PicoBlog

(Kings County Almshouse, mid-19th century, Flatbush, Brooklyn)

We’ve all seen movies set in ancient times, where the poor, dressed in dirty rags and looking pitiful, gather around the rich coming out of the castle or entering the gates of the city and beg for “alms for the poor.” Depending on the plot and inclination of the movie, they sometimes get a crust of bread or a penny or two from a kindly soul, or they get shoved away, and perhaps a swift kick from some rich lord’s bodyguards. Even the Bible tell us that the “poor shall be with you always”, and truer words were never spoken.

There have always been poor people, in every culture, every time, and just about everywhere. That is certainly true throughout the history of this country and specifically Brooklyn, as well. What changes over the centuries is the response of the rest of society towards the poor. The poor have always been divided into two groups, the “deserving” poor, and the “undeserving” poor. Society has always been more eager to help the first group than the second, but the methods used to help have evolved over centuries.

The provision of alms has an interesting history. The giving of alms is an ancient tradition, followed by all  the major religions of the world. We get the English word “alms” from Old English, which traces back to Latin and Greek words meaning “merciful” and “pity.” Giving alms or aid to the poor; whether a few coins, or food and shelter, has been part of the history of civilization. But we won’t go through all that, let’s skip through the centuries to Colonial America, and thus, to Brooklyn.

We like to think that the settlement of America was by only the middle class and the rich, but they had help. Our early Dutch settlers had indentured servants and slaves. By the time the British had taken over New Amsterdam, both institutions were going strong. Historians have figured that among the Colonial British colonists, over 60% to 75% of them were indentured servants at one time or another.

Early 18th century British workhouses, almshouses, and prisons were overflowing, and thousands of people either volunteered themselves into indenture, or were forced into it. So many settlers came to our shores underneath the boat, as it were, that one contemporary chronicler wrote that “America was populated by the poorest, idlest and worst of mankind, the refuse of England and Ireland.”

When these people got here, they were bound by the terms of their indenture to an owner in a temporary form of slavery. Indentures could be bought for $25 or $50 a head, men, women and children. Many of these indentured servants worked alongside enslaved Africans, and there were also Africans who were indentured, not permanently enslaved, although as time went on, not very many. The usual term of service was seven to fourteen years, after which time, if they were lucky, those indentured were given some funds, perhaps even some land, enabling them to start their new lives.

Some were fairly treated; others were abused, beaten and, well, treated like slaves. Many ran away, often to cities where they could disappear into the crowds and back alleys, looking for day work, or begging for alms, or turning to crime. For some, it was the same life they had had in England. An American underclass was born.

The understanding of the conditions of poverty was long in coming, and arguably, we still haven’t figured out what to do with it, or the people affected by it. The Victorians knew and acted accordingly. The world, after all, was simply filled with the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor. They attempted to help one group. The other one was on their own.

(Elderly women’s beds, Kings County Almhouse, 1900. Photo: Museum City of NY)

Many of our American social ideas come from our time of being an English colony. The British Isles have had a long history of social institutions that they felt would combat poverty. Prisons were high on this list, and in the case of those who could not pay their debts to their creditors, debtor’s prison was the sentence that was often imposed on entire families. So were workhouses, where the poor could pay for their room and board by toiling in the many factories that represented the new Industrial Revolution.

While we took on many aspects of British society, here in America, debtor’s prison was never popular. Probably because a large percentage of Americans of British descent had come here as indentured servants and transported felons themselves, shipped to America from those debtor’s prisons and penitentiaries of London and other cities.

But the social problems of an industrialized country were the same here as in England: what to do with the rising numbers of poor people, who were a drain on the normal levels of charity? The first idea was called “outdoor relief”. The county would auction off the care of the poor to the lowest bidder, who would take the poor person or family under their care and having them work to earn their keep. The county would help with small amounts of money, as well as fuel and other necessities. As one can imagine, this system, and the people in it, was ripe for abuse. A central institution giving care was then thought to be the answer.

By the nineteenth century, social policy towards the poor was centered on the almshouse, or poorhouse. This would continue in some fashion, until the New Deal. The idea was that a central institution, established on a county-wide level, would be the best and most efficient way to help the poor. Ironically, this system was based on the dual policy of both helping the poor and deterring them from asking for that help. Because tax dollars supported the county poorhouse, this also was seen as the answer to private charity.

(Kings County Almshouse, Flatbush. 1900. Photo: Museum City of NY)

The early years of the nineteenth century saw New York and Brooklyn growing rapidly. There was money to be made here, and work to be done. Native born Brooklynites were joined by immigrants from England and Ireland, along with non-English speaking Europeans. The joined freemen and former enslaved black people.As always, some of the immigrants came here with their last coins and their meager belongings, hoping to start a new life, and found themselves without anywhere to live or work.

Many who found work soon discovered that their long hours and tireless labors just didn’t pay enough to make ends meet, and instead of thriving in America, they were barely surviving. DUMBO, parts of Brooklyn Heights, the Red Hook area, along with Vinegar Hill and parts of Wallabout soon became home to ramshackle tenements which were soon full of poor people. As Brooklyn expanded, so did they, all races and ethnicities, settling in shantytowns and wooden tenements.

With spreading poverty comes crime and vice, and parts of Brooklyn were known to be dangerous. Robbery, murder, rape, spousal and child abuse, alcohol, drugs, prostitution and gambling, by the 1800’s, we had them all, and more. There were also a growing number of orphans, both children who had no parents at all, and children whose parent or parents could not take care of them. Widows and abandoned women were extremely vulnerable, especially if they had children. There were very few respectable employment opportunities for a woman in the early 1800’s.

A growing Brooklyn meant a growing problem of poverty. As a means of both controlling and aiding the poor, many municipalities developed almshouses, or the poorhouse.  These were tax supported residential institutions where people could be sent when they had no other recourse for help. They were primarily for long term help and were seen as better alternatives than what we would now term “welfare.” Help was requested from a “Poor Master” who determined your eligibility, or sometimes a person was forced into the poorhouse when arrested for begging or vagrancy.

(1868 map/ Almshouse and grounds. Note very little habitation at this time)

In 1824, New York State instituted the poorhouse system, passing a law mandating that counties with a need for such build and establish poorhouses, using tax dollars. Anyone deemed a pauper could be forced to stay there, and work to support their keep. This included men, women and children. The law provided that poorhouse complexes be built, usually as far away from communities as possible, and that the poor could not be shuffled around to other locations, each county or city that had such an institution had to take care of their own local population.

In 1830, the Kings County Almshouse was established on 70 acres of land in rural Flatbush, far from the center of the growing city of Brooklyn. Like many institutions of its time, in addition to the poorhouse, the facility also housed what was then called the lunatic asylum. Mental illness, along with mental retardation, and other related disabilities were not understood until the 20th century. These unfortunate people, called lunatics and idiots, were lumped into the general care of almshouses. So too, were elderly people with no other means of support, and sometimes, the blind, or physically disabled.

As one could imagine, a large facility would be needed. By 1857, the Flatbush almshouse had several buildings: the almshouse, a hospital, a nursery, and a lunatic asylum. Surrounding it was a large 70 acre farm, with an additional 40 acres adjacent, leased to the almshouse. The land was farmed by the poorhouse residents. Where was this large facility, at the time, outside of the boundaries of the City of Brooklyn? Today it’s called Kings County Hospital.

(Kings County Almshouse, Flatbush, 1900. Photo: Museum City of NY)

Most counties throughout the country had a poorhouse. It was usually located far from the general population, and ideally had land around it suitable for farming, so that it could be self-sustaining, and generate income. Farm labor would come from the inmates, giving them the opportunity to help pay for their keep. The poorhouse was obligated to take everyone that society rejected, yet was seldom given enough resources to do so, especially as America grew in population, and it didn’t take long for these almshouses to be synonymous with hell. 

Although every child, even today, is told by their parents that they will be the cause of them going there, no one really wanted to go to the poorhouse. And for good reason, they were awful. This contradiction in terms caused any lofty goals in helping people to be mixed, at best. On the one hand the counties wanted to deter people from asking for help, on the other hand, they were providing that humanitarian help.

But almshouses were never able to be self-sustaining. They cost a lot to run, and the capacity of the inmates to pay for their own keep by working at the farm, or working at the almshouse itself, was greatly overestimated. There wasn’t enough staff, and facilities were not kept up. And the poor kept coming.

Remember the “deserving and undeserving poor?” The general societal outlook in the 19th century, and frankly, we still haven’t lost it, is that poverty was the fault of the poor. Helping the widows and orphans, the blind and old was one thing; they were the “deserving poor”.  The “undeserving poor,” were another story. It was thought that institutionalizing the poor would rehabilitate them and train them to be productive citizens. Their incarceration would teach them discipline, which was obviously all that was lacking and the reason for their poverty in the first place.

(Sewing room, Kings County Almshouse, 1900. Photo: Museum City of NY)

To this end, once in the poorhouse, children were separated from their parents and put in separate orphanages or sent away, husbands and wives were segregated into workhouses, and not allowed to even speak to each other, and conditions could be so awful that some would rather starve in the street than go to the almshouse. Irish and black families were especially targeted for separation and incarceration, as both groups were seen by many in the upper classes to be at the bottom of the social order, and responsible for their own conditions.

In 1857, the Kings County Almshouse housed 380 people. The almshouse nursery had 350 babies and children, while the hospital was caring for 430 patients, and the attached lunatic asylum had a population of 205. In total, there were 674 males, 691 females, of which 870 were foreign born, 475 native-born, including 424 children under sixteen years of age. All these people were under the care of only one keeper, aided by three male and four female assistants. The sexes were kept completely separated from each other.

Everyone there was required to work, either on the farm, or on the complex. Children over twelve were bound out by the superintendent and could be “rented out” to factories or other facilities. Elderly inmates were not exempt, either, unless too infirm to do chores or factory work. The 1857 report that details the conditions and population of the Kings County Almshouse goes on to admit that the place was overcrowded and understaffed. Yet, as justification of conditions, the report on the facility states that two-thirds of the inmates were forced to accept this public charity because of inebriation, which seems hardly likely, due to the numbers of children and inmates of the insane asylum, alone.

Those people were in especially horrible conditions. The insane were seen by many to be just a burden on society, as well as a danger. At Kings County, they were incarcerated in a separate facility, and either allowed to wander around uncared for, or were placed in various kinds of restraints. There were more women than men here. The facility was designed to hold 150 patients, but in 1857, had a population of 205. As horrible as conditions here were, this report also noted that the asylum was now under a new administration. The previous one had abused the patients, resulted in permanent crippling of several, and obvious marks of chains and confinement on others. The report was happy to state that this was no longer the case.

The Civil War began the change in poorhouse policies. As the reports from Kings County and other poorhouse records began to show, the poorhouse model was not working. Almshouses were expensive to run, were not self-sustaining and the numbers of the poor were overwhelming the facilities. It was becoming obvious that laziness and drunkenness were not the only contributing factors to poverty, and as deserving or undeserving as the poor may be, there were far too many to manage by incarcerating them in poorhouses.

On top of that, the war produced widows and orphans, parents, grandparents and children without the male breadwinner, and a great deal of temporary and permanently disabled men who were not able to work. Yet very few of these families were put into poorhouses because the government began to take a hand, establishing pension plans for veterans, and temporary aid to veterans and families by means of direct “outdoor relief” in the form of monetary payments. Governmental social services had begun.

(Shoe making shop, KC Almshouse, 1900. Photo: Museum County of Kings)

Poorhouses continued into the 20th century but were changing. By the turn of that century, many large poorhouse facilities had divided into their separate parts. The Kings County Almshouse also changed. The hospital part of the complex became the nucleus of present-day Kings County Hospital. The rest of the buildings were torn down to expand the hospital which today is a huge complex.

The almshouses got out of the mental health field, and separate facilities, generally known as insane asylums, were built, usually as far away from everyone else as possible. Mental health care still has a long way to go. Separate orphanages became more expedient for children, which has changed into in-home foster care, and most almshouses became homes for the growing number of senior citizens who could no longer take care of themselves, or had anyone who would take them in. By the beginning of the 20th century, almshouses were old age homes.

Governmental aid to the poor and elderly changed as well. Social security was established in the New Deal era of 1935, during the Great Depression. Workman’s compensation, unemployment compensation, welfare, and other social safety net programs would follow. By the 1950’s, the last of the poorhouses had closed. The institutions may have closed, but the challenges and resources to deal with the root causes remains. Poverty remains one of society’s largest, most complicated, and most contentious problems. Alms for the poor, unfortunately, are needed more than ever.

(Kings County Hospital buildings 1-3, 1931. Photo: Matthew X. Kiernan)

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