Customer Reviews

The American Experience: The Orphan Trains [VHS]

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From 1853 to 1927, the Children's Aid Society, a private charity, relocated over 100,000 children in the rural areas of the still developing United States. "The Orphan Trains" is the story of these children and of the people who took them in. The film starts with the young minister Charles Loring Brace who wanted to help the hoardes of homeless or mistreated children in New York City by sending them out to healthy rural areas that so needed the additional labor.

Today it would be unthinkable to allow any organization, private or otherwise, to ship 100,000 children to other parts of the country. However, this film attempts to put the efforts of the Children's Aid Society in the context of its times: children were living in the streets or in homes where they were neglected and abused, and everyday countless more children were arriving on Ellis Island. Brace thought he could protect these children while solving America's labor shortages on the frontier at the same time.

While this documentary does try to put Brace's motivations in their proper context, it does not try to sugarcoat what happend to a great deal of the orphans who were abruptly sent West to unknown territory. Many of the children were perceived as slave labor and were abused even worse than they were in New York. Many were neglected and passed from farm to farm. Some children were fortunate enough to be taken in by kind loving families and these stories are also told. This film truly shines with its interviews with now-grown orphans and foster parents telling their heartbreaking yet triumphant tales. There is a wealth of historical data on some of these children including photographs and personal journals of their experiences. The film richly uses this material to make stories fresh again.

Were the Orphan Trains an effective method to save America's children, or were they a well-intended but dreadful mistake? This question is too complex to be answered in just a one-hour documentary, but this documentary will make you think about the answer for a long time afterwards.

From 1853 to 1927, the Children's Aid Society, a private charity, relocated over 100,000 children in the rural areas of the still developing United States. "The Orphan Trains" is the story of these children and of the people who took them in. The film starts with the young minister Charles Loring Brace who wanted to help the hoardes of homeless or mistreated children in New York City by sending them out to healthy rural areas that so needed the additional labor.

Today it would be unthinkable to allow any organization, private or otherwise, to ship 100,000 children to other parts of the country. However, this film attempts to put the efforts of the Children's Aid Society in the context of its times: children were living in the streets or in homes where they were neglected and abused, and everyday countless more children were arriving on Ellis Island. Brace thought he could protect these children while solving America's labor shortages on the frontier at the same time.

While this documentary does try to put Brace's motivations in their proper context, it does not try to sugarcoat what happend to a great deal of the orphans who were abruptly sent West to unknown territory. Many of the children were perceived as slave labor and were abused even worse than they were in New York. Many were neglected and passed from farm to farm. Some children were fortunate enough to be taken in by kind loving families and these stories are also told. This film truly shines with its interviews with now-grown orphans and foster parents telling their heartbreaking yet triumphant tales. There is a wealth of historical data on some of these children including photographs and personal journals of their experiences. The film richly uses this material to make these stories fresh and alive again.

Were the Orphan Trains an effective method to save America's children, or were they a well-intended but dreadful mistake? This question is too complex to be answered in just a one-hour documentary, but this documentary will make you think about the answer for a long time afterwards.

THE PARTY WHO WATCHED THIS VIDEO WAS EXTREMELY PLEASED WITH THE QUALITY. I HAVE YET TO SEE IT, BUT AM SURE WILL CONCUR. JT