Every November, National Adoption Month provides a time to celebrate adoptive families, support those navigating the adoption process, and raise awareness for children still waiting for permanent homes. However, the history of adoption traces its roots to ancient times. It spans cultures and tells the story of evolving knowledge about caring for children.
This National Adoption Month, we share a brief history of adoption and honor the efforts of all those who improved the system over time.
The History of Adoption’s Ancient Beginnings
Adoption is not a recent concept. Long before laws and agencies existed, ancient civilizations practiced adoption for social, political, and familial reasons.
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- Ancient Rome: The Roman elite frequently adopted heirs to maintain the family name, wealth, and power. Famous adoptees included Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, who was adopted by Julius Caesar.
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- Ancient Greece and China: Adoption often served practical purposes in various regions, helping to maintain family lineage, provide labor, or perpetuate cultural practices.
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- Biblical roots: Multiple accounts of adoption occur in the Bible. Examples include Moses’ adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter and Esther’s kinship adoption by her cousin Mordecai. This indicates that caring for non-birth children comes with spiritual significance.
Yet in early societies, adoption rarely took child welfare into account. The focus centered on family legacy and social structure. Adopted children typically served the needs of the family, not the other way around.
The Shift Toward Child Welfare
The history of adoption shows a model centered on the child’s best interests taking shape in the 19th century.
During the Industrial Revolution, urban poverty and overcrowding led to large numbers of abandoned or orphaned children. Reformers pushed for new systems of care that emphasized compassion and family life over institutions.
One of the most influential reformers of this era was Charles Loring Brace, founder of the Children’s Aid Society in New York City. In the 1850s, he launched the Orphan Train Movement, relocating roughly 250,000 vulnerable children from cities to rural families. While deeply flawed, it marked one of the first organized versions of foster care and adoption.
Women played a key role in advancing child welfare, such as Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, and Florence Kelley, an advocate for child labor reform. These women promoted education, social services, and protections for vulnerable youth. Together, their efforts laid the groundwork for an adoption system centered on children’s well-being.
The First Adoption Laws
Massachusetts passed the first modern adoption law in 1851, establishing adoption as a legal process that required judicial approval. The law stated that adoption should only occur when it served the child’s “best interests.” This principle eventually came to guide adoption practices nationwide.
As the 20th century progressed, more states followed suit. They established adoption records, legal protections, and social work standards. By the 1920s, adoption agencies started formalizing screening processes for adoptive parents and providing support for birth mothers.
Postwar Adoption and Secrecy
After World War II, adoption in the United States grew rapidly. Many families wanted to provide homes for children orphaned by war or born during economic hardship. The postwar era also saw the rise of domestic infant adoption and the normalization of the nuclear family.
However, this period also marked the rise of closed adoptions, where birth and adoptive families had no contact and records were sealed. Secrecy was seen as a way to protect all parties, especially at a time when single motherhood carried stigma. Yet, closed adoptions left adoptees without access to important identity and medical information.
The 1970s: A Turning Point
The 1970s brought a wave of social change that reshaped adoption once again. Civil rights, women’s rights movements, and Native American activism all exposed inequities in adoption practices. During this time:
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- The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 sought to protect Native American children from being disproportionately removed from their communities.
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- The rise of open adoptions challenged decades of secrecy by allowing varying degrees of contact between birth and adoptive families.
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- International adoption increased, particularly after wars and political upheavals in Korea, Vietnam, and later China and Eastern Europe.
This era also saw greater emphasis on adoptee voices and identity, shifting the conversation toward transparency, heritage, and belonging.
Modern Adoption: Expanding Definitions of Family
Today, adoption looks different than ever before. Families form through domestic, international, foster, and kinship adoption. Modern practices focus on ethics, lifelong support, and trauma-informed care. Social workers and advocates now stress that adoption is not a single event but a lifelong journey of identity, attachment, and connection.
In addition, digital technology and DNA testing have opened new pathways for adoptees and birth families to reconnect. Online databases and support groups have made the search for origins easier and more empowering than ever.
Why the History of Adoption Still Matters
We can still improve adoption, so knowing how and why it has changed is so important. Understanding the history of adoption helps us see how deeply it’s tied to social values, family structures, and human rights. From ancient lineage preservation to modern child-centered care, adoption continues to evolve in response to increased understanding of justice, compassion, and belonging.
National Adoption Month reminds us that adoption isn’t just about forming families. It’s about building brighter and loving futures in which every child has a hand to hold.
During this month, you can make a difference for children who still need a permanent home. Donate today to help end the child welfare crisis in America.
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