9 – The Murder of Innocents
The crime of infanticide was rampant in the 18th and 19th centuries although few people were ever caught and tried. In London’s Old Bailey, for example, there were only 203 trials where the defendant was accused of infanticide. The majority of these unfortunate victims were ‘bastard’ children born out of wedlock and abandoned by the father. The desperate mother would then drown the child in a river, cut its throat or beat it to death.
As keen as these people were to get rid of their unwanted babies, they were taking a major risk because infanticide was punishable by death, notably in the UK. A total of 19 women were executed between 1800 and 1834; the last was Mary Smith. Although women were still accused of the crime, it was difficult to prove it, so every woman convicted of infanticide and sentenced to death from the 1840s onward were reprieved in Britain. The Infanticide Act of 1922 removed the deed from the list of capital crimes.
It was seemingly a problem in most countries around the world. There was an influx of ‘baby farms’ in countries such as Britain, America, and Russia during the late 1800s and early 1900s. While it often wasn’t a case of deliberate infanticide, these baby farms accounted for the deaths of tens of thousands of babies. These ‘farms’ were care services designed to look after unwanted babies, but the owners of these facilities seldom had the resources to provide decent care. Poor ventilation, filth, and neglect were among the main reasons for the deaths of these children.
For example, London had hundreds of baby farms during the Victorian Era, but only three of them were registered as businesses. When working mothers and those who hid away the babies of mistresses gave their children to these farms, they had no idea what would happen next. These farms would get away with murder unless a mother reported her suspicions to the police. However, unless she was well respected, nothing was done.