Working in Captivity

These photographs show Indigenous students from Carlisle Indian School working on a farm. Farm work was part of the school’s Outing System. After being a student at the school for at least two years, some children sent to live with a white family. The boys would do farm work, while the girls would help in the household.

The students were also enrolled in the local public school. The goal of the program was to fully integrate students into White American culture and learn how to be “civilized,” while also learning valuable skills for life after school.

Pay close attention to the caption at the bottom of the image.

When the program was first created, Captain Richard Pratt, the head of Carlisle Indian School, had to beg families to take in his students because people were afraid of them. However, after a few years, the school began receiving many requests from families who wanted students to work for them. In 1903, there were 948 students in the Outing System.

This is a report on the State School for Girls at Hallowell, Maine. It talks about the girls who were on parole from June 30, 1918, to June 30, 1920.

The State School for Girls was created to rehabilitate, or “improve,” children who either committed crimes or showed behaviors that people thought could lead to them committing a crime.

From 1918 to 1920, there were 241 girls on parole. Parole is when a prisoner is released early. They can either be released for a specific amount of time or permanently. However, they must show good behavior or they’ll be sent back to the School.

Most of the girls on parole from the State School for Girls were wage earners. Wage earners were girls who were placed in homes in the community. They were paid to work as a way to transition to life outside of the school.

Often this work was housework. However, over time girls advocated for the option to do other types of work, such as office work. They were allowed to keep some of the money they made, but the school took a lot.

According to this report, most of the girls were accepted by the family they were placed with, but some were returned or transferred. Of the 144 girls who were wage earners, 38 were returned, and 16 were transferred. While some were returned because of unsatisfactory behavior, the most common reason was that the families didn’t need them.

This is a photograph of a prisoner of war at Camp Houlton in Aroostook County, Maine. He is harvesting potatoes in a field. German prisoners of war were brought to America to keep them out of their country’s army and to provide labor to America during World War II.

With so many people fighting in World War II, America had a labor shortage. There were not enough farmers in America to feed the country. Prisoners of war helped fill that gap.

Aroostook County is known for its potato farming. Potatoes are an excellent crop to provide for the community since they are filling and have many uses. At Camp Houlton, potato farming was the most typical job that a prisoner of war could have.

Thanks to the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war had protected rights. They could not be forced to work. However, many prisoners chose to farm because they could earn a little money. The prisoners saved to buy small treats such as chocolate, tobacco, and beer.

The prisoners worked with local farmers and many formed strong, yet unconventional, relationships. Some even returned to visit Maine families after the war.

In this article, we hear about Franz Keller’s experience in World War II. Keller was a German prisoner of war. He was one of about 5,500 Germans who were put in prisoner of war camps in Maine. There were four camps located in Maine. They were in Houlton, Princeton, Seboomook, and Spencer Lake. Keller spent time at a couple of these camps.

Franz was only 17 years old when he was captured. He was injured during a battle in 1944 and taken prisoner. He describes how he was captured, what it was like to work in the prisoner of war camps, and how he tried to escape.

Prisoners of war could not be forced to work. However, many chose to because they could earn a little money. Franz says that he harvested trees, cut ice, and farmed potatoes.

This article was written long after the war when Keller came back to Houlton and gave a talk. The article is a secondary source, though it describes Keller sharing memories of his own life.