This chapter examines the historical antecedents of the American social welfare state, examining the early institutions that addressed human needs.  The influence of Judeo Christian charity customs is examined, as well as the English Poor Laws which served as an early model for much of American social welfare. These influential eras of social welfare development – colonial America, the Civil War, Progressivism, the Great Depression, Post-World War II, the Great Society – are linked to modern welfare state.  The roles of industrialization and the voluntary sector are also examined.  Early social welfare leaders who emerged throughout the 19th and 20th centuries created structures that would advance social justice in America, create models for social welfare responses, and champion causes to improve conditions for vulnerable populations.

1. Chapter 2.
A Brief History of
The American
Social Welfare
State

2. The English
Poor Laws
 Early on welfare was responsibility of churches or left up to
communities and neighbors
 Those with money built almshouses, hospitals, and even
infrastructure
 Other Poor Laws required the government to take responsibility
for beggars and vagabond
 Although criminalized homelessness, it forced authorities to gather
resources to care for the poor, sick, disabled and elderly
 Also, assisted those who could work to find work and provide
education to children
 1572 – Mandatory tax enacted to help provide for the poor
 1601 – Elizabethan Poor Laws – enacted to “control” the poor.
Those who could not be employed would receive an allowance in
order to prevent from them becoming disruptive

3. The English
Poor Laws
 Separated the “deserving” poor from the “undeserving” poor
 The underserving were beggars, vagabonds, drunks and the lazy
 Those underserving were made to work for their assistance
 Those who refused to work could be sent to jail or sentence to death
 The worthy poor were those who were blind, the lame, orphans,
those who lost their job due to no fault of their own

4. The Poor in
Colonial
America
 Colonies adopted many aspects of the English Poor Laws
 Assigned responsibilities for their residents to the county or parish
where the person lived
 Community members took care of each other (e.g., providing
housing, food, etc.)
 Smaller towns auctioned off the poor, found them a home, or
apprenticed out children
 Less than 1% received help from outside sources
 Outsiders were shunned from public assistance, though they were
compassionate towards those less fortunate in their towns
 Residency requirements were enacted in order to receive assistance
 Not until the mid 1800’s did the federal government begins to
accept limited responsibility for the poor

5. The Poor in
Colonial
America
 Almshouses begin to appear in the 1700s.They are buildings built
by charitable person or entity to house the poor.
 In small towns, the town council would auction off the poor, place
them in the home of others at public expense, apprentice out
children or send them to privately operated almshouse
 Public assistance was mainly for those who lived in the county or
parish.Outsiders were not allowed to received assistance.
 “Warning Out” - newcomers were encourage to continue on if they
were indigent.
 “Passing on” – returning the person to the county or parish where
they came from

6. SocialWelfare
in theCivil
War Era
 The Federal government resisted
involvement in care for the poor and the
needy, but few incident demonstrated
the need for their involvement.
 Dorothea Dix , a Sunday school teacher
who advocated for the mentally ill after
volunteering at an asylum.
 Mentally ill were sent to almshouses,
prisons or mental institutions
 Treatment was poor suffering sexual
assault, mistreatment, neglect, etc.
 DD concluded that the problem needed
intervention at government level both
state and federal
 1854 Congress passed a bill providing
funding for programs for the mentally ill
 Bill was vetoed by President Pierce

7. SocialWelfare
in theCivil
War Era
 Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, andAbandoned Lands – 1865
 Federal response to the aftermath of the CivilWar and assistedAfrican
Americans in their transition to freedom
 Provided assistance to former slaves without job skills, land or jobs.
Provided food, housing opportunities, medical treatment, judicial
system for AA, college programs and financial assistant.
 One of the earliest involvements of Federal Government in providing
social services
 The Freedman’s Bureau was disbanned in 1872 by act of Congress

8. Industrializati
on and the
Voluntary
Sector
 Industrialization
 From 1870 to 1920, the U.S. experienced a sharp increase in the number
of migrants arriving from rural areas and foreign countries
 Increase in population in urban areas led to:
 Poor sanitation and increased health concern
 Scarcity of jobs and low wages
 Overcrowding; lack of housing
 Lack of resources and mounting expenses for social welfare programs

9. Industrializati
on and the
Voluntary
Sector
 Early social work was conducted by volunteers in communities and
through churches; interdependence was key
 Charity Organization Societies (COS)
 Credited with being the first social workers and inventors of the
casework system
 Composed of volunteers and agency representatives who
performed who studied cases of social problems and ways to
address them
 “Friendly visitor” offered advice and oversaw the family's
progress.
 They believed that unregulated and unsupervised relief caused
rather than cured poverty so a volunteer
 Preferred to give advice and encourage people to work
 Believed that too much charity caused dependency and
laziness

10. Settlement
Houses
 Started to house and service immigrant and low-income
families by people of means
 Staffed by students, single women, teachers, doctors,
lawyers
 Provided housing like a Almshous but also additional
supportive services, including helping with job searches,
casework, counseling, group therapy, adult education, and
childcare
 They also advocated for social reform. Formed advocacy
groups, studied causes of pauperism and inform the public
 Similar to modern day social work

11. JaneAddams,
Mother of
SocialWork
 Mother of SocialWork
 Jane Addams gained
prominence through her
writing, settlement work, and
international efforts for
peace.
 Winner of Nobel Peace Prize
 Jane Addams
 Started Hull House in Chicago

12. JaneAddams,
Mother of
SocialWork
 Considered a historical
landmark
 Operates as a museum
 Located on the campus of
University of Illinois

13. TheSocial
Casework
Agency
 The birth of social work profession
 Normally headed and run by female volunteers
 Received funding from direct donations, “Community Chests” (think
UnitedWay) and foundations
 Origins of accountability in non-profit work
 Led to organized services being provided, tracking and budgeting
 Practiced “social diagnosis” in case intervention; origins of evidence-
based practice.
 Followed profession like Psychology
 Methods employed by caseworkers included diagnosis, interviewing,
prognosis, planning, treatment and re-education
 Practice of casework spread to medical clinics, family planning agencies,
probation offices, welfare offices, etc.

14. Progressive
Movement
 From early 1900’s until beginning ofWorldWar I
 Tried to inject morality into the U.S.’s social, political and economic
affairs
 Believed that government should take care of its people
 Skeptical of big business and emphasized ethics in government,
business and private lives
 Theodore Roosevelt proposed natural resource conservation and civil
service reform Pro-woman movement that protected their rights to a
minimum wage and as a result of suffrage movement, help women get
the right to vote in federal elections in 1920.

15. Progressive
Movement
 PresidentWilson curved monopolies by enacting the Antitrust Act of
1914, created better working conditions for those working in interstate
and internationalCommerce,Workers’ Compensation for federal
workers, federal aid to states for construction of federal highways and
education programs for farmers
 Prohibition – enacted on 1920 until 1933; a nationwide constitutional
ban on the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcohol
 Social workers were in favor of prohibition
 Widely unpopular around the country
 Prohibition History
 The Rise and Fall of Prohibition

16. TheGreat
Depression
 Stock Market crashed October 1929
 Unemployment reached 24%
 More people emigrated from the United States than migrated
 Birth rate dropped
 20 million people sought relief
 Cities around the country refused services to non-whites
 Farmers protested against foreclosures and banks repossessing their
property
 Federal government did nothing. Hoover opted for to allow the
economic to recover on their own. Believed that aid to the poor would
weaken social and moral fiber of society
 Charitable services were soon exhausted

17. TheGreat
Depression &
the New Deal
 What happened?
 FDR takes office in 1933
 New Deal: brought forth the idea of public welfare vs. everyone out for
themselves
 “Relief, Recovery and Reform” - Scale of the poverty led to economic
reform
 Govt. should be compassionate with its people. Some of the first
actions was to provide the basics: food, shelter, and clothing for the
unemployed and their families
 Created the Federal Deposit InsuranceCorporation (FDIC) –
guaranteed the Federal government would insure bank deposits if bank
becomes insolvent

18. TheGreat
Depression &
the New Deal
 Programs and laws:
 Federal Emergency Relief Administration – distributed $5.2 million
in relief
 National Recovery Act – public works projects that employed
individual to build dams, bridges, libraries and other public
structures
 TennesseeValleyAuthority (TVA) – technological and social
experiment that brought electricity to the South, helped control
flooding, reclaimed land, improved river navigation
 Federal Housing Authority (FHA) – provided first mortgages for
residential property and insurance to lenders against losses on
secured and unsecured loans for repairs and improvements
 CivilianConservationCorps - provided unskilled manual labor jobs
related to the conservation and development of natural
resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local
governments

19. TheGreat
Depression &
the New Deal
 Programs and laws:
 Social Security of 1935
 Old-age insurance system
 Federal grants to states for maternal and child welfare
services
 Public assistance for dependent children
 Vocational rehabilitation for the handicapped
 Medical care for handicapped children
 Aid to the blind
 A plan to strengthen public health services
 A federal-state unemployment insurance
 Not included: national health care
 Fair Labor Standards Act
 Minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor restrictions

20. The New Deal-
Lowlights
 Unemployment is higher for blacks than
whites; twice the level of unemployment
 How the New Deal Left Blacks Out
 New Deal came about at the height of Jim Crow
Laws; did not address them
 The minimum wage regulations made it illegal for
employers to hire people who lacked skills
 500,000 Blacks, particularly in the South, were
estimated to have lost their jobs due to those
restrictions.
 New Deal spending programs were channeled
away from the poorest people, including millions
of Blacks in the South

21. TheGreat
Society
 The Great Society
 EconomicOpportunityAct of 1964 – looked to break the cycle of
poverty, assist the poor into jobs and eventually middle class
 Established the Office of Economic Opportunity
 Implemented programs includingVolunteers in Service to America,
Upward Bound, Operation Head Start, Job Corps, etc.
 Civil Rights Act of 1964 – prohibits discrimination based on race,
religion, sex or national origin. Ended segregation in schools and in the
workplace as well as discriminatory voter registration requirements
 Civil Rights Act of 1965 – eliminated voting barriers directed atAfrican
Americans
 Social Security Act of 1964 – Medicare and Medicaid
 Older Americans Act of 1965 – national network of agencies to assist
the elderly, e.g. nutrition programs, preventative care, day care, and
other supportive programs
 Food Stamps

22. End of
TheGreat
Society
 War inVietnam doomed a lot of the programs under the Great
Society
 Program funds were diverted from poor communities to fund the war
 African Americans and blacks died disproportionately in the war
 2/3 of AA were drafted to fight
 Only 1/3 ofWhites fought in the war due to deferments due to college
admittance, exemptions based on skills and officer training programs
 Poverty levels dropped in the U.S. nearly in half after programs were
enacted
 Conservatives claimed that welfare provided handouts and
beneficiaries would lose desire and ability to care for themselves

23. OtherWelfare
Highlights
 Nixon’s
 SSI – Supplemental Security Income – income for the elderly and
the disabled
 Beefed up federal funding for food stamps program
 Earned IncomeTax Credit – provides relief for the working class;
offsets Social Security tax, high food and energy prices
 Reagan
 
 Believed spending on welfare programs should be minimal
 That only the “truly needy” should receive assistance and that help
should be short termed
 Trickled-down economics
 Let the rich keep more money (by cutting taxes to them and
corporations) and they will supply more jobs and pay people more
 Poverty levels rose from 26 million to 33 million during his
presidency

24. OtherWelfare
Highlights
 George H.W. Bush
 Americans with Disabilities Act - “equality of opportunity, full
participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.”
 Sweeping changes in the treatment of disabled
 Provided protections against discrimination in the workplace and public
places
 Requires employers and schools to provide reasonable accommodations
 Bill Clinton
 RyanWhite Care Act – funding for AIDS research and placed AIDS/HIV
patients under Americans with DisabilitiesAct
 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996
 Eliminated entitlement to public assistance
 TANF –Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
 Included work requirements and strict rules requirement in order for the
family to be able to collect welfare

25. OtherWelfare
Highlights
 George W. Bush
 No Child Left Behind – aimed to improve academic achievement and
improve teacher quality
 Medicare Part D – prescription drug program for seniors with Medicare
 Before Part D, seniors had to pay out of pocket for medication or have a
private health insurance policy to afford them
 Barack Obama
 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – federally run
healthcare program that provided health insurance for all.
 Expanded Medicaid coverage to include preventative care and provided
additional subsidies for care.

26. OtherWelfare
Highlights
 DonaldTrump
 2018 Farm Bill – enacted on December 2018
 Implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help farmers and
ranchers
 Offers a variety of risk management, disaster assistance, loan, and
conservation programs to support their operations and provides assistance
for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners
 Cares Act of 2020 –
 Aimed at providing relief for individuals and businesses that have been negatively
impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak. Highlights include:
• Creation of the Paycheck Protection Program -These loans are designed to keep
employees on payroll and give employers a loan to help them cover the costs.
• Emergency grants for businesses applying for Small Business Administration
Economic Injury Disaster Loans
• Relaxed criteria for filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy
• Changes to Unemployment Insurance -That includes people who have been
diagnosed with COVID-19, are providing care for someone who is diagnosed with
COVID-19, are required to self-quarantine, need to stay home to care for their
children, or someone who has quit their job because of COVID-19.
 It also sets guidelines for access to health coverage, including:Testing for COVID-19 is
100% covered by private insurance plans with no cost to patients; Uninsured people
can be tested for COVID-19 for free if their state Medicaid program elects to offer this;
Once a vaccine is created, it will be provided for free within 15 days