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Email: [email protected]
As immigrants flooded to America from Europe, they discovered that finding jobs and homes was often harder than they’d expected. Thousands of people came to New York City every year and there weren’t enough resources to go around.
These people ended up living in the streets, homeless. Their children often had it even worse.
Fun Facts
Vocabulary
Questions and Answers
Question: Why didn’t more people try to help the children?
Answer: There are many reasons. People felt prejudice toward immigrants, the mentally ill, and the poor. They often believed that the poor were lazy, dishonest, or bad.
They thought these people needed and deserved poor treatment to make them behave better. In the 1800s, there were no laws or services to protect the poor, and especially, children. Individuals, families, and churches were expected to take care of them but that didn’t always work very well.
How do you think we’re doing today? Do you ever see signs of similar attitudes or prejudices?
Learn More
Read about the experiences of modern refugees and immigrants and find out how you can help.
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
Declan, Tobin. " The Orphan Train Facts - American History ." American History for Kids, Dec 2023. Web. 04 Dec 2023. < https://www.americanhistoryforkids.com/the-orphan-train/ >.
Tobin, Declan. (2023). The Orphan Train Facts - American History. American History for Kids. Retrieved from https://www.americanhistoryforkids.com/the-orphan-train/