Kate Moore (2)

1860 - Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened by her intellect and independence. He is planning to put her in an insane asylum. The horrific conditions inside the State hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland who will prove more dangerous to Elizabeth. She discovers there are many rational women confined to the institution.… (meer)

I am not sure how Moore discovered Elizabeth Packard, who seems to have been lost in American history but I am sure glad she did. The woman is an unsung warrior, who battled the male hierarchy in the 1860s. After twenty-one years of marriage, her husband had her committed to an insane asylum in Jacksonville, Illinois. She was completely sane but her husband felt she was forgetting her subservient place in the marriage and showing too much spirit and intelligence. This seemed to be a common practice at the time. After being imprisoned in this hospital, in dismal conditions, she was finally released after a couple of years and then set out to fight the system. She was able to change laws, giving women more rights and a bit more control in their lives. This is a well-written, meticulously researched piece of writing. Highly recommended.… (meer)

This was a biography of Elizabeth Packard. Elizabeth was involuntarily committed to an insane asylum in 1860 by her husband for not believing in the same religious (denomination) values as himself. (so she must be crazy, right?) This book is the story of her fight for freedom and her fight for the rights of women across the U.S at a very difficult time. (1860-1864) This fight for those diagnosed as "insane" was the catalyst for the fight for women's rights in general, and the right to vote and own property, specifically. It was a great book....until the prologue, where the author goes into modern day politics...sort of ruined it for me; hence minus 1/2 star. However, I will say that to dismiss or silence one, hinting that they are "crazy" is a workable tactic. 560 pages… (meer)