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Download or read book Slavery and the Charleston Orphan House, 1790-1860 written by Felice F. Knight and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: This study examines the use of slave labor by the Charleston Orphan House, an institution widely acclaimed to be the first public orphanage for white children in the United States. The institution, which was founded in 1790, hired, purchased, and acquired through natural birth, gift, and bequest more than 100 slaves before the Civil War. All of the slaves worked in domestic labor of one sort or another. From 1790 to 1803, the orphanage utilized hired slave labor alone, but in 1804 it purchased its first group of slaves. This study traces the challenges that the officials of the institution faced between 1790 and the eve of the Civil War, and their efforts to face many of these challenges through hiring and buying slaves. The study pays particular attention to the institution's quest to provide a service to poor and orphaned white children in part through the use of slaves.