Victorian Era Baby Farming Was A Breeding Ground For Monsters | Heinous History

The dark business of baby farming was a quick way to make a lot of money in Victorian England...as long as you were willing to toss any shred of humanity out the window. And, for Amelia Dyer, the decision was easy, and business was booming.

Sources:

Chapters:
Intro 0:00
Care/of 1:35
New Poor Law 3:28
Baby Doris 8:27

[blumeshullman]

"assaulted or seduced" that is of course absolutely true, naturally some of these pregancies were the result of consensual sex, but one disturbing and confusing thing about that, is that back in the victorian period, the word "seduced" was sometimes to be understood as "raped", but not always, and you were supposed to know the difference between "seduce" and "seduce", which makes the literature all the more difficult to understand for us today.

[rochellepaputsis]

I became pregnant at the age of 15. I kept it a secret for fear of being forced to put her up for adoption. It was tabu to be unmarried and underage and pregnant back then. I am now 64 and my daughter is the greatest gift ever given me. She is truly a blessing

[farinshore]

Funny how those judging the mother as immoral felt good about themselves abandoning helpless children to an abominable fate. To my mind, it is the law makers who are immoral !

[abbyjohnson]

What exactly did the authorities imagine would happen to these babies after essentially criminalizing pregnancy of unwed mothers? What was the point of passing legislation protecting the lives of the infants whose mothers were left with no other options? No legal recourse, no protections... nothing.

Amelia Dyer was a monster, but we would be remiss in overlooking the circumstances that allowed her to flourish.

[lisamr]

I am now 53 yrs old. at the age of 19, I got pregnant out of wedlock. My parents were thinking of putting me in a place where I could live and have the baby put up for adoption. I, of course, said absolutely not. My point is the stigma is still around. Not as bad but it still is and it's so sad. This story broke my heart. Thanks for bringing up these horrific cases.

[lubumbashi]

Have you heard of the case of the Tuam babies? Up and down Ireland in the twentieth century, unmarried mothers were put into "laundries" or "mother and baby homes" run by nuns. Local historian Catherine Corless knew about the babies in the local home and wanted to put a memorial up so she put a freedom of information request. She found death certificates for 793 babies over 50 years but no burial records. Pulling at this thread she uncovered a horror that Ireland had never seen before.

[OutOfTheAether]

I can’t even imagine being one of the mothers tricked into giving this demon their baby so they could have a better life, only to find out later that they were starved to death, drugged, and strangled… then discarded like trash in the river. This is heart wrenching.

[airshow]

Victorian Era: passes shitty laws making it impossible to care for children.

"The infant mortality rate was very high at this time."

GEE I WONDER WHY

[risingrat]

Just another example of how bad laws open up doors for monsters

[SciFiFemale]

I got pregnant out of wedlock, age 25, I'm now 49. I knew the father would run, it was a summer fling, and I had been told by a doctor that my womb was tilted and it would be next to impossible to get pregnant. I was lucky my mother supported me, but my stepfather didn't. At a BBQ, he would not even look at me, or talk to me. I had left home at 16 to get away from him. My mother moved in with me on the new years day after my daughter's birth. Stepfather was nuts! I did lose a lot of my friends too. I do wonder, if my mother had not supported me, if I would have gone though with it. I love my daughter so much though, and I'm very glad to have her in my life.

[aishalea]

cant believe they made a LAW that made men not responsible yet completely ruin the life of the woman... sheesh..

[sparklykitten]

I always found it a bit laughable the stigma...as if women just got magically pregnant by themselves. The men just got away with it. Disgusting times 😢😢

[lesliegrace]

All this bc the norm was to shame women. If men at that time or ever actually supported their own women and children, this situation could have never formed.

[maryblock]

I'm 62. When I was 17, I was forced to go to an 'unwed mothers home' and surrender my baby for adoption. I was told by my parents, "Don't come home with a baby." I was told by the staff in the home that I was unfit to be a mother, only due to my single status. This was in 1978. These things are still happening today by adoption agencies and maternity homes.

[emrw]

It's sad that society at this time only seemed to care for these poor babies after they were murdered. The same society that cast them away in the first place, creating a breading ground for these baby farms.

[hurricanefrid]

My great-grandmother Annie was actually nearly sent away to an angel maker right after her birth, because she was so small compared to her twin sister that the doctor didn't think she would survive. He even recommended her parents to not even look at her, because it would only make it harder for them to send her away. Luckily, when grandma Annie was lying in the box she had been placed in in the hospital corridor a young nurse found her, picked her up and brought her to her parents. It feels so to strange to think that had it not been for that nurse, my whole family wouldn't exist.

[dkalisd]

Evelina was such a brave woman! We can never truly understand or feel how much pressure she faced. Basically bound to ruin her whole life but she insisted on telling the truth.

[nielubieinceli]

Ok, so: father has no responsibility,
Rapes are victims' blame
Having children out of wedlock is forbidden.
And abortions are also illegal.
Can someone help me to understand? Society don't give a s*it of these children but abortion is illegal?

[reneehouser]

Of course men made a law that men aren't responsible for their children, and then act morally wounded by the criminal acts of Amelia 😏 so many complicit wretches involved in this atrocity 😖

[michaeldamato]

You forgot the part where families were so disgusted with their daughters, that they'd put them in homes, where they usually stayed for life, this practice went on into the 70's