"Strangers in the Blood": Illegitimacy in England, 1860-1939
FAIN: FT-56547-09
Ginger S. Frost
Samford University (Birmingham, AL 35229-0001)
Historians of illegitimacy have usually focused on infanticide trials, the New Poor Law of 1834, and child rescue work. This project will instead center on the legal and social consequences of growing up illegitimate in England and Wales between 1860 and 1939. An illegitimate child was literally parentless at law, and the first part of the book shows the difficulty of adjudicating for "fatherless" children in a patriarchal law system. The second part explores how families coped with illegitimacy, primarily by approximating the "regular" family, in blended and fictive forms. The continued legal and social discrimination led Parliament to pass the Legitimacy Act of 1926, a long overdue and highly limited act. Its passage and aftermath demonstrated the continued power of conservative forces in Britain until after World War II. Moreover, its application to the empire complicated meanings of citizenship, ethnicity, and nationality in an age of world upheaval and imperial decline.
Associated Products
Illegitimacy in English Law and Society, 1860-1930 (Book)Title: Illegitimacy in English Law and Society, 1860-1930
Author: Ginger S. Frost
Abstract: This book explores the legal and social consequences of growing up illegitimate in England and Wales. Unlike most other studies of illegitimacy, Frost's book concentrates on the late-Victorian period and the early twentieth century, and takes the child's point of view rather than that of the mother or of 'child-saving' groups. Doing so allows for an extended analysis of criminal and civil cases involving illegitimacy, including less-studied aspects such as affiliation suits, the poor law and war pensions. In addition, the book explores the role of blended, extended and adoptive families, the circulation of children through different homes and institutions, and the prejudices children endured in school, work and home.
While showing how the effects of illegitimacy varied both by class and gender, the book highlights the ways in which children showed resilience in surviving the various types of discrimination common in this period. It will appeal to anyone interested in British social history, childhood studies, or legal history.
Year: 2016
Primary URL:
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.ukPublisher: Manchester University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781784992606
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes