1601: Enactment of the English Poor Law, requiring parish governments to tax households in order to care for the “worthy” poor. A system of public “outdoor” relief that was carried to the Colonies.
1619: First Africans arrive in Virginia as indentured servants for plantation owners.
1624: Virginia Colony passes the first legislation recognizing services and needs of disabled soldiers and sailors based on “special work” contributions to society.
1636 Harvard College founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1642: Enactment of the Plymouth Colony’s Poor Law.
1646: Enactment of the Virginia Colony’s Poor Law.
1647: Massachusetts Bay Colony required an elementary school in towns of 50 families.
1647: Poor Law enacted by Rhode Island emphasizes public responsibility for “relief of the poor, to maintain the impotent, and to employ the able and shall appoint an overseer for the same purpose.”
1657: Creation of the Scots Charitable Society, America’s first private charitable society.
1673: Poor Law established for the Connecticut Colony.
1676: Passage in Massachusetts of the colonies’ first statute concerned with providing special care for the mentally ill.
1692: The Province of Massachusetts Bay Acts establish indenture contracting or “binding out” for poor children so they will live “under some orderly family government.”
1692: The Province of Massachusetts Bay enacted a poor law.
Thank you for calling to my attention the status of the first Africans brought into the US. I will change the reference. As to the other comment about Bacon’s Rebellion, I will have to pass at this time because I am very busy with other entries that are ready to post.
If you are interested, please accept an invitation to submit an entry(s) about significant events, organizations or social welfare pioneers. If you go to the tab ABOUT you can learn the names and credentials of volunteer contributors who have submitted entries. Anything you prepare will be posted with your name and a brief bio will be posted in the Contributors list.
Warm regards, John E. (Jack) Hansan, Ph.D.