Dependent Children, Child Custody, and the Mothers' Pensions: The Transformation of State-Family Relations in the Early 20th Century

This paper challenges the widely-held belief that government has assumed increasing authority over family life in the United States. I explore the origins and development of welfare services for dependent children from the indenture system of the colonial days to the introduction of mothers' pensions in the early 20th century. Rather than intruding more into family life, government has moved from an initial disregard of the family unit to a reinforcing of parent-child ties by supporting the custody rights of the mother.