Childcare and Criminality: Representations of Baby Farming 1834-1908

Elkin, Catherine (2023) Childcare and Criminality: Representations of Baby Farming 1834-1908. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Baby farming, defined as the rearing of children for others in exchange for payment, had long been in practice across Britain before the term was coined in 1867. However, from the mid-nineteenth century, such arrangements came under increasing scrutiny as a small number of criminal cases emphasised concerns as to the commercialisation of maternal labour. This thesis presents an interdisciplinary study of the changing representations of the trade, both within Manchester newspapers (namely the Manchester Guardian and Courier) and within nineteenth-century literature. It is structured chronologically, with each chapter covering significant cases within each period. The representation of these crimes, both within novels and a rapidly expanding and sensational press, built upon and contributed to pejorative conceptions of the trade, as it became widely associated with child neglect and infanticide.