From Bloodlines to the Baby Scoop Era to Border Closings: A Brief History of Adoption
Aug 23, 2025Awakened by Adoption: History, Trends and the Voices That Matter
This blogpost explores the hidden history of adoption in the U.S. and its deep ties to race, class, and power. By uncovering these truths, we invite you not only into a deeper understanding of the systems shaping our families, but also into the work of dismantling what’s broken — so together, we can create a better future for all our kids.
From Bloodlines to the Baby Scoop Era to Border Closings: A Brief History of Adoption
Adoption has existed for thousands of years, but its purposes and practices have shifted dramatically depending on social, economic, and political context. According to Sarah Easterly in Adoption Unfiltered, adoption originally served pragmatic and strategic purposes rather than the child’s welfare. To make sense of this evolution, we can look at five broad eras:
1. Bloodlines: Ancient and Classical Adoption
Timeframe: Ancient Rome 6th Century CE
Children—usually boys—were adopted to transfer property, wealth, or political power to ensure a male heir. Adoption was about lineage, status, and continuity rather than caregiving or love. Even in the distant past, power and privilege shaped whose children were considered “worthy” to be adopted.
Resources: Wikipedia: Adoption in Ancient Rome; Easterly, Adoption Unfiltered
2. Charity and Orphans: Early Modern Adoption
Timeframe: 16th–19th Century Europe
Adoption reflected moral and religious values. Orphanages and charitable institutions emerged, and legal frameworks began defining parental rights and responsibilities. Adoption was framed as a moral duty, but often prioritized societal norms over children’s voices.
Resources: Easterly, Adoption Unfiltered; History.com: Orphanages
3. Orphan Trains: Moving Children Across the Country
Timeframe: 1854–1929
Roughly 250,000 orphaned or abandoned children from crowded Eastern cities were transported to rural communities across the U.S. Children were placed with families—often to work on farms—under the guise of offering them a “better life.” While some children thrived, many were exploited for labor. The orphan trains reveal how societal priorities often outweighed child welfare.
Resources: Orphan Train Project; Easterly, Adoption Unfiltered; Wikipedia: Orphan Trains
4. Baby Scoop Era: Modern U.S. Adoption
Timeframe: 1851–1970s
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1851: Massachusetts Adoption Act established the first U.S. legal frameworks for adoption.
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1910: First U.S. adoption agency opened, paving the way for widespread adoptions.
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1940s–1970s: Roughly 4 million babies born to unwed mothers were placed for adoption.
Unwed mothers faced intense stigma and were often told they could not keep their babies. Economic hardship and lack of social support made raising a child extremely difficult, and many were coerced into adoption. Adoption records were sealed, ostensibly to “protect” mothers—but this also cut children off from their birth history, creating lifelong grief for many adoptees.
A particularly painful aspect was the disproportionate removal of Native American children. Before the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, 25–35% of Native children were removed from their homes—often placed with white families, far from their culture, language, and community. (Wikipedia)
Similarly, Black families were—and still are—disproportionately targeted by child welfare systems. From slavery, when children were sold away from parents, to today, Black children are removed at twice the rate of white children and spend longer in foster care with fewer chances of reunification. These patterns reflect systemic racism, not higher rates of neglect or abuse. (Human Rights Watch & UCLA study)
Adoption during the baby scoop era was big business and social engineering, deeply shaped by societal norms, privilege, and systemic inequities—millions of lives were shifted to fit social expectations, often at the expense of birth mothers’ autonomy and children’s rights. Today the Adoption and Chid welfare Industries are $30bn annual, growing at 4% a year.
Please take three deep breaths - this information is so hard to take in.
Resources: Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away; Before They Were Adopted (Documentary); Easterly, Adoption Unfiltered; NICWA; Annie E. Casey Foundation
5. Border Closings: Contemporary and Interracial Adoption
Timeframe: 1970s–Present
International adoption surged after the domestic Baby Scoop supply declined, driven largely by the introduction of reliable birth control in the 1960s and shifting social attitudes. By the 1970s, 90% of interracial adoptions involved white parents adopting children of color.
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2004: ~23,000 children entered the U.S. through adoption.
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2024: Only 1,275 entered the U.S., reflecting growing recognition of the harm in separating children from their cultures and communities.
Countries (e.g. China, Russia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, South Korea) are increasingly prioritizing keeping children within their home cultures, and some European nations (e.g. Denmark, The Netherlands) have closed international adoption entirely.
Yet, adoption today remains deeply entangled with privilege and systemic inequities. White families historically had access to children of color, while families of color faced barriers to keeping their own children. Reconciling these realities is part of our ongoing work.
Resources: Easterly, Adoption Unfiltered; Child Welfare Information Gateway; University of Nevada
Food for Thought
Understanding adoption’s history isn’t just an intellectual exercise—it’s a mirror for the responsibilities and blind spots we carry as parents today. As a white parent of children of color, we've had to confront uncomfortable truths about the systems that made our adoption possible and the realities our children are living every day.
The questions our children ask—“What were you thinking bringing me into a white family and neighborhood?”—challenge us to reflect, grow, and advocate fiercely.
So, here’s something to sit with:
How does knowing this history change the way you think about adoption, privilege, and advocacy?
What assumptions are you carrying that your children might already see? Do you hear your children's questions or criticism of adoption differently? How so?
Next week, we’ll dive into current adoption trends—how modern practices, transracial adoption, and the voices of adoptees and birth parents are reshaping the landscape and challenging us to show up differently.
With fierce love,
Marion Van Namen
Founder, White Awake Parenting
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