The Tragic Story Behind the Infamous '4 Children for Sale' Photograph (2023) (opens in new tab)

This hits home for me because my great grandfather was given away at 11 years old, and his brother who was 12 also, because the family could no longer afford to keep them. They were given to a family with a farm in a nearby county. Unfortunately due to illiteracy and lack of official records, no one knows to this day who my grandfathers actual parents were. All I know is that he and his brother were dropped off with a new family and worked on the farm until they left for the military at 18.

This kind of article reminds me of just how good we have it in America today, despite all its faults.

Unfortunately, child selling is the 'default' state of humanity. Our current regime in which we prioritize children staying with their birth family (which is correct, in my opinion) is novel and an aberration in the grand scheme of history. Despite all the claims that things are getting worse, we should always remember that things today are so insanely better than they were just a few decades ago that we cannot even IMAGINE how bad things used to be within living memory.

I'm quite conservative politically, but I will admit to bristling anytime anyone idolizes the 50s and the surrounding times. It was actually pretty awful.