In modern times, there are many laws to keep children safe, and adoption agencies and centers for abortion. In past times however, this was not the case. So what happened to the children who were not wanted? Well, the circumstances weren’t always the same, but oft times they were sent to a baby farm.

A baby farm was much what it sounds like. Typically run by untrained women (and the occasional man) strapped for cash, a baby farm often held so many children that it was unsanitary enough so as to be unsafe. When the profession was first created, it was genuinely used as an adoption center with the children being sold to childless couples, or occasionally the ‘nurse’ who ran the farm would adopt or foster the child herself. By the 1860’s though, some of the baby farmers had realized that they profited more when they pocketed the cash and killed off the child, so as not to have to take care of it.

One of the most prolific serial killers in human history was a baby farmer, with more than 400 children having been to her home yet never leaving again. Amelia Dyer was found when the police discovered the corpse of an infant along the River Thames wrapped in paper bearing Dyer’s name. Upon her property, more than 50 corpses were found along with paperwork for vaccinations and a large amount of baby clothes. Dyer served 6 months in prison for the murder of one, and then was hanged 20 years later when she was about 60.

Some of the laws currently in place were put in place due to the baby farmer Margaret Waters, who killed the children under her care through starvation. She would give them “Syrup of Poppies” which was then used as a cough syrup, although it could also be used as a sedative and if too much was drunk then it was toxic. She would drug the children so their hunger levels were low, and she didn’t have to feed them as much. They would slowly starve to death. She killed more than 40 babies. Shortly after light was shone upon Waters’ crimes, the British law “The Infant Life Protection Act” was put into place.

Although some of the most prolific baby killers, they were not the only ones. In Central Middlesex, England 1867 more than 94% of all murder victims were under a year old. This just shows how easy it was to get away with murder in that time period. Thankfully, there are now laws that makes what they were doing much more difficult to achieve and get away with.

More info
https://www.ranker.com/list/the-deadliest-baby-farmers-in-history/cat-mcauliffe

https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/baby-farming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_farming

https://pages.uoregon.edu/adoption/topics/babyfarming.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-equation/201305/life-the-baby-farm

https://valmcbeath.com/victorian-era-baby-farming/#.XEilyuHYrnE