Nonfiction Navigators discussion

After three years spent wandering amongst murderers and prostitutes and sleeping in the alleys of Five Points, a boy stumbles upon a store that welcomes orphans willing to work; he enters, is assigned a bunk, and is fitted with a new suit and told to go wash. This was a typical backstory for the many thousands of children assisted by the Children's Aid Society, and most also had the same conclusion: the orphan was shipped west with the expectation that he or she would find a better, more "Christian" home. Before any of this could happen, though, a man named Charles Loring Brace had many experiences that gave him inspiration to eventually found the organization.

Stephen O'Connor's book, Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed, chronicles the life of Charles Loring Brace, explaining how his experiences eventually led him to create the Children's Aid Society in 1853. O'Connor then details the strategies and structures of the programs that were put in place to "rescue" cooperative orphans. It is clear, throughout the book, that O'Connor has mixed feelings about both the character of Brace and the success of his organization. He tells the readers Brace preached that acts were not moral unless they served God, but Brace also wrote that "he wanted . . . to be at the top of his class [at Yale]" out of pride (O'Connor 23). Brace wrote about this moral failing - his hypocrisy - to his sister and father; O'Connor uses it as proof of one of Brace's many faults.

The Children's Aid Society (CAS) may have been viewed as a great success at the time, but it seems to me that the orphan trains mirrored the "moral failing" of its founder (at least in some respects). Throughout the book, O'Connor retells the accounts of various orphans who traveled west. Johnny, a New York beggar from Five Points, tells his inspiring tale of success, but also alludes to the heartbreaking failures by the CAS regarding its placement of his three siblings. Though other accounts are referenced, Johnny's seems to summarize the realities of the program the best; this includes what the CAS was and was not willing to advertise. The organization left a detailed account of Johnny's success story for fundraising purposes, but haphazard, unorganized accounts of his siblings, some of whom were relocated many times without explanation. These latter tales were the ones the CAS would be ashamed to publicize.

O'Connor's book about orphan trains explores the inspirations Brace found for the CAS and the experiences of the different adolescents it attempted to help. O'Connor's examples may have successfully lent themselves to his arguments about the CAS, but I found his writing style laborious to read. In addition, I expected the majority of the book to talk about accounts of orphans. The second half contained a number of accounts, but the beginning focused primarily on the story of Brace. His story may provide interesting details relevant to the creation of the CAS, but O'Connor included more of Brace's personal story than I was interested in knowing. It delayed the orphan accounts and caused me to grow tired of reading the book.

O'Connor, Stephen. Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring
Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2001. Print.