The Story of Mary Ellen

 Beginning with the 16th century, the European concept of the child or childhood began to change.  Prior to the 16th century, most children beyond the age of six were considered small adults whose parents had almost unlimited power over them.  By the 18th century, the view of children was gradually changing. Although still thought of as property, at least they were now seen as valuable property.  By the 19th century many argued that children needed special protection as persons.

As children gained person status in the eyes of the law, they also gained the right to protection and self-determination. The uneven trends that have moved children from property to person status were not simply the product of chance, but were part of a larger movement toward human rights.  The concept of rights expresses a shared sense of the natural, inherent, and inalienable rights of human beings.  Rights are based in the belief that a relatively small set of needs�not desires or wants�are intrinsic to all humans, that their satisfaction is essential to experiencing goodness, and that these needs may be translated directly into rights. Increased awareness of the rights of children paralleled increased awareness of children as persons (Hart, 1991).

 The legal struggle for children's rights in the United States begins with the story of Mary Ellen, a child born to Irish immigrants.  Her father was killed in the brutal Civil War battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia in 1864, the year she was born. Unable to care for little Mary Ellen while she worked, her mother made arrangements for her daughter's care. When Mary Ellen was three, her mother could no longer pay for her care and the child wound up in the care of New York City's Department of Charities. The city soon turned the little girl over to a couple who claimed falsely that they were related to the child.

 Over the next six years neighbors and a landlady expressed concern for little Mary Ellen, who was never allowed outside or had enough clothing to keep her warm in bitter winter or a bed to sleep in.  The child had bruises and marks all over her body and was forced to do manual labor beyond her strength or age.  She was so malnourished that although she was nine, she had only attained the size of a five-year old.  The landlady tried to intervene but was unsuccessful.  In desperation, she turned to a Methodist caseworker in the slums, Etta Wheeler, who began the long fight to save Mary Ellen. 

The police said that they could do nothing without proof of assault. Although there were laws to protect any person from assault and battery, there was no precedent for intervening inside a child's home. The frustrated Wheeler turned to Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She reasoned that children were members of the animal kingdom and could therefore be protected under the laws governing the mistreatment of animals.

Bergh repudiated this strategy, but became involved in the case. A petition was presented to the New York Supreme Court on behalf of Mary Ellen that proved she was being held illegally by the Connollys, who were neither her legal guardians nor her natural parents.   Witnesses testified about the abuse suffered by Mary Ellen and the leather whip that was kept near her at all times.  As the child stood and spoke in court, all could see the terrible scar across her face as she calmly related how her stepmother had slashed her face with scissors.  Burn scars from an iron were visible on her arms. Her stepmother was sentenced to prison for one year.

Mary Ellen's story ended well. She was taken to an upstate New York farm to be raised with other children in a safe and happy home.  She later married and had two children and adopted a third little girl. Two of the children became schoolteachers and Mary Ellen lived to be 92. 

Mary Ellen's case sent reverberations around the nation and resulted in the foundation of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) in 1874. The SPCC was the first organization to focus on the legal protection of children's rights in the United States.  In its first year, the SPCC investigated 300 cases of child abuse. It also introduced legislation "to prevent and punish wrongs to children" that occurred in the home.  The concept of protecting children in their homes remains controversial to this day. Then as now, critics argue that legal acknowledgement and protection of children's rights invades the sanctity of the home and tramples the rights of parents to discipline their children as they see fit.  Today, however, the responsibility of government to safeguard the rights of children in and out of the home is well established (Stevens & Eide, 1990). It all began with Mary Ellen.

    REFERENCES

    Children's Defense Fund (1999).  The State of America's Children.  Boston: MA: Beacon Press.

    Cohen, P.C. & Naimark, H. (1991).  United Nations convention on the rights of the child:  Individual rights concepts and their significance for social scientists.  American Psychologist, 46( 1), 60-65.

    Ellis, J. (1990).  The best interests of the child.  In C.P. Cohen and H.A. Davidson,   (Eds.), Children's rights in America:  U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child compared with United States Law. American Bar Association, Washington, DC,  3-18; ABA Center on Children and the Law; 740 15th St., NW, Washington, DC  20005-1009.

    Fraser, B.G. (1976). The child and his parents:  A delicate balance of rights. In R.E. Helfer & C.H. Kempe (Eds.). Child Abuse and Neglect: The Family and the Community.  Cambridge, MA: Harper & Row.

    Garbarino, J. (1996). Invited commentary:  CAN reflections on 20 years of searching.   Child Abuse and Neglect, 20(3), 157-160.

    Hart, S.N. (1991). From property to person status.  American Psychologist. 46(1), 53-59.

    Stevens, P. & Eide, M. (1990). The first chapter of children's rights.  American Heritage, July/August, 84-91.

    Wiese, D. & Daro, D. (1995). Current trends in child abuse reporting and fatalities: The results of the 1994 annual fifty state survey.  Chicago: NCPCA.

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