The Punishing Journey Of Arthur Delaney

 

Arthur Delaney worked on the ships in the harbor in Halifax, Canada.  He lived there with his wife and three children.  When his wife died, there were two events that occurred with long lasting repercussions.  The first was that Arthur wasn't sure if he had the ability to raise his children alone.  The second was a preacher who was recruiting Canadians to fight in the Civil War in America to free the slaves.  Between these two events occurring when Arthur was in the midst of grieving, he made a terrible decision.  He signed custody of his children to an orphanage which promised to educate and look after them.

Although the Canadian recruits had been told that their service would only last a few months, that was not the case.  Arthur was captured and sent to one of the Confederates' prison camps.  Men were starving there as the Confederate Army had fewer and fewer resources.  Finally, the war ended and Arthur's three years of time in the prison camp was over.

But when he returned home, it was to a nightmare.  The orphanage turned out to be a scam and the children there were indentured out to service or sold outright.  Instead of an education, the three Delaney children were forced to work for a series of farmers and the girls were subjected to the attentions of male owners.  The son, who was the oldest, ran away from his indenture.  The two girls fared worse but were taken from the man who had bought them as servants and more.  The family was scattered and no one knew where when Arthur arrived back in Canada.  This started a long journey as he traveled from place to place searching for his family.

This novel was based on a true case although changed quite a bit for the novel.  There were orphanages that sold the children trusted to them to the highest bidder and once sold or indentured, those children were left to the mercy of their owners.  There was a true Arthur Delaney and a court case based on his attempt to get his children back from an orphanage.  When you consider that this was a poor man, who spent years walking from one settlement in Canada to another, working odd jobs, often hungry and sick one can see his determination to reunite his family.  I listened to this novel and the narrator did a great job.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.