IT BEGAN WITH ONE ABUSED CHILD . . . A Little Girl's Terror: By April of 1874, nine-year-old Mary Ellen Wilson had been beaten, cut, and burned by her foster mother for more than seven years. She had never once been allowed outdoors, her keeper locking her inside a tiny, dark closet while she was away. In the coldest New York winters, the child slept on a piece of carpet on the floor, only a threadbare quilt to warm her. A Caring Woman's Determination:When a concerned social worker named Etta Wheeler learned of the child's plight, she made appeals to the police, church, and the courts, but with no success. "Don't interfere between parent and child," they said. While others may have given up, Etta was determined to help little Mary Ellen. An Unlikely Hero For An Abused Child:In a desperate last resort, Etta went to Henry Bergh of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Would this man who was so kind to animals help? Surely the child had the same rights as a defenseless, abused creature. Bergh heard Etta's story, and the events that followed forever changed the course of child protection in America.Forgotten for over a century, Shelman and Lazoritz bring the story of "Little Mary Ellen" to light for the first time since it appeared in the pages of the New York Times, the Brooklyn Eagle, and the New York Tribune in 1874.
advertisement