This was an interesting and enlightening read about a topic many people don’t think about today let alone understand. Eve Bacon did a wonderful job explaining a part of history that has long been overshadowed or forgotten, but led to important legislation to protect children.

This is a well-researched book on the fascinating and dark history of baby farming. I liked the case histories and the structure of the book, which tells the story of how this industry operated. It was horrifying to discover that baby farming was made illegal as recently as 1939, and it is a salutary reminder why regulations are needed today in child care.

Eve Bacon’s book about baby farming is truly heartbreaking. It’s difficult to imagine the horrors of this appalling industry and get to grips with those who profited from it. I was aware of a single case if baby farming but had no idea of how extensive it was and Eve Bacon’s research is incredible. She explores the reasons behind the industry but more than that, she goes into detail about how the perpetrators were identified and brought to justice. It was prevalent in numerous areas of the country and even allowing fir the difficulties of poverty and deprivation, I find it difficult to understand how this business thrived. It’s unspeakably sad and I was surprised by the fact that the practice went on into the early part of the twentieth century. It’s an important slice of social history, but be prepared to be appalled by some of the horrors contained within.

Victorian and Early 20th Century Baby Farming is an often horrific and unflinching monograph on the history and background (and methods) of the practice by lecturer and history maven Eve Bacon. Due out 30th Nov 2024 from Pen & Sword on their History imprint, it's 264 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in supposedly "civilised" countries, the care and raising of infants and children was commonly handed over to other caregivers than the mother. In the case of affluent families, they were nurtured in the family home by nurses, nannies, and tutors and trotted out to be fawned over a couple times per day by the adoring (if distant) parents. In the cases of the less wealthy, they were "provided" for by the council or parish in the form of an allowance and handed over to caregivers/baby farmers to be maintained and raised to be productive citizens. A sad majority of these infants didn't survive their care, an outsized number even given the high infant mortality statistics across the board.

The author explores many specific cases and details an appalling series of law changes and social conditions which gave rise to baby farming and allowed it to flourish. The book is well annotated throughout and the text is enhanced by facsimiles and archival photographs from the time period. The chapter notes are extensive and probably worth the price of the book for reference purposes alone.

Four stars. It's a sad but important read. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, home use, or gift giving to a history/genealogy interested recipient.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.

A fascinating yet gruesome book that sheds light on yet another dark time in our past. While fascinating, reading this book often gave me the feeling of gawking at a car crash. Especially reading the many examples of the courts failing to protect these children

This is a meticulously researched and highly readable book about the shameful practice of baby farming in the 19th & early 20th century. The author gives a detailed account, pieced together from contemporaneous newspaper articles and other sources, of a dreadful episode in history.
The books walks us through the background to baby farming, which was that fathers were not held responsible for financial maintenance of their illegitimate children. This burden fell on the mother, who may have been raped (as many women in service were) and often had to work or face starvation and were therefore in no position to raise a child.
Unless they had family support, these unfortunate women faced unpalatable choices. Some took the option of ‘farming out’ their baby, in ignorance of the fate that awaited. They responded to adverts in the newspaper, offering exemplary care, and handed their precious children over at railway stations. Little did they realise that the money they scrimped and saved to finance the child’s care would not reach the baby, who would be fed on flour and water or chalk and water, and most likely starve to death. The most unscrupulous carers even asked the mother for money to call a doctor to the sick child, with no intention of doing so.
Baby farming seemed to take off in the 1860s. There was profit in volume, the more children taken on, the more the ‘carer’ could earn. However, this was a mathematical exercise in earning money, and cases of extreme neglect were common. Part of the problem being infant mortality was high anyway, and many times the doctor wasn’t called until the baby was in extremis. Then it was difficult to tell a child that was skin and bone due to an underlying health condition or because they had been starved.
Another contributing factor was the practice of life insurance for infants. This was another lucrative source of income – insure the life of your wards, and then get a pay out if they died. And if the carer came under suspicion, they would do a flit and simply change name and location, to start up again. Such legislation as there was, was either ignored or the enforcers were overwhelmed.
However, prosecutions were made, which the author giving many examples in the text. And there was hope on the horizon, when Lord Shaftesbury established London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, in 1884, and I can highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the social history of this time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A clearly very well-researched endeavour into the dark and sordid history of baby farming, this was a really interesting read. The ideas that people come up with to keep themselves afloat financially never cease to amaze and disgust.

While I was already aware of baby farming as a practice and some of the history behind it, I found this book dived into each of the cases in fascinating granularity. There is an approach in this book of pure fact, while also ensuring that the historical documentation is well-evidenced and clear. I found the images at the end were particularly poignant, and they lent a sense of appalling weight to the book.

The only critique that I have is that this book is, perhaps, lacking any moral judgement at times - it is very much straight up, and there is no speculation as to the moral value or where baby farming came from in the psyche for those who were the perpetrators. That said, sometimes a book is just fascinating without any judgement passed, and this was one of them.

I love the way this book is compiled with all the dates and links between the people involved in each case. This is how I like to write my own non fiction books. I learned a lot from this book about why we have the laws we have. I had no idea absolving men of responsibility led to this, but of course that makes sense. Also the stuff with the feeding broke my heart, but that is why we have formula now.
I fear that America is sliding back into this because do not have affordable daycare or housing. What else are people going to do?
Thank you SO much for granting my wish to read this book. I always wanted to learn more about how baby farming came to be and how it was dealt with in the moment.

An interesting read! Clearly has a lot of research behind it and I enjoyed reading about it all. I feel like the writing style was very textbook/police report and that did make it a little harder to get through.

This non-fiction book offers a comprehensive and well-founded insight into the dark chapter of baby farming in the Victorian era. Poverty and social constraints caused this business of commercial care for babies and children to boom. There were certainly caring carers, but there were also numerous black sheep who neglected, mistreated or even killed children. Such cases were rarely fully uncovered and punished. Well-researched and comprehensibly described facts in this book paint a portrait of the time and its society. Contexts and backgrounds become more comprehensible, even if you cannot, of course, fully empathize with every facet of the time. Numerous historically documented individual cases have been meticulously compiled, which I have never found in such quantities anywhere else. A book that is absolutely worth reading for anyone who has a historical interest in the time or in the notorious baby farms in particular.

Thank goodness times have changed..

Mis Dyer is an horrendous woman and what she did for nothing more than making money was grounds to secure her place in Hell..
That said.. this is an interesting read and one that made me think about the life and times of all involved. The mothers of babies the women who were supposed to care for the children after and the law..

I love historical reads and this is both chilling and intriguing, I learned a lot and the author has obviously done her research well.

Chilling in its level of detail about genuine cases, this book will shock many readers who may not have realised how recently baby farming was a common practice. The author takes us through case studies as well as explaining the legislative reform and social history surrounding how baby farming came to be a practice and how the community responded, including the introduction of laws against cruelty to children. It’s a fascinating book and so well presented, with a perfect blend of case studies and contextual facts. It’s important to remember histories such as these and the author has presented this in a way which certainly does not excuse or glorify poverty and neglect, but which does allow the reader to understand how such things can happen in the context of inequality, ignorance and disempowerment.

Very interesting book
Highlighting the terrible baby farming that happened
This book is respectful to all the babies who lost their lives
Well written

This was such an interesting read. I really didn't know anything about this but glad I read it. Very interesting.