be relevant, as are questions of adequate guidance in the preparation of resumes, letters of application, or how to respond in an interview. The issues raised are unlikely to be peculiar to the New Zealand context.

Lesson Plan: Constructing an Author’s Attitude from Tone Words

by Ryba L. Epstein

Time Estimated: one 50-minute class

Grade Level: 10th through 12th grades

Objectives

Students will learn to:

1. Identify tone words and connotations;
2. Detect speaker's/author's attitude using tone and connotation.

Materials

• Projection of online images, if possible (if not available, make transparencies of two photos listed below in Hook activity)
• Copies of primary source documents for each student in the class:
  
  1. Adventure in New Zealand from 1839 to 1844 (document 72)
  2. Annual Report on Native Affairs, 1874 (document 91)
• Paper, pencils/pens

Strategies

Hook
Project image of Apache children as they arrived at Carlisle Indian Industrial School and image after they had become acculturated.

Ask students to quickly brainstorm descriptive words for the first picture and then the second picture.

Ask students to categorize their impressions, looking for the specific words they have used that describe positive or negative attributes, and attempt to determine what factors might underlie their perceptions.

Discuss the meaning of "tone," "connotation," and "attitude."

Group Activity
Next, divide class into small groups (three to five students) and pass out copies of the two primary sources from New Zealand. Each group should choose a recorder to write down the group's responses.

Students should go through the documents, underlining all words that reflect tone or connotation.

Next, students should make two lists from the words they have underlined: one of positive and one of negative tone words.

Then students should analyze their lists to determine what factors generally determined what the authors of the sources considered as positive or negative. (Usually, students will decide that behavior that indicated increased acceptance of Western culture and life-styles was seen as positive by the authors.)

Finally, each group should write one or two sentences explaining the attitude of each author, supporting their opinion by reference to their lists of tone words. Students should also try to identify underlying assumptions that led each author to his attitude.

• Example: Wakefield implies that Maoris who were married to or children of Westerners were superior to those who were not—as supported by his use of words such as "very superior," "strikingly comely," and "remarkable . . . cleanliness and order." His word choice indicates an attitude that assumes the superiority of Western standards of beauty and cleanliness over those of indigenous people.

The recorders for each group should write their group's final statements on the board.

Have the class discuss the similarities and differences between the statements, checking for validity and for appropriate support for each statement's opinion from the tone words cited.

Homework:
Students will write a paragraph trying to identify underlying reasons for the attitudes expressed by the authors by relating those attitudes to broader 19th-century European social and cultural beliefs.

Differentiation

Advanced Students
For more able students, direct them to the website of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School at http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html.

List examples of tone words from the primary source documents embedded in the site. How are these similar to the words used in the primary sources from New Zealand?

What similarities can be inferred between the two educational systems' attitudes toward indigenous children and their future roles in "modern" society?

Ask students to write a letter from Mr. Locke (document 91) describing the Carlisle School's successes to the New Zealand Minister for Native Affairs.

NEW ZEALAND DIARY 51

QUALITIES OF A REAL MAN OR WOMAN

Are you one or only an overgrown baby? Are you faithful in your duties to God? Are you pure in thought, word and action? Do you study to imitate the greatest men or women of the world? Have you the strength of will to eat, drink and play in moderation and such forms of each as will make you better morally, intellectually and physically? Are you determined to work for the betterment of your fellow men?

HELPS TO A HAPPY AND USEFUL LIFE

Breathe freely        Drink water copiously       Sleep regularly       Serve willingly

Eat temperately        Bathe frequently       Work calmly        Speak kindly

Chew thoroughly        Laugh heartily        Exercise daily        Read much

A CODE OF HONOUR FOR NEW ZEALAND BOYS AND GIRLS

As a New Zealander, proud of the privilege, yet humble in the enjoyment of it:

You will scorn all dishonesty, of whatsoever form or degree, as petty and mean and altogether unworthy of your family and the high traditions of your school and your Empire.

You will cherish frankness and sincerity, never committing the smallest deception of silence, word, or deed.

You will readily acknowledge your faults and resolutely fight them.

You will avoid the arch-sin of selfishness – whence spring all other sins – for under its sway Empires have crumbled to dust.

In all things you will be temperate – in eating, in play, in rest, in work, exercising always the one true discipline – discipline of self.

You will rise above intolerance and cultivate breadth of vision, endeavouring always to see both sides of a question, so guarding against the formation of hasty and uncharitable opinions.

You will regard coarseness in thought, language, or action, as belittling and degrading, and always and altogether beneath the dignity of a future citizen of this fair Dominion.

You will cheerfully yield reasonable and prompt obedience to your elders, particularly your parents; and you will show a like respect for the rules of your school, the by-laws of your town, and the laws of your country, since you know that rules and laws are not needlessly made.

You will exercise a jealous care over all property, particularly public property, protecting it from damage or disfigurement; and, loving the beautiful, you will seek to remove all unsightliness from your home, your school, and your town.

You will be punctual and orderly and cheerful. You will keep your promises. You will grudge no effort, no matter how small or how great the task, remembering that only your best is good enough.

You will be courteous, and kind, and helpful to all, remembering that all honest labour is equally honourable.

You will play for the side and play the game, always striving honourably for victory, yet taking defeat, when it comes, as part of the game. You will never add to the discomfort of a defeated opponent. Most of all you will love clean play and good play, whether it is on your own or the opposing side.

You will ever be pure and true, for there are those who daily trust you. You will remember that in the hands of the Children of To-day is the World of To-morrow and you will strive to be not unworthy of the sacred trust.

You will remember the Golden Rule, acting towards others always as it would most please you that they should act towards you.

Lastly, you will seek honour before all else, ever remembering that there is no finer aristocracy than the aristocracy of character; and you will not forget that character is built of tiny acts, small strivings, and much earnestness.

Why I Taught the Source

The story of colonialism in the early modern era is generally told as one of adults—and primarily adult men—exploring, conquering, and transporting goods and ideas. Historians of women have made it increasingly clear that women are also important actors in this story, but children and adolescents have received little attention. They were also involved, although primarily as members of families, so it is difficult to find much information about them. Orphans were a different story, and they offer an unusual opportunity to see how children fit into the plans and realities of colonial expansion.

The source included here is a suggestion for handling orphans, devised in 1655 by Manoel Severim de Faria, an official for the bishop of Evora in Portugal. In this source he speaks specifically about the role orphaned children could and should play in the Portuguese empire. The source links to many issues in the early modern world, including maritime expansion, gender norms, and changing patterns of poverty, and through these to contemporary issues as well. It provides insight into attitudes toward one particular group of children in an era of competition for wealth and dominance among European powers.

How I Introduce the Source

I have used this source in several different courses: world history, European history, and the history of women and gender. I provide students with guidance and pose a series of questions as we read the source together. It is important that students have the source in front of them, so that every time they answer a question they can point to the specific part of text from which they are drawing information. It is sometimes helpful to have students read the source sentence by sentence until they become more familiar with the official bureaucratese in which it is written. I have found that this can be a useful technique any time a class—even an advanced undergraduate or graduate class—is stuck interpreting materials, for it allows the group to work together as it puzzles through difficult passages.

Students showed better understanding of the source if they were first provided with some background about the way orphans were handled in early modern Europe, which I did orally in some cases and through a written introduction to the source in others. I began by noting that many children in early modern Europe lost one or both parents while they were still young. Most children whose parents had died were taken into the home of a relative, but for some this was not a possibility, and they were placed in a public or church orphanage. Occasionally children who had lost only one parent were placed in orphanages when the surviving spouse determined he or she could not care for them. Children were also left anonymously at the doors of convents or orphanages; most of these foundlings were probably born out of wedlock to poor mothers who could not care for a child while they worked as servants or day-laborers. Many students have heard about children abandoned at church doors and a few have read novels or seen movies about foundlings, so it is useful to discuss the generally dismal circumstances for most children born out of wedlock, and dispel the students' sometimes romantic notions.

Students gain from knowing a bit about the institutional context surrounding orphans, although this does not have to be extensive. The earliest public orphanages in European cities opened in the 14th century, sometimes as parts of city hospitals, and sometimes as independent institutions. Orphanages were supported by church donations, private endowments, and public funds, but the funds provided were often not sufficient to cover all expenses. Thus Severim de Faria's proposal includes much discussion of how to provide financial support for his plans.

Historical background about orphanages can tie into other themes of a course. Not surprisingly, the number of children in orphanages grew dramatically during times of plague or other epidemic diseases, a common topic in world history courses. Orphanages also swelled during times of war. Textbooks often present religious conflicts in early modern Europe in rather abstract terms, as ideas battling ideas, and a focus on what happened to children allows students to better understand the actual impact of religious violence. (This can also be linked with contemporary examples of religious violence.) The same goes for discussions of inflation and other economic dislocations of the 16th century; helping students think about the impact of rapidly-increasing prices for food and land on children makes economic statistics less dry, and also helps them connect the economic issues of the early modern period with those with which they are familiar in their own lives.

Reading the Source

I begin the actual reading of this source with my students by noting that Monoel Severim de Faria sees orphans within the context of social problems and their solutions. We identify these as we work carefully through the text. What are the problems he identifies? We discover a series of these: the lack of "cabin-boys. . .swabbers. . .and sailors" for the Portuguese fleet; poor training for those sailors, so that ships wreck and cargo is lost; vagabonds and people who Severim de Faria thinks are pretending to be poor. (Here you may wish to discuss why he thinks this is so, and link the issue with more recent examples of rhetoric about those taking advantage of social support systems, such as the notion of "welfare queens.") Severim also returns several times to his worries that Portugal is underpopulated. In discussing why he worried about this, we look at maps and at charts about relative European populations in the 16th century.

Once we have identified the problems he cites, we examine the solutions he proposes. Students see right away that the solutions are gender specific: boys are to work on ships and learn how to sail them better, girls are to get married and have more children. This often leads to a broader discussion of gender differences, and I bring in additional information. I note that in terms of gender differences in their life experiences, orphans were not distinct from other children in early modern Europe. In both families and orphanages, children were trained in gender-specific tasks: boys learned to care for animals and make simple items, girls to cook and care for clothing and laundry. When they were old enough, which meant somewhere between seven and 14, children in both families and orphanages often left their parents and moved in with a master or employer, with whom they lived for most of their adolescence. Boys were apprenticed to artisans to learn a trade, while girls worked as servants and gained more domestic skills.

Girls were expected to provide a dowry upon marriage, an issue that students can easily see in the source in Severim de Faria's examples of the way cities such as Milan and Seville "solved" their orphan problem. I have found that my female students of European background are often outraged by the practice of dowry, seeing it—much as Jane Austen did—as "buying a husband." This can lead to a broader discussion of marriage as a means of retaining and transferring wealth, a topic that is often lost in world history classes where the emphasis is generally on less personal economic institutions such as wage labor and commercial exchanges. Based on their reading of any textbook, your students will not be surprised that Severim de Faria connects Seville's growth and prosperity to "commerce with the Indies." Your discussion of marriage can help them see why he links these to "the marriages that take place every year" in Seville as well.

Severim de Faria's proposal is just that—a plan, not a reality. Nevertheless, several early modern governments and private companies established policies based on proposals such as Faria's.This could provide a springboard for student research projects on such public measures as: sending orphans and Jewish children from Portugal to Goa, Brazil, and west Africa; "company daughters" sent by the Dutch East India Company to the East Indies; the filles du roi sent to New France; orphans and other poor children taken off the streets of London and sent as indentured servants to Virginia. Coerced migration is a central part of world history, and involved young people as well as adults.

Reflections

Reading Severim de Faria's proposal allows students to see one way that children were integrated into plans for colonization, and trace ways in which European class and gender patterns were carried around the world. Students gain skill in interpreting official language from an earlier period, and in assessing the underlying assumptions of the author, both of which are important tools of historical analysis. They recognize that Severim de Faria was a member of Portugal's upper classes, concerned about economic growth and deeply suspicious of the poor. Comparisons with contemporary opinion on the part of wealthy and middle-class Americans are easy to draw. How to handle orphans and children whose parents cannot or will not take care of them are important challenges today, both close to home and globally, and this source leads easily to discussions of contemporary parallels in the situation of children as well. This source could thus easily be combined with other documents about poor, abandoned, or otherwise marginalized children from different eras.

Students initially think of Severim de Faria as positive toward women (because he wanted, in their words, to "help" them), but on closer reading they come to see the values underlying his calls for protection and the provision of dowries. This helps students learn that first readings are not always accurate, and that close attention to the tone as well as the exact language of a document is important.

In this regard it is convenient and of great value to Portugal, given the great multitude of foundlings and [male] orphans that exist in this Realm, who could be of great utility to the Republic, [if] raised in proper doctrine and placed in trades. It is more expedient to use this remedy in maritime regions, such as Lisbon, Setúbal, Porto, Viana, and in the Algarve; for in these [places], orphans and the abandoned once taken into custody could supply ships with cabin-boys, and swabbers for vessels, and sailors, all of whom there is a great shortage in this Realm. The proper teaching and training would be of great profit to our navigations, for there is a common lack of breeding geared toward men of the sea, as we have seen in so many shipwrecks and losses, of which there are many complaints. With this remedy we will also stop many of those who pretend to be poor, or who are vagabonds in this Realm, and they will occupy themselves in honest work. This will be of benefit to the Republic, and with this the number of residents in those locations would increase, and the population in the Realm.

This way of recruiting the orphans is so well-known that already in 1641 the members of the Cortes [the Portuguese parliament] asked His Majesty with these words: "It would be greatly advantageous that in the amassing of young orphans we recruit many boys, and that an amount be applied for their sustenance, for they will be taught the art of seafaring, with which there will always be an abundance of mariners, of whom there is a great lack in this Realm." [They gave] the example of the hospital that the Queen of Castile set up in Madrid to train boys to be mariners due to the existing shortage of them. And the response from His Majesty is that he would order that which they asked of him.

The same that has been said for the relief and remedy of orphaned boys can be said of orphaned girls. This is better yet, [because] much more care must be given to them, for lack of support is a greater danger to them, for women have much less means of making a living than men. Thus it is appropriate that a remedy be found for them, by applying all the means that can exist to have these [female] orphans of the people get married: for besides the great service [this will provide] to Our Lord by removing the occasion for them to disgrace themselves, we will attain our aim of increasing the number of people with the multiplication of marriages. The City of Milan, which is the most populous in Europe, serves as an example of this; one of the reasons for its growth is the dowry it provides each year to 800 [female] orphans. The same can be seen in the increase that the city of Seville has had for some years; for whereas much of it was caused by the commerce with the Indies, we can also attribute it to the marriages that take place each year of a great number of [female] orphans. In that city there are chapels. . . founded exclusively with large endowments to marry many [female] orphans: besides this there are many hospitals. . . that each marry many young women, and there are many more [public and private charities] that with the surplus from their revenues carry out this act of charity.

To put this means to work: we say that some portion of municipal revenues could be used, where a surplus exists, or some revenue from the head tax could be assigned to this, which income could be used solely for this pious work. We would also ask all municipal judges and officials that whenever they find money or bequests left to spend on pious works that were not named by the testators, they order [this money] spent entirely on these weddings. And likewise other similar things could be found for this purpose.