What do you think?
Rate this book
While the Locust Slept: A Memoir
Peter Razor chronicles his survival of abuse and bigotry at a state orphanage in the 1930s and the brutal farm indenture that followed. Disclosing his story through flashbacks and relying on research from his own case files, Razor pieces together the shattered fragments of his boyhood into a memoir that reads as compellingly as a novel.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
24 people are currently reading
472 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
February 22, 2023
A raw, moving account of a young man's experience in an early 1900s orphanage that also housed my great-grandmother and her siblings. Peter's memoir is hard to read, but important to listen to.
While I do believe that there were people who genuinely wanted to help the children they watched over, the majority of the experience that Peter and his peers received at the hands of their "protectors" is disturbing at best. The writing style is straightforward and well-written, and I had a difficult time putting this one down.
While I do believe that there were people who genuinely wanted to help the children they watched over, the majority of the experience that Peter and his peers received at the hands of their "protectors" is disturbing at best. The writing style is straightforward and well-written, and I had a difficult time putting this one down.
February 10, 2025
This book chronicles the life of an Ojibwe child at the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children in Owatonna, once the third largest institution of its kind in the nation. Operating from 1886–1945, the orphanage provided "a safe haven, but for many others, beatings and neglect were commonplace." Beautifully written and compelling, this true story was totally unputdownable.
August 19, 2024
I've heard a lot of stories about the orphanage in Owatonna. This is a first hand account of what it was like to grow up there. Such a sad story but an important one for us all to know.
July 9, 2013
Sad but compelling account of a native American in a MN state orphanage since the age of 18 months. He is now in his 80's, and has spent time learning his Ojibwa roots and practices. I am proud of him. He made it through some horrific things, and writing this book was probably a good source of healing for him. Hard, but healing.
You are amazing Peter Razor.
You are amazing Peter Razor.
February 6, 2021
Read this for a book club. It was a fast read. I wanted to keep reading, but I struggle with books that involve abused children. It gave me nightmares. Not a favorite by any means.
August 28, 2017
In addition to being a memoir, this is also a very interesting piece of history- a history that despite being so local, I knew barely anything of. There is a particular passage that the author writes of his lessons learned after two runaway attempts from the state orphanage: "Adults outside the state school were just as miserable, kind, or indifferent as State School employees. So I accepted my lot at the State School." I am glad for the kind people Peter encountered, but saddened that many more were angry, abusive, and hateful. I think it is insightful and healing that he describes these individuals as being 'miserable' instead of the more harsh terms I chose to describe them. Because of the time period during which the state orphanage was in use, (per the website: "There were 10,635 of them between 1886 and 1945, kids orphaned, abandoned, or abused and sent to Owatonna, Minnesota, home of the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children, once the third largest institution of its kind in the nation."), there is likely to be very few left to tell these personal stories of history.
February 24, 2019
Ojibwa tribe member Peter Razor has given us a gritty, heartbreaking memoir of the first seventeen years of life at a state school/orphanage in Owatonna, MN, and his placement with an abusive farm family near the Mississippi River.
He tells his story so straightforwardly, so openly. His long record of beatings at the hands of sadistic adults at a state institution and foster home became a common and expected feature of his childhood. As a kid the mistreatment wove itself into his identity and picture of the world. It took years until he realized how uniquely horrible his experience was, and he has written this book to give a voice to all those boys who suffered abuse and then died or were forgotten, their stories fading with time.
Along with a book like Elie Wiesel's "Night," I suppose Razor's book just shows how evil men and women can be, how our human race is bent inward upon itself in selfishness, how anyone in a position of power is capable of cruelty. For me, this is a cry for grace, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. Razor has since found this in his native identity, and in his children and grandchildren.
He tells his story so straightforwardly, so openly. His long record of beatings at the hands of sadistic adults at a state institution and foster home became a common and expected feature of his childhood. As a kid the mistreatment wove itself into his identity and picture of the world. It took years until he realized how uniquely horrible his experience was, and he has written this book to give a voice to all those boys who suffered abuse and then died or were forgotten, their stories fading with time.
Along with a book like Elie Wiesel's "Night," I suppose Razor's book just shows how evil men and women can be, how our human race is bent inward upon itself in selfishness, how anyone in a position of power is capable of cruelty. For me, this is a cry for grace, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. Razor has since found this in his native identity, and in his children and grandchildren.
March 2, 2019
While the locust slept, a book by Peter Razor, is about what native american children had to go through in the boarding schools and farm placement. Peter Razor talks about his experiences with the boarding school in Owatonna MN and his farm placement. He talks about how staff and families he was placed with beat him.
This books central idea is that many native american children during the time were put in boarding schools suffered horribly, some were killed and almost all of them were beaten. “Mr Beaty had kicked me in the lower back.” (page 107). This shows how they were beaten by the staff. This book shows the cruelty that the native american children in boarding schools had to go through.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books about history. And to anyone who wants to learn more about the native american boarding schools and what the native children had to go through. The author of this book is talking about what happened to him during his childhood and his experiences with the boarding schools. This is his story of survival.
This books central idea is that many native american children during the time were put in boarding schools suffered horribly, some were killed and almost all of them were beaten. “Mr Beaty had kicked me in the lower back.” (page 107). This shows how they were beaten by the staff. This book shows the cruelty that the native american children in boarding schools had to go through.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books about history. And to anyone who wants to learn more about the native american boarding schools and what the native children had to go through. The author of this book is talking about what happened to him during his childhood and his experiences with the boarding schools. This is his story of survival.
October 25, 2019
A blunt, raw, unvarnished memoir about surviving a long-gone, but not forgotten institution in what is now my hometown. Mr. Razor is a survivor in the truest sense of the word. His intelligence and perception shine throughout his story. He doesn't dwell on feeling sorry for himself, even though he had every right to bemoan his fate of being orphaned shortly after birth and getting tossed into a system that was severely flawed but one of the few options available at the time.
I was angered and heartened at the same time while reading this book. Angered because of man neverending inhumanity to man; heartened because I was reassured that there are far more good people in the world than there are bad.
This is a fast easy read and well worth your time if you're curious about what orphanage life was like back in the first half of the 20th Century.
I was angered and heartened at the same time while reading this book. Angered because of man neverending inhumanity to man; heartened because I was reassured that there are far more good people in the world than there are bad.
This is a fast easy read and well worth your time if you're curious about what orphanage life was like back in the first half of the 20th Century.
September 12, 2023
Overall, this book makes me sad. Why did or do people still degrade and put others down? I found this book difficult to read as 1) it made me upset with how people treated Peter. 2) the format of the book bounced around a bit & made it hard to follow. It went from the state school to his first farm family and then in other tangents. Interesting & sad details, nonetheless. Short book that encompasses what happens in the life of Peter, a Native American.
November 14, 2025
Not only was this book super interesting, it was even more cool knowing that this book took place where I live and grew up. Honestly my head can’t even wrap around the fact that kids were treated this terribly. Crazy to think that I am literally working right across the street from where all of these tragedies happened. Never was there a dull moment. Went into great detail and gave me a little bit of history of my home town.
June 21, 2018
Visited site of orphanage in Owatonna, MN, and purchased book to “read more about it.” Brutally honest and clear prose, Razor recounts his experiences as a child abandoned to the state and sent to live with a violent, repressive, abusive farm family. Powerful, troubling memoir about “throw away” children.
July 19, 2019
Wonderful and disturbing memoir by a man who overcame his nurture-less youth in a state run institution to become a man comfortable in his own skin. Native American Peter Razor survives the institution, institutionalized racism, physical and emotional abuse to look back on his life and try to make sense of it. Worth reading.
August 25, 2020
A true story and meaningful to me because it takes place in my hometown. My husband's older brothers were friends of the author and he remembers him being around. I am currently reading "This Tender Land" and think back on this book often. The mistreatment of Native children is appalling. I've learned through the years that there are many dark secrets in rural areas.
March 30, 2022
Oh my oh my oh my. Now I need to finally do the tour of the state school down the street from my work office! I drive by the little cemetery every single day. Not sure I can do it now without getting emotional. :( Great book - sad sad circumstances but I learned and felt so much emotion during this memoir. The perspective from a Native American childhood is insightful and very moving.
January 14, 2019
Sad tale about the children who were sent to state orphanages in the 1930s when parent either abandoned the child or for other reason could not take care of their children. This is a true story set in part in SE Minnesota.
July 20, 2020
I read it in one sitting.
This story is fairly haunting, but it is so perfectly pitched without a shred of self pity.
Peter lived a hard life, and he tells it so vividly. I honestly felt like John was standing above me too.
This story is fairly haunting, but it is so perfectly pitched without a shred of self pity.
Peter lived a hard life, and he tells it so vividly. I honestly felt like John was standing above me too.
October 17, 2021
The sadistic mistreatment and bureaucratic neglect Razor suffered from the so-called child welfare system in the 1930s and 1940s were compounded by the racism he experienced. It can be an emotionally hard book to read at times.
July 22, 2022
It's hard to give 5* to such a tragic story but it was very well written and a true account of what this person experienced at the Owatonna orphanage and the first farm he was sent to. How people can be so cruel is beyond my realm of understanding.
December 6, 2022
had to read for english and it is not something i would willingly read but this book was very good. it highlights the ups and downs of being native american and i feel so much empathy and pity for Peter Razor after reading this memoir :(
July 21, 2024
Thank you, to Peter Razor, for sharing his brave story. Sadly, his is only one of many stories that are probably locked inside those Native American boys and girls who were stripped from their homes and emotionally and physically tortured throughout their young lives.
August 26, 2024
What a spellbinding story. Easy to fall into and get caught up in the story, it's a fast read. Hard in the fact that this is a true story and it's hard for me to imagine treating any child so horribly. There is hope in his ending though I know he is still haunted by this years.
October 13, 2017
Excellent writing. Awful what was done to orphan children, especially those of color.
January 2, 2022
A moving memoir. Like an actual memory, the story is not linear, but jumps from connection to connection. It is testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.
March 28, 2022
Nice flow and glimpse into the state orphanage system. Good storytelling and little known history brought forth.
April 18, 2023
A must read!!
September 7, 2024
This wasn’t fun to read talking about the history of Native Americans in Fairbault, Minnesota at a state run school. The abuse that was done to these children is unbelievable.
April 7, 2024
This haunting tale was so worth reading, especially as it took place right in my backyard of rural Minnesota. Such a sad story to learn of Peter's abandonment at birth, so awful to learn how horribly some of the matrons treated the poor children in the Owatonna orphanage, and terrible to read about the indentured servants from the orphanage some rural farmers found to work their farms. I'm glad Peter turned out so well and I'm glad he shared his beautifully-written story with us.
March 29, 2011
While the Locust Slept
by Peter Razor
Book Review by Jay Gilbertson
This memoir will take your breath away. Not because the writing is filled with color and nuance, but the sheer brutality of the story is simply devastating. As with most books, this one chose me. Now it haunts me. At first I ran from the thought of even trying to give this story a voice and yet I feel it’s powerful and very pertinent.
Peter Razor was born with a grey cloud over his life that would follow him like an invisible chain-and-ball for a long time. He was from the Fond du Lac band of Minnesota Chippewas, his father served in the First World War and never worked again; he drank. When the state social services ruled that his mother suffered from confusion, they sent her to an asylum at St. Peter. Razor’s father abandoned him and he eventually became a ward of the state; he was seventeen months old.
One of the main reasons that I didn’t give up on his compelling account is because there is very little written about this. We have very few accounts of this particular stage in our history and especially the local tribes in particular. Razor’s work deserves to be read, it needs to be.
“I walked through weeds on the playground to see grasshoppers of all sizes leap and fly. When they settled, I watched them watching me. One, I learned, the one the boys called locust, slept seventeen years in darkness before soaring into the summer light.”
A great deal of Razor’s historical information is filled in with bits and pieces of actual verbiage from case files he was able to locate after a great deal of searching. It was part of the healing process as well as a way for him to fill in many of the gaps in his first seventeen years due to a common coping skill found in survivors of abuse; traumatic memory loss. Comments from various doctors, social workers and psychologists as well as teachers provided personal glimpses into this period. Though they were often bleak, most of them held a shred of hope, a possibility that maybe he could make it. To what lofty goal, he was never told.
When Razor turned fourteen he became an indentured servant but his file read that he was “ready for farm placement.” The next three years of his life were sheer survival in some of the worst situations imaginable. Through all his harsh treatment, never having had any sort of mentor or counselor or even a close friend to confide in; Razor found peace.
Ultimately, what Razor’s memoir brings to light is the incredible strength of the human spirit and how no matter what some of us are thrown; we endure. And more importantly for me, this was a powerful reminder that no matter how we try to deny Native American’s their freedom—they will remind us—you cannot contain the wind…
For more information please visit: www.mnhs.org/mhspress
by Peter Razor
Book Review by Jay Gilbertson
This memoir will take your breath away. Not because the writing is filled with color and nuance, but the sheer brutality of the story is simply devastating. As with most books, this one chose me. Now it haunts me. At first I ran from the thought of even trying to give this story a voice and yet I feel it’s powerful and very pertinent.
Peter Razor was born with a grey cloud over his life that would follow him like an invisible chain-and-ball for a long time. He was from the Fond du Lac band of Minnesota Chippewas, his father served in the First World War and never worked again; he drank. When the state social services ruled that his mother suffered from confusion, they sent her to an asylum at St. Peter. Razor’s father abandoned him and he eventually became a ward of the state; he was seventeen months old.
One of the main reasons that I didn’t give up on his compelling account is because there is very little written about this. We have very few accounts of this particular stage in our history and especially the local tribes in particular. Razor’s work deserves to be read, it needs to be.
“I walked through weeds on the playground to see grasshoppers of all sizes leap and fly. When they settled, I watched them watching me. One, I learned, the one the boys called locust, slept seventeen years in darkness before soaring into the summer light.”
A great deal of Razor’s historical information is filled in with bits and pieces of actual verbiage from case files he was able to locate after a great deal of searching. It was part of the healing process as well as a way for him to fill in many of the gaps in his first seventeen years due to a common coping skill found in survivors of abuse; traumatic memory loss. Comments from various doctors, social workers and psychologists as well as teachers provided personal glimpses into this period. Though they were often bleak, most of them held a shred of hope, a possibility that maybe he could make it. To what lofty goal, he was never told.
When Razor turned fourteen he became an indentured servant but his file read that he was “ready for farm placement.” The next three years of his life were sheer survival in some of the worst situations imaginable. Through all his harsh treatment, never having had any sort of mentor or counselor or even a close friend to confide in; Razor found peace.
Ultimately, what Razor’s memoir brings to light is the incredible strength of the human spirit and how no matter what some of us are thrown; we endure. And more importantly for me, this was a powerful reminder that no matter how we try to deny Native American’s their freedom—they will remind us—you cannot contain the wind…
For more information please visit: www.mnhs.org/mhspress
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews