"Before We Were Yours"

"Before We Were Yours" is a novel by Lisa Wingate but it is based on stories reported by children who were taken from their families from the 1920's through 1950 by Georgia Tann and the Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society with the support and aid of the police and the state government.  Reportedly they were in abusive or neglect situations or single moms or indigent married women were told their children had died and paperwork they were asked to sign was actually relinquishment documents.

Some whole families of indigent children were removed from their families when the parents weren't home and parents efforts to find them or have them returned were in vain.  So...you would think if they were being removed so that their situations would improve, that could be a positive thing.  However, in some cases their situations worsened as survivors told stories of being placed in holding facilities where they were neglected, molested, abused, and treated as objects.

Tann particularly wanted blonde children who she could place with wealthy families in Tennessee or with movie stars, etc. and line her own pockets with profits.  She had "lookouts" in the community who were paid to spot desirable children she could have picked up.

When Tann died of uterine cancer at home in her own bed before her crimes could be prosecuted, she had benefited illegally "to the tune of $1 million (equivalent to roughly $10 million today)".  An expose ran in the newspaper opposite her obituary and her children's home was closed and an investigator appointed.  However, the investigation was blocked by "powerful people with secrets, reputations, and, in some cases, adoptions to preserve."

When Tann died there were still 22 wards in her home but only 2, who adoptive families had rejected, were returned to their birth families.  Her records were not opened to her victims until 1995 and that meant for many birth families, adoptees, or private investigators it was too late for that information to help them reunite.

If you have an interest in reading more about Georgia Tann's actions, Wingate recommends the following books:
"Pricing the Priceless Child:  The Changing Social Value of Children" by Viviana A. Zelizer (1985)
"Babies For Sale:  The Tennessee Children's Home Adoption Scandal" by Linda Tollett Austin (1993)
"Alone in the World:  Orphans and Orphanages in America" by Catherine Reef (2005)
"The Baby Thief:  The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption" by Barbara Bisanta Raymond (2007)  This last book also contains interviews with several of the victims.

Wingate does an excellent job of telling this story by fabricating a birth family with multiple children who are spirited away from their birth family and placed in the children's home where they endured horrific conditions before some of them were adopted.  If this is a topic that interests you, I highly recommend reading "Before We Were Yours."  pazt