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Victorian ‘Baby Farmer’ Killed Hundreds Of Infants
Amelia Dyer became a household name in Victorian England- the sheer scale and barbarity of her murders horrified many.
What Is Baby Farming?
1800s England was not kind to extramarital children or the women who bore them. That patriarchal prejudice gave rise to the practice of “baby farming.”
Unwed mothers paid midwives and other women to raise their children. You could get paid as much as £80 for it.
Amelia Dyer killed the infants put into her care.
Widowed At Young Age
Born in 1837 in a small Bristol village, Amelia spent all of her childhood caring for her mentally ill mother.
It was no surprise that she became a nurse. These credentials helped others trust her with their babies.
Amelia’s share of hardships was just getting started. She lost her husband in 1869. Left with her own children to care for and nursing not giving enough money, she turned towards baby farming.
Single mothers, or those with children out of wedlock, had limited options. No decent workplace would accept them with the baby.
