Lucy’s Wish
Page 6
A New York City street scene. Courtesy the Children’s Aid Society
In fact, in 1866, the year in which Lucy’s Wish is set, one of the most serious epidemics of cholera in history hit New York City. There were eleven hundred deaths in 1866 alone; there were sixteen hundred deaths between 1860 and 1870. And it was usually poor immigrants, like Lucy’s mother, who died from cholera, or from tuberculosis or scarlet fever.
New York City in the 1860s was a violent place. There was tension between longtime residents and new immigrants, between the rich and the poor, and between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Immigrants were blamed for the cholera epidemic and for taking jobs from others by agreeing to work for lower wages. These tensions led to riots. There were also violent protests against the draft for the Civil War. In 1863, one of these protests turned into a terrible riot in which hundreds of New Yorkers were killed or wounded.
There were public schools in New York City in the 1860s, but many poor and immigrant children could not attend them. There simply wasn’t room in the schools for the huge number of immigrant children, and many were turned away. Some schools operated two half-day sessions so that more children could attend. Younger children were taught arithmetic, singing, drawing, calisthenics, and English. Older students also studied science, history, and civics. There was no public high-school system in New York City at that time, so students usually stopped going to school at age fourteen.
Two New York City children in their tenement home. Between them is a Christmas tree they have made using a broom and a bucket. Courtesy the Children’s Aid Society
These boys stand on a New York City street, ready to travel west and start new lives. Their placing-out agent stands behind them. Courtesy the Children’s Aid Society
Source: The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson, Yale University Press: New Haven & London; The New York Historical Society: New York, 1995.
JOAN LOWERY NIXON has been called the grande dame of young adult mysteries. She is the author of more than 130 books for young readers and is the only four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Novel. She received the award for The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore, The Séance, The Name of the Game Is Murder, and The Other Side of Dark, which also won the California Young Reader Medal.
The Children's Aid Society is still active today, helping over 100,000 New York City children and their families each year. The Society’s services include adoption and foster care, medical and dental care, counseling, preventive services, winter and summer camps, recreation, cultural enrichment, education and job training.
For more information, contact:
The Children’s Aid Society
105 East 22nd Street
New York, NY 10010