Orphan Hand
© Maria Dunn, 1998 SOCAN

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, thousands of orphan children, and children whose families were too poor to keep them, were shipped from Britain to Canada. It was intended that they would have a new start in life, away from the increasing poverty and social problems of the big industrialized cities like London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. These "Home Children" were placed with Canadian families--many of whom lived on Ontario farms--for whom they worked to earn their keep and a yearly sum of money that would be theirs when they reached the age of majority. Unfortunately, these newest Canadians were often welcomed with prejudice and distrust. The character in this song was inspired by Lewis Thorn from E. Annie Proulx's novel The Shipping News.

My name it might as well be John
For all you care from where I've come
I'll break my back on your homestead
To earn my daily bread

From London streets they boarded me
Their gutter children sent to sea
At eight years old you took me in
But you'll never call me kin

Is there no one in this dreary land
With a kind word for an orphan hand
I've worked like hell, done my share
Where's the Christian love in your heartless stare?
That blackened ship that carried me
I wish had tossed me to the sea
My struggle would have reaped at least
A long embrace and a moment's peace

Your hardship in this cold, cold land
Has left you a bitter, tired man
To your own you still allow small joy
But you're blind to a fatherless boy

My filthy hands and matted hair
Feet in rags from the winter air
Worked like a dog and kept like a pig
Where's the life that I should live?

This land of opportunity
Has no room for a lad like me
Cast off from the old world on to the new
My worth to ever prove

I'd better been a tinker's son
Than a Home Boy from a London slum
Sent to this barren farm alone
And worked to skin and bone

Maria Dunn vocal · Shannon Johnson violin, harmony vocal
Dawn Anderson harmony vocal · Jeremiah McDade whistle
Solon McDade electric bass · Gary Koliger guitars