General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A wild Civil War story for you all [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)to support children could give them away to other families or employers with the agreement that they'd work to earn their support, which could be very minimal. Ships, including war ships, often had small children as crew members. Separated families often never saw each other again, and dreadful exploitation of the helpless was common. (So was decent people having to act.)
In fact, it was a very poor and harsh world compared to today's high level of prosperity and wellbeing. And everyone lived much closer to death then than now, especially babies and children. Though average life expectancy was only 39, it was that low above all because so many died very young.
Different realities. I'll go ahead and respect the officers who treated this boy kindly and fairly for the times. There were plenty who wouldn't.