An Analysis of the Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
Kathryn McDonald
March 6th, 2014
Holly Karibo
HST 328
Analysis of the Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1999. Print
Reviewed by Kathryn McDonald The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction is a gripping tale of true events that occurred in an Arizona mining town in the year 1904 when a group of nuns traveled from their homes in New York with 40 catholic orphans, mostly of Irish heritage, to Arizona to be united with new, strictly catholic families. However, they were unaware of the anger they would encounter or the danger they would be forced to try to escape once they arrived. And that the American Southwest in the turn of the century, is shaped almost entirely by the color of a man’s skin. Beginning with the departure from New York’s Grand Central Station, Gordon paints a detailed picture of the excited scene. The reader is placed inside that traveling sleep car, watching the many young children excitedly bouncing in their crowded seats preparing to take their very first train ride. It is easy to mentally see that freshly sewn clothes resting on their young shoulders, and the colored ribbons that determined each child’s destination. The books tone takes on a hopeful and excited outlook, tinged with slight sadness as the nuns remaining in New York are forced to depart from the children they have grown to love. Along with the excitement of “going home” as the children were told they were doing, comes the sad and grim tale of how most, if not all, the orphans came into the care of the nuns. The tear filled scenes of young, usually unwed mothers departing with their babies because they could not afford to keep them, left more often than not with now birth history and with no name of their own. “Searching through the Foundlings records ninety years later, I could find only five mothers names for this shipment of fifty seven children.” (Gordon, pg7) The author
March 6th, 2014
Holly Karibo
HST 328
Analysis of the Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1999. Print
Reviewed by Kathryn McDonald The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction is a gripping tale of true events that occurred in an Arizona mining town in the year 1904 when a group of nuns traveled from their homes in New York with 40 catholic orphans, mostly of Irish heritage, to Arizona to be united with new, strictly catholic families. However, they were unaware of the anger they would encounter or the danger they would be forced to try to escape once they arrived. And that the American Southwest in the turn of the century, is shaped almost entirely by the color of a man’s skin. Beginning with the departure from New York’s Grand Central Station, Gordon paints a detailed picture of the excited scene. The reader is placed inside that traveling sleep car, watching the many young children excitedly bouncing in their crowded seats preparing to take their very first train ride. It is easy to mentally see that freshly sewn clothes resting on their young shoulders, and the colored ribbons that determined each child’s destination. The books tone takes on a hopeful and excited outlook, tinged with slight sadness as the nuns remaining in New York are forced to depart from the children they have grown to love. Along with the excitement of “going home” as the children were told they were doing, comes the sad and grim tale of how most, if not all, the orphans came into the care of the nuns. The tear filled scenes of young, usually unwed mothers departing with their babies because they could not afford to keep them, left more often than not with now birth history and with no name of their own. “Searching through the Foundlings records ninety years later, I could find only five mothers names for this shipment of fifty seven children.” (Gordon, pg7) The author