Poverty

Ahbez, Eden

Ahbez is known as the First Hippy. His life story is unclear but one version has him born in 1908 (another after World War I) to a large and poverty-stricken family in Brooklyn. He and his ... [more]

Lin Huoping

Lin was born to a poor family in Fuzhou, who, unable to feed her, sold her as a slave. She was later sold on, to a wealthier merchant, as an adoptive daughter. He recognized her intellectua... [more]

Restavecs

In Haiti a particular form of child slavery is practiced, where very young children are sold by their poverty-stricken parents directly to another family, to be used as domestic slaves. In ... [more]

Scully, Julia

Scully was born in Seattle, where her parents had recently moved from Nome, Alaska. The family moved to San Francisco not long afterwards. When she was seven her father committed suicide, a... [more]

Stanley, Henry Morton

Stanley was born John Rowland in Denbigh, North Wales. His family was extremely poor. His father died when he was very young and his mother left him with her father while she went to find w... [more]

Te Kanawa, Kiri

Te Kanawa was born to an unmarried couple (European mother and Maori father). They were extremely poor and already had a son, so the baby Kiri was placed for adoption at a few weeks of age ... [more]

Tito

Marshall Tito (a pseudonym originally taken to protect his identity as a Communist) was born to a large (the seventh of 15 children) mixed Slovenian-Croatian peasant family in Kumrovec, Cro... [more]

Tyson, Mike G.

Tyson, the youngest of three children, was born into a poor African-American family in Brooklyn, New York. His father never was a significant part of his life, and both his parents died bef... [more]

Verdingkinder

The institution of Verdingkinder (meaning "earning children") in Switzerland dates to the early 19th century, although it has roots going back to before the Reformation, and it wa... [more]

Wilkomirski, Binjamin

Wilkomirski (he is not sure whether this is in fact his real name) claims to be one of the many Jewish children orphaned by the Nazi Holocaust and one of the few hundred young children to s... [more]