Nicholas Kristof – Call to Action

Question: Where was the first reported child abuse case in the United States?

Answer: New York, 1874. Her name was Mary Ellen Wilson. For eight of her 10 years, she had been beaten, cut, starved, subject to hard physical labor, deprived of a bed and warm clothes, and generally tortured by her foster mother. A neighbor who investigated Mary Ellen’s living conditions had no advocacy group to turn to. But she did seek help from one established organization, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They took Mary Ellen’s case to the New York Supreme Court, invoking statutes against animal cruelty since there were no laws protecting children at the time.

Mary Ellen

Did you feel the catch in my throat? Could you feel my heart breaking as I wrote that? How could we have thought to protect animals from cruelty before we protected our children?

This past week…