56. 

Article: "The Slave Children"

Marie Abrams of the Pavese and Martoccia families has shared with us an article, "The Slave Children of New York," written by David McCormick and published in the Winter 2012 issue of Italian America. Thank you, Marie! I can only share excerpts due to copyright restrictions.

The New York Times published on June 17, 1873: "It has been learned that at the present time there are between 7,000 and 8,000 children kidnapped from Italy held in this state of slavery in the large cities of the United States, New York being the great central entrepot. The children are brought here and sold daily by private auction, prices varying from $100 to $300 for boys, and from $100 to $500 for girls."

The article says that "most of these children were from small towns in Italy, snatched from their beds or given freely by their parents to Italian agents called padroni." They were given one outfit and were given basic lessons playing the triangle, harp, or violin.

In 1873, one Italian mother from Basilicata sailed to America with her two young children to search for her other four children who had been kidnapped.

Once resettled in crowded poor neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Manhattan, they were expected to wake early, eat a small piece of brown bread or some pasta, and ordered to go out and not return until they had filled their quota of 50 to 80 cents.

In 1873, a New York Times reporter who spoke Italian came upon three young boys around a garbage can in an alley. He learned that six-year old Francesco and his friend Pietrovito had been kidnapped and sent to America. The 12-year old's name was Rocco and he gave Laurenzana as his place of birth.

"The New York Times played a pivotal role in unmasking the plight of the young Italian street musicians. . . it took the combined efforts of the biggest Italian American fraternal organization, the Italian government and finally the U.S. Congress to end it."

"In December 1873, the Italian parliament passed legislation making the selling or employing of abducted children a felony. . . on July 22 1874, the U.S. Congress passed the 'Padrone Act' forbidding the use of children under 16 in public entertainments. The laws greatly diminished this slave trade. By the late 1880's the Italian street musicians had all but disappeared from the sidewalks of New York City."