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The Brief Dark History of Adoption
Stolen children, sealed records, unwed mothers, orphan trains, foreign adoptions, good intentions, bad intentions, the fate of detained children at the border, and the sad, hard truth of all of it
Approximately five million Americans alive today are adoptees, and 2.5 per cent of American children under 18 are adopted, according to the Adoption History Project at the University of Oregon (pages.uoregon.edu). Despite this seemingly low percentage of adopted children overall, the Donaldson Adoption Institute reports that 60 percent of Americans have a connection to adoption. When I attended a small writers’ retreat a few weeks ago, the five women attending included an adoptee, an adoptive mother, a woman whose daughter had just adopted an infant, and me — a birthmother. Four out of five of us at a retreat that had nothing to do with adoption were closely connected to it.
In the ancient societies of Rome, Greece, and Mesopotamia adoption provided heirs, caregivers for childless elders, or the continuation of the family business. In some cultures it was costly, but it was not shameful or secretive. The modern American story of adoption, however, is built on a foundation of secrets and lies.
