Okay, kinda creepy title for my post this week!
I’m right now reading a book called
The Woman they Could Not Silence.
I’m nowhere near done so who knows how it’ll all come out…but…
Right now the heroine (it’s non-fiction, but she’s a true hero!) is locked up in an insane asylum…at a time in history when tyrannical husbands could put troublesome wives in an asylum.
Elizabeth Packard has been declared insane…for (mainly) thinking. And daring to have her ideas about right and wrong diverge from her husband’s views
So much is fascinating about this book…and it’s not just for fun, it’s RESEARCH. I am formulating a plan for my next series and I might have my heroine be an escapee from an insane asylum. Or maybe I’ll have her realize she’s going to be committed and she’s on the run? Not settled yet.
In this book, by Kate Moore, I found a chart showing the supposed causes of insanity in 1858-ish. The Civil War is getting ready to explode around Elizabeth Packard as she’s being locked up. Among the reasons for insanity??? :
Domestic trouble
Religious Excitement
Business Anxieties
Death of Friend
Hard Study
Change of Life
Fear
And way down the list is Reading Novels.
Yes, dear Petticoats & Pistols readers, you could be locked up for reading novels.
Another weird thing is … the word Uterus, in ancient Greek, is hysteria. That word, Hysteria was used all the time to declare woman insane.
Other weird, disgusting, fascinating things about this book. Elizabeth’s husband , Theophilis was a pastor. I can’t remember what denomination right now, but they had a NEW DOCTRINE and an OLD DOCTRINE.
So, her husband was a pastor in a church with the New Doctrine. This is all in Illinois. So a northern state as the Civil War is still ahead. A really wealthy man with a lot of investments in businesses profiting from Slavery, didn’t like that churches were becoming
increasingly abolitionist. So he went around and offered to build new churches for congregations that would remain pro-slavery. The New Doctrine in Theophilis’ church was abolitionist, quietly, without explaining how they were paying for it, Theophilis changed to the Old Doctrine and took the money.,
Elizabeth was appalled and after working hard to change her husband’s mind, and the minds of his supporters in his church, she quit. She became a Methodist.
That was part of what tipped her husband in the direction of committing her. Only a crazy woman would disagree with her husband about religion after all.
There are just so many weird, fascinating bits and pieces in this book. The man, Dr McFarland, who ran the asylum, encouraged and listened and debated congenially with Elizabeth, all while writing up notes saying she was obviously, deeply insane.
He told her she could send and receive letters but never mailed the ones she wrote and confiscated and destroyed the ones she received. His treatment of her was fine to her face until she got angry that there was no sign of ever being released. At that point he through her into a ward with dangerous inmates and stripping away even the minimal comforts she had, including a private room and freedom to walk around the grounds.
Elizabeth started a Bible study with fellow inmates that she found a great comfort. Intelligent women without a sign of insanity. One of the nurses told her in confidence, “You’ve got to quit having these Bible studies, you will never be released if you continue.”
Elizabeth found women in that asylum who were also parked there by abusive husbands, women she found decent and sensible and all around sane.
And, because her husband had threatened to lock her in an asylum, she had consulted a lawyer who assured her she couldn’t be locked up without a jury trial declaring her insane. The lawyer lied to her. He was a supporter of her husband. But to Elizabeth, he assured her she couldn’t just be locked up. But all the laws he told her about…didn’t apply to wives. There were new laws in place to protect people from being locked away by cruel relatives, but those laws didn’t apply to WIVES!
Wives could be locked up on the word of the husbands and two witnesses. In this case, men in their church who were offended by Elizabeth changing churches and having views other than their own.
I’m going to stop now, before I write the whole book but it’s fascinating. I’m trying NOT to just read it as a good book, but rather read it for research. So I’m making notes and marking pages. Slow going but I love it.
In a modern day and age when there is such a struggle with finding care for people with mental illness, this has nothing to do with it. In fact, among her extensive writings, Elizabeth came to the conclusion, “I fully believe it was the doctor’s purpose to make a maniac of me by the skillful use of the Asylum tortures.”
One of her fellow patients told her: “Insane Asylum. A place where insanity is made.”
Coming soon, (maybe) in a book I plan to write…with lots of cowboys and comedy of course…that could tricky!
In the meantime, my current release is called
I read that book recently and the way the asylum’s doctor manipulated her was almost beyond belief. There is plenty of material about how women had no control over their life if they had a problem with their husband or even their father. I know you could write a good book about the subject.
One statement Elizabeth Packard wrote…she’s the woman who was declared insane and locked up, was that that power Dr. McFarland was given in that asylum would make a tyrant out of anyone.
At the time, psychology wasn’t a “mental health” thing.
Modern psychology didn’t begin until about the 1880s.
“Talk therapy” started in Europe in 1880 and wasn’t taught in the US until ten years later.
I read a good story recently where psychotherapy and art therapy were involved, unfortunately it was set in the 1860, before either existed. 🙁
Ah, trying to get the history right! We all struggle. I’ve got a cook in my upcoming book and he’s a great cook and I went around with my publisher if Creme Brulee and Eggs Benedict existed yet. 🙂
If I had lived in that era, I’m pretty sure that’s where I would have ended up!
Rhonda, if reading novels proves you’re insane, imagine what WRITING novels would have looked like.
Book sounds fascinating, but it’s also scary to know that it’s true.
Denise the book was really upsetting. The extent to which Elizabeth Packard lost all power over herself is hard to imagine.
Mary! Hurry up and finish the book! I want to know how Elizabeth ended up!! Did she triumph over her evil husband? Did she ever get out of the asylum? Was she able to save other women who were locked away like she was??
I could read the book, I suppose, but it would be really depressing. She had so many working against her. It all seems so hopeless for her.
I much prefer you just TELL me what happened to her!
Great blog.
Yep, and I’ve got to include cowboys and make it a comedy, too. Challenge!!! Of course in my book it all begins with her running away from a fate she foresees. But Elizabeth was finally great. She’s so strong and wise and charismatic. She got laws changed all over the country.
We have one of these State Asylums not too far from where I live!! Was still in use until not too long ago!
Don’t you just wonder what all went on inside there??? So creepy and cruel and fascinating. It makes you wonder what all we’re doing wrong now that one hundred and fifty years from now will be looked back on with horror.
It is terrifying to think of such cruel and unjust treatment of perfect healthy women. I’m amazed she managed to hold on to her sanity with all she endured. It had to have been the Bible studies that gave her purpose and kept her in tune with a God who saw her for the strong, intelligent woman she was.
Her faith really sustained her. She was a truly extraordinary woman.
welcome today. wow that is some interesting research. I knew about some of the reasons a woman could be “put away” Seems a woman really had to walk a tight line. Well heck, today we woman have to walk a tight line in so many ways as it is.
This is interesting, fascinating, and frightening, all at the same time! To know that this kind of thing could happen, did happen, and might even happen again, is disconcerting and heart breaking. I’m sure I’d have ended up in one, since I’d definitely have opened my mouth about things!
Oh, wow, Mary! I want to know mor about what happened to Elizabeth! I might just have to read the book – or wait for the one you will write! So scary to think of how women were treated back then. Thanks for shining a light on this particular story!
Mary, Your series sounds like a must read!
If you hadn’t mentioned that this book is non-fiction, I would assume that someone with an active imagination had written a horror story! You’ve made me want to read it, and I especially look forward to what you can come up with if you decide to use this topic. I loved The Element of Love and SO looking forward to the other books in this series.
My last MS has my heroine escaping from an Asylum. I was appalled when I read the long list of reason to committ a wife including PMS, Menopause and Post-partum Depression and dementia. A young girl was committed because she had sex outside of marriage. And I’d heard about Elizabeth Packard. I hadn’t heard the disagreement was over slavery. What an heroic woman. I’m a big fan of your work.
Sounds like fascinating research, Mary. Reminds me of Jen Turano’s recent book where her character went into an insane asylum undercover. Can’t wait to see which direction you go with your new series. 🙂 Congrats on this series.
Wow, unbelievable for what they thought they could put a woman an asylum for! This is so horrible but true. Your books sound like they will be really good reads, I am looking forward to them. Have a great weekend and stay safe.
Very interesting. I think if the laws hadn’t changed, most women would be there today!