In his latest book Allocation Writer Menno Lanting dives into an almost forgotten chapter from Dutch and especially Drenthe history: the practice of children’s auctions and outsourcing of children and the elderly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The reason for the book was personal. During research into his family history, Lanting discovered that his great -grandmother was not in an orphanage, as always thought, but was outsourced.
After the death of her parents, she and her brothers and sisters were spread over different farms. “A four -year -old girl not only lost her parents, but also her brothers and sisters and her home and had no control whatsoever,” says Lanting.
Until well into the twentieth century, in Drenthe and other parts of the Netherlands, orphans and poor children were ‘outsourced’ to families in the countryside. This often happened under the supervision of the church or the poor board. The lowest bidder had the child. “That is a bit confusing, because we always think of the highest bidder at an auction,” says Lanting. “But the one who took the children received money to feed the child and put it in the clothes. The church or the poor board naturally wanted to pay as little as possible for that.”
In some cases it was literally via an auction. “Children were put on the table and the one who received the least early before the care then took a child home,” said Lanting.
Not only children, but also the elderly and people with disabilities were outsourced in this way. They often had to work in exchange for costs and lodging. “Sometimes these were little chores, as my 4-year-old great-grandmother had to do. But sometimes they were bigger jobs such as be careful or fucking. There are also tragic examples of the elderly who had to work on the field and fell out of exhaustion.”
The practice of outsourcing and child auctions led to growing social indignation. In the Provincial Drentsche and Asser Courant of December 9, 1854, an auction was mentioned in Rolde. It was described how children were ‘rented out’ at the lowest -offering.
Despite the high costs of living, the children were hired cheaper than in previous years, often by people who had hardly any resources themselves. The newspaper wrote: “It is almost impossible that the person who hires these children aims to win. Every cent that wins the diaconia is taken away from the mouth of the children, for whom food is needed even more than for adults, because they grow, and, in the absence of food, remain light and often spiritual stumpers.“
The social indignation about this laid the foundation for the later legislation that the system would terminate.
What started as a Mother’s Day gift and a small family research grew into a book about a forgotten history that hundreds of thousands of people has hit. “I wanted it to be a small monument for my great -grandmother, but the book has become a monument for that very large group that got through.”