1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, the production 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:13,000 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. 4 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: This is part two of our podcast on Packard Versus Packard, 5 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: which is when the awfulist Packard had his wife Elizabeth 6 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: institutionalized because in his words, she was insane. That was 7 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:34,400 Speaker 1: not her opinion of it at all. Part one we 8 00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:36,520 Speaker 1: talked about the early lives of the two of them 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,519 Speaker 1: and how they had an apparently happy and functional marriage 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: for about fifteen years that crumbled and became abusive and 11 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 1: then he, as I just said, had her involuntarily committed. Today, 12 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,559 Speaker 1: we are going to pick up with Elizabeth's time in 13 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: this hospital. First, we're gonna set a little context about 14 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:57,960 Speaker 1: the state of mental health treatment in the nineteenth century. 15 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: Some of that's really horrifying. Some of this language, like 16 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: we wouldn't necessarily throw around the word insane to describe 17 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: a person today. Things like that, uh, super common language 18 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:16,400 Speaker 1: at the time. And um, you can probably understand this 19 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:20,000 Speaker 1: episode without having heard part one. Um, but part one 20 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: is really a lot of the detail of how we 21 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: got to this point. So before the late eighteenth and 22 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: early nineteenth century, people with serious mental health illnesses in 23 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: the United States and Europe were generally placed into facilities 24 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 1: commonly called lunatic asylums, and these asylums were not about treatment. 25 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:44,479 Speaker 1: They were essentially prisons. Patients were often put into restraints 26 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,039 Speaker 1: and left there with little in the way of comfort 27 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: or care, and sometimes they were actively abused by the 28 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: staff or others living in the facility, and some of 29 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: these asylums were also tourist attractions, with visitors coming to 30 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: gawk at the patients, and the United States that started 31 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: to shift in the late seventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds. 32 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,600 Speaker 1: The nation's first private mental hospital was the Asylum for 33 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of their Reason, 34 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: also known as the Friends Hospital, which was opened by 35 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: Quakers in eighteen seventeen. The Friends Hospital focused on the 36 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: idea of moral treatment, which became the standard of care 37 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: and most mental hospitals by the middle of the nineteenth century. 38 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:27,239 Speaker 1: The basic idea had been put into practice by physician 39 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: William Took at an asylum called The Retreat in York, England, 40 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,639 Speaker 1: which opened in seventeen ninety six. Over the late seventeen 41 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: hundreds and early eighteen hundreds, physicians in Britain and France 42 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 1: continued to refine the retreats methods. Moral treatment focused on 43 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,280 Speaker 1: the idea that an asylum should treat its patients humanely, 44 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: with the institution acting almost like a stern and paternalistic guardian. 45 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:55,239 Speaker 1: Unlike these earlier lunatic asylums, patients weren't kept in restraints. 46 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: They were expected to live in a clean, orderly and 47 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: polite way and a strict and disciplined environment. Patients were 48 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 1: expected to do some chores around the building or the 49 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 1: grounds on a regular schedule to give them a sense 50 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: of purpose and to keep them on this predictable daily cycle. 51 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: Doctors might also prescribe treatments along a more medical model, 52 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: including drugs, hydrotherapy, exercise, things like that. In a lot 53 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: of ways, this was a big step forward from what 54 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: was common in lunatic asylums, but it turned out to 55 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: be hard to carry out in practice. Moral treatment was 56 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: only helpful for a relatively small number of patients. A 57 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: person who was mostly exhausted and stressed and needed time 58 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,840 Speaker 1: to recuperate might leave the hospital feeling like their treatment 59 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: had cured them. But for many mental illnesses this just 60 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: was not the case. A patient with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, 61 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: or depression or any number of other mental illnesses might 62 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,600 Speaker 1: be helped to a degree by the predictable daily routine 63 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: in a calm and ordered setting, but moral treatment really 64 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 1: didn't address the illness itself. Also, many of the people 65 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: who wound up in these hospitals didn't have a mental illness. 66 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: The field of psychiatry was really in its infancy without 67 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: a clear sense of what was or wasn't a mental illness. 68 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: So people with drug and alcohol addictions, developmental disabilities, and epilepsy, 69 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,600 Speaker 1: all kinds of other conditions wound up in mental hospitals, 70 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:21,159 Speaker 1: and so did people who just weren't behaving as their 71 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,599 Speaker 1: families or society expected them to. There weren't many of 72 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,800 Speaker 1: these private hospitals at first. They were mostly in more 73 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: affluent areas and available to wealthier people, so most people 74 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: with mental illnesses that kept them from being able to 75 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: function in society were kept out of sight at home, 76 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: or if their families couldn't or wouldn't care for them, 77 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: they wound up in alms houses or even prisons. Care 78 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,599 Speaker 1: Typically was not good in any of these scenarios. People 79 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: caring for family members at home might have good and 80 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,599 Speaker 1: loving intentions, but there was so much stigma surrounding mental 81 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:58,679 Speaker 1: illness and ideas that they were brought on by things 82 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,799 Speaker 1: like possession, and a lot of different explanations for mental 83 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: illnesses that didn't amount to an illness, um that people 84 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: caring for family members were just as likely to be 85 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: abusive or neglectful. Prisons and alms houses were brutal and 86 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,440 Speaker 1: degrading in general, and then on top of that, they 87 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: just were not equipped to handle the behaviors that came 88 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,040 Speaker 1: along with untreated mental illnesses. This all started to shift 89 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 1: in the eighteen forties and fifties as reformers like Dorothea 90 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: Dix advocated for state funded asylums and better care within 91 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,359 Speaker 1: those asylums. Most of these newly built asylums followed the 92 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: moral care model, and some existing state hospitals began using 93 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: it as well. New asylum buildings were typically designed according 94 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,800 Speaker 1: to the Kirkbride Plan, developed by Dr Thomas Story Kirkbride. 95 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:49,479 Speaker 1: They were divided into symmetrical wings and wards with lots 96 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: of fresh air and natural light. Reformers also advocated for 97 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: the idea that people with mental illnesses needed to be 98 00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:00,440 Speaker 1: cared for rather than simply locked away. But it turned 99 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,200 Speaker 1: out that implementing the moral care model at all these 100 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 1: newly open hospitals could be really difficult. As the public 101 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,600 Speaker 1: started to think of mental illness as something that required 102 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: treatment at a hospital, admissions skyrocketed in hospitals quickly became overcrowded. 103 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:19,920 Speaker 1: They went from clean and orderly and calm to unsanitary. Understaffed, 104 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 1: and chaotic waves of immigration to the United States meant 105 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:25,719 Speaker 1: that sometimes patients didn't speak the same language as the 106 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: doctors of the staff. Staff turnover tended to be very high, 107 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: and hospitals were often run by boards of trustees who 108 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: might be more focused on politics than on care. Some 109 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: of these boards also had a reputation for being corrupt, 110 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: and even though the medical field was beginning to think 111 00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:44,479 Speaker 1: of mental illness as a treatable illness rather than a 112 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: personal moral failing, there was still a lot of stigma 113 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: and a perception that it was up to patients to 114 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: get better. If a patient wasn't improving, doctors and staff 115 00:06:54,279 --> 00:06:57,160 Speaker 1: often concluded that they weren't trying, or that they were 116 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: willfully refusing to get better. So it was common for 117 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,880 Speaker 1: patients to be cared for by undertrained, frustrated staff who 118 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: thought that these people in their care were simply being obstinate. 119 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: Abuse and cruelty continued to be commonplace, even in hospitals 120 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: that were theoretically following the moral treatment model. Are also, 121 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: of course, a number of medical treatments that were going 122 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 1: on that were super questionable by today's standards. This is 123 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: a state of mental health care in the United States. 124 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,840 Speaker 1: When Elizabeth Packard was hospitalized, it was improving over what 125 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: it had been, but it still had a really long 126 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 1: way to go. We will get to her time in 127 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 1: the hospital after a sponsor break. When Elizabeth Packard was 128 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 1: admitted at the Illinois State Asylum and Hospital for the Insane, 129 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:51,240 Speaker 1: it's superintendent was Dr Andrew McFarland of New Hampshire. He 130 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: was at the top of his field. He was part 131 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: of the first wave of people to join the Association 132 00:07:56,240 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 1: of Medical Superintendence of American Institutions for the Same or 133 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 1: the a M s a i I, which was a 134 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: precursor to the American Psychiatric Association. In eighteen sixty he 135 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: was its president. He had tried to hand in his resignation, 136 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: citing a serious illness in the family, and when he 137 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: tried to do that, the association had declined Elizabeth's admission. 138 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: Note read quote June eighteen sixty Elizabeth P. Packard, Kankakee County, married, 139 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: aged forty four, native of Massachusetts in this state three 140 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: years slightly insane for two years. Was in Wooster Hospital 141 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: twenty five years ago. Present attack more decided the past 142 00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:40,680 Speaker 1: four months. Supposed cause is excessive application of body and mind. 143 00:08:41,040 --> 00:08:47,800 Speaker 1: Reverend Theophilist Packard McFarland's diagnosis was moral insanity with monomania. 144 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:51,079 Speaker 1: Moral insanity was an accepted diagnosis through most of the 145 00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 1: nineteenth century. In eighteen thirty five, R. J. C. Pritcher 146 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:56,840 Speaker 1: described it this way quote, there is a form of 147 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:01,079 Speaker 1: mental derangement in which the intellectual facult tease are uninjured, 148 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:04,240 Speaker 1: while the disorder is manifested principally or alone in the 149 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 1: state of feelings, temper, or habits. The moral principles of 150 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: the mind are depraved or perverted, the power of self 151 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,680 Speaker 1: government is lost or greatly impaired, and the individual is 152 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 1: incapable of conducting himself with decency and propriety in the 153 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:24,000 Speaker 1: business of life. Monomania was another nineteenth century diagnosis, and 154 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: as its name suggests, it was a mania connected to 155 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 1: one specific thing, and in Elizabeth's case, that was religion. 156 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:35,160 Speaker 1: Dr McFarland seems to have genuinely believed that Elizabeth was 157 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: mentally ill and that his diagnosis was the correct one. 158 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:41,400 Speaker 1: Her husband, too, seems to have genuinely thought that his 159 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 1: wife was, in his word, insane. For her part, Elizabeth 160 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,080 Speaker 1: believed these two men were conspiring to imprison her for 161 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:52,600 Speaker 1: her religious views and her refusal to be totally subservient 162 00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:56,600 Speaker 1: to her husband. Meanwhile, both her doctor and her husband 163 00:09:56,640 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: believed that these religious views and her lack of subser 164 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:03,960 Speaker 1: armance were evidence of her mental illness. Elizabeth described it 165 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:07,760 Speaker 1: this way, quote in my first struggle after my independence, 166 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:11,679 Speaker 1: I lost my personal liberty sad beginning, had it not 167 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 1: been better for me to submit to oppression and spiritual 168 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: bondage rather than have attempted to break the fetters of 169 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:21,640 Speaker 1: marital and religious despotism. No, I cannot feel that I 170 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:24,679 Speaker 1: have done either for myself for others the least wrong 171 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:27,960 Speaker 1: in the course I have thus far taken. Therefore, I 172 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: have no recantations to make, and can give no pledge 173 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: of further subjection to either of these powers, where their 174 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: claims demand the surrender of my conscience to their dictation. 175 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: And this is what they call my insanity, and for 176 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 1: which I was sent to the asylum to be cured. 177 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:45,240 Speaker 1: I think it will be a long time before this 178 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:48,400 Speaker 1: cure will be affected. At the start of her hospitalization, 179 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: Elizabeth thought that Dr McFarland already believes her to be saying, 180 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: or that he would come around that opinion in short order. 181 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:58,800 Speaker 1: It was very obvious to her that she was saying, 182 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,000 Speaker 1: and she thought that it would soon be obvious to 183 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,439 Speaker 1: him as well. So for about four months she was 184 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: in a bright, airy ward with a lot of freedom, 185 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,000 Speaker 1: and she felt like she was being treated more like 186 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 1: a guest than like a patient. In those first months 187 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,080 Speaker 1: in the hospital, Elizabeth wrote a document praising the doctor 188 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: and encouraging him to release her. He ignored it, and 189 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:21,560 Speaker 1: Elizabeth realized that he did not believe that she was sane, 190 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:25,720 Speaker 1: so she started actively advocating for herself and her release. 191 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:29,599 Speaker 1: Her oldest son came to visit her without his father's permission, 192 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:32,560 Speaker 1: but couldn't secure her release because he was not twenty 193 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:35,640 Speaker 1: one years old. Friends tried to get a rid of 194 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 1: habeas corpus, but they were told that because she was married, 195 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:42,319 Speaker 1: that had to come from her husband. After Elizabeth wrote 196 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:45,760 Speaker 1: up a second document, which was scathing in its opinions 197 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 1: of the hospital and its superintendent, she was transferred to 198 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:52,920 Speaker 1: another ward, a much less nice ward which was home 199 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,960 Speaker 1: to patients whose illnesses just couldn't be treated with fresh 200 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: air and an orderly schedule. She found the conditions they're filthy, 201 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:03,440 Speaker 1: and its staff cruel, and its patients uncared for. When 202 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:06,920 Speaker 1: patients had visitors, she would tell their families about cruelty 203 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:10,200 Speaker 1: she had witnessed in the hospital. She started cleaning the 204 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:14,160 Speaker 1: entire ward herself and organizing the other patients in protesting 205 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,880 Speaker 1: their conditions. This included an ongoing campaign to destroy ordinary 206 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:23,280 Speaker 1: hospital property like bed linens and brooms. Elizabeth was eventually 207 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:26,080 Speaker 1: transferred out of this ward and given a private room 208 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 1: to keep her from influencing the other patients, and Elizabeth 209 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:33,480 Speaker 1: met Dorothea Dix. When Dix visited in eighteen sixty one, 210 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:37,679 Speaker 1: Elizabeth called her quote a Christian although honestly and conscientiously 211 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:42,640 Speaker 1: wrong in sustaining our present system of insane asylums. Elizabeth 212 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 1: admired Dix's compassion and her advocacy for the compassionate care 213 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,520 Speaker 1: of asylum patients, but thought she was simply wrong in 214 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 1: her belief that there needed to be a robust system 215 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:55,480 Speaker 1: of asylums in the first place. Elizabeth thought most people 216 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:58,360 Speaker 1: who were committed didn't need to be and that working 217 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 1: to build more asylums was Dama Jane. Throughout all of this, 218 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:05,320 Speaker 1: Dr McFarland was updating the Offulist with reports about his 219 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:09,480 Speaker 1: wife's condition. That Elizabeth's religious views were unchanged, that she 220 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,360 Speaker 1: was unrepentant in her refusal to be submissive to her husband, 221 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 1: that she was inspiring restlessness and insubordination among the other patients. 222 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: He also told the Offulist that Elizabeth had lost all 223 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: of her marital and maternal instinct, even as Elizabeth's own 224 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 1: writing reveals that she was really grieving over the separation 225 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,920 Speaker 1: from her children and the strain that all of this 226 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:34,440 Speaker 1: was putting on them. She was especially distressed at the 227 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: idea that her daughter Libby was going to have to 228 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:43,439 Speaker 1: bear all the burdens of running this household. During Elizabeth's hospitalization, 229 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,199 Speaker 1: Libby was between the ages of ten and twelve years old. 230 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:50,000 Speaker 1: In September of eighteen sixty two, Elizabeth was summoned to 231 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:53,720 Speaker 1: appear before the hospital's board of trustees after months of 232 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: petitioning for release. She read a document that denounced Calvinism, 233 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:01,040 Speaker 1: explaining her own beliefs and I she refused to raise 234 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:05,560 Speaker 1: her children according to their father's religious views. Dr McFarland 235 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 1: had screened this document ahead of time, and it began quote, gentlemen, 236 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:12,640 Speaker 1: I am accused of teaching my children doctrines ruinous in 237 00:14:12,679 --> 00:14:15,960 Speaker 1: their tendency, and such as alienate them from their father. 238 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:20,200 Speaker 1: I reply that my teachings and practice both are ruinous 239 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: to Satan's cause and do alienate my children from Satanic influences. 240 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:30,440 Speaker 1: I teach Christianity, my husband teaches Calvinism. They are antagonistic 241 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:36,920 Speaker 1: systems and uphold antagonistic authorities. Christianity upholds God's authority, Calvinism 242 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,840 Speaker 1: the devil's authority. But then she went on to Rita's 243 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,960 Speaker 1: second document, one that the doctor had not approved ahead 244 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:44,960 Speaker 1: of time, in which she accused her husband and the 245 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,680 Speaker 1: doctor of conspiring against her. Then detailed a range of 246 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 1: injustices and indignities that she had witnessed at the hospital. 247 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: Having done all that, Though she asked them not to 248 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 1: release her, divorce was out of the question. From Theophilus's 249 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,600 Speaker 1: point of view, Elizabeth did not think that she would 250 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: be safe with him. She also realized that her father 251 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: and brothers did not have the means to support her, 252 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:11,280 Speaker 1: so she needed to figure out how she might support herself. 253 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 1: She planned to spend the rest of her time in 254 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 1: the hospital writing a book. Her husband and her doctor 255 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 1: had been on the same page about her care until 256 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: this point, and this is where they started to diverge. 257 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,520 Speaker 1: Dr McFarland pressed the trustees to discharge Elizabeth because of 258 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: how much trouble she was causing him. Meanwhile, the awfulist 259 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,840 Speaker 1: pressed them to keep her there because he had no 260 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:34,720 Speaker 1: other plan to take care of her. After this meeting, 261 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,800 Speaker 1: Dr McFarland told Elizabeth that he would help her get 262 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: her book published, probably because he thought doing so would 263 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,840 Speaker 1: get her out of his hospital faster. But then she 264 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: finished the book and it wasn't something he could support publishing. 265 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 1: It was disjointed and rambley, and a lot of it 266 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:53,320 Speaker 1: was focused on his backstory. He told her he wouldn't 267 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:55,800 Speaker 1: help her after all, and in a desperate effort to 268 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: get him to change his mind, Elizabeth wrote him a 269 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:02,640 Speaker 1: love letter, a fusive praising him and essentially calling him 270 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,160 Speaker 1: her soul mate. Finally, the hospital trustees gave the awful 271 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:09,560 Speaker 1: is three months notice that they would be discharging his wife. 272 00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:13,080 Speaker 1: Dr McFarland said this was because she was incurable and 273 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: because of the quote amount of trouble which Mrs Packard 274 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,800 Speaker 1: causes us and the disastrous influence which she exerts onto 275 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:24,280 Speaker 1: other patients. Elizabeth was released on June eighth, eighteen sixty three, 276 00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:26,800 Speaker 1: and for a time she stayed with a relative. Then 277 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:29,400 Speaker 1: she went back to Mantino to try to get custody 278 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: of her children. In Elizabeth's account, when she got back 279 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,720 Speaker 1: to Mantino, her husband kept her locked in the nursery 280 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: with the windows nailed shut. In his account, she was 281 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: free to come and go regardless, Elizabeth wrote a letter 282 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,479 Speaker 1: and slipped it under the window to a passer by. 283 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: A friend ultimately got that letter to Judge Charles Starr, 284 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:52,520 Speaker 1: who secured a writ of habeas corpus. Since Elizabeth was 285 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: no longer institutionalized but was locked in her home this time, 286 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,200 Speaker 1: her husband did not have to be involved. A court 287 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:02,080 Speaker 1: date was set for trial to determine whether she was 288 00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:05,880 Speaker 1: saying that. Trial started on January twelfth, eighteen sixty four, 289 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,360 Speaker 1: and went on for five days. Unfortunately, we can't read 290 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:12,359 Speaker 1: testimony from it because there's records have been lost. But 291 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: people did hear from doctors and friends and family members 292 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,880 Speaker 1: and community members, some of whom said Elizabeth was mentally 293 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,760 Speaker 1: ill and others of whom did not. In the end, 294 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:25,000 Speaker 1: on January eighteenth, eighteen sixty four, the jury ruled that 295 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: she was saying. The awful List said the trial was 296 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:34,239 Speaker 1: a quote reign of mobocracy, insult, partiality, prejudice injustice, and malignity. 297 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,320 Speaker 1: On the day of the verdict, he packed up their 298 00:17:36,359 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 1: minor children and their belongings and went back to Massachusetts. 299 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:43,600 Speaker 1: This left Elizabeth without her children, with nowhere to live 300 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:47,360 Speaker 1: and no way to support herself. She sued for divorce, 301 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 1: but since the awful Ist had already left the state, 302 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,240 Speaker 1: the county clerk said he could not be found, and 303 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:55,080 Speaker 1: eventually she just let the matter drop. We'll get to 304 00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:57,800 Speaker 1: her life after this, including her years of work to 305 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 1: make sure the same thing couldn't happen to other women. 306 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: After a sponsor break, after her husband moved back to 307 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:14,080 Speaker 1: Massachusetts with their youngest children. Elizabeth Packard returned to the 308 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:16,159 Speaker 1: idea she'd had in the hospital, and that was of 309 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: supporting herself through writing. She started revising material that she 310 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:23,760 Speaker 1: had started in the hospital. Her first published book was 311 00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:27,000 Speaker 1: called Exposure on board the Atlantic and Pacific Car of 312 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: Emancipation for the Slaves of Old Columbia engineered by the 313 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: Lightning Express or Christianity and Calvinism, compared with an Appeal 314 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,920 Speaker 1: to the Government to emancipate the Slaves of the Marriage Union. 315 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:41,400 Speaker 1: That was followed by quote edited by a slave now 316 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,840 Speaker 1: imprisoned in Jacksonville Insane Asylum, placed there by her husband 317 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: for thinking and all capital letters, written under the inspection 318 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,360 Speaker 1: of Dr McFarland, Superintendent of Insane Asylum, Jacksonville. She used 319 00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:58,000 Speaker 1: a lot of slavery imagery in her writing. Unsurprisingly it 320 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: was like eighteen sixty three. This was the first of 321 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,840 Speaker 1: seven books and numerous pamphlets that she wrote over the 322 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,920 Speaker 1: next sixteen years, which did turn out to be enough 323 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:10,760 Speaker 1: for her to support herself. Asylum narratives had become a 324 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:15,040 Speaker 1: popular genre. These were sensational first person accounts of people 325 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: who had been institutionalized. They were part memoir and part 326 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:22,320 Speaker 1: expos a intended to resonate with fans of the Gothic 327 00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:26,000 Speaker 1: fiction that was popular at the time. Elizabeth's goal was 328 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:30,160 Speaker 1: both to support herself and encourage reform to the asylum system. 329 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,000 Speaker 1: We should note that also makes it hard to figure out, 330 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: like exactly what the truth is to the accounts, because 331 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:39,560 Speaker 1: she was writing them to sell books when very sensational 332 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:43,240 Speaker 1: accounts were pretty typical, and she was also trying to 333 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,720 Speaker 1: get people to change the law, and then once again, 334 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:49,159 Speaker 1: very sensational accounts could work toward that end. Also, that 335 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: makes a little tricky to figure out, like exactly what 336 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:56,359 Speaker 1: the details were. But that's just some background. She also 337 00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:00,200 Speaker 1: got to work lobbying legislators to pass laws to keep 338 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: what had happened to her from happening to other women. 339 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 1: She often drafted these bills herself and lobbied lawmakers personally 340 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:10,040 Speaker 1: to get them introduced and past. Some of her bills 341 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:12,080 Speaker 1: were focused on the rights of married women, like the 342 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,520 Speaker 1: right for a woman to have full custody of her 343 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,399 Speaker 1: children after a divorce, rather than her husband just having 344 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:20,119 Speaker 1: that custody by default. There was also the right for 345 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: a married woman to keep all the money she earned 346 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:25,560 Speaker 1: rather than it going to her husband again by default. 347 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 1: Both of these were issues that directly affected her. When 348 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,360 Speaker 1: her husband had left with her children, she had no recourse, 349 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:35,159 Speaker 1: and when she started publishing books, she wanted to be 350 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: able to keep all the money she earned. She also 351 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:40,880 Speaker 1: worked on bills relating to patient rights. She had observed 352 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 1: that a person accused of a crime was guaranteed rights 353 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,520 Speaker 1: to counsel and do process, but in most states, a 354 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:48,800 Speaker 1: person who had a mental illness had none of that 355 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 1: and might be committed without any kind of hearing. This 356 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,199 Speaker 1: also meant that people who weren't mentally ill could be 357 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,359 Speaker 1: wrongly committed, so she lobbied for bills that required a 358 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 1: trial before a person was committed to an asylum or hospital. 359 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:05,120 Speaker 1: Elizabeth also drafted bills relating to the rights of patients 360 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: and mental hospitals. When she was hospitalized, the mail was 361 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,720 Speaker 1: often censored or withheld from patients, so she drafted bills 362 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:16,640 Speaker 1: that guaranteed patients free and uncensored access to their mail. 363 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,480 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty five, following her advocacy, Illinois passed a 364 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:24,359 Speaker 1: personal liberty bill requiring a trial for any person being committed, 365 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,439 Speaker 1: whether they were married or not, ending the ability for 366 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 1: husbands to have their wives committed without a trial. The 367 00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:35,960 Speaker 1: legislature passed this unanimously. A later amendment made this retroactive, 368 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,600 Speaker 1: so that people who had been admitted before eighteen sixty 369 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,280 Speaker 1: five were still entitled to a trial. Not long after, 370 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:46,720 Speaker 1: an investigating committee was convened to examine allegations of abuse 371 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,480 Speaker 1: at the Illinois Hospital for the Insane, including Elizabeth's accounts. 372 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: Elizabeth was called to testify, with questioning going on for 373 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: about six hours. At the very end of that day, 374 00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,680 Speaker 1: that love letter that she had written to Dr McFarland 375 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:04,560 Speaker 1: was introduced as evidence to try to undermine her believability. 376 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:06,560 Speaker 1: Because she had been on the stand for so long, 377 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: the commission allowed her to respond to that the next day, 378 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:12,000 Speaker 1: and when she did, she explained what we said earlier, 379 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 1: that it had been a desperate effort to flatter him 380 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,600 Speaker 1: and get him to help her publish her book. Ultimately, 381 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,520 Speaker 1: the committee found numerous examples of cruelty toward patients at 382 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:24,000 Speaker 1: the hospital, as well as evidence that McFarland had misclassified 383 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:28,040 Speaker 1: patients housing people with minor treatable conditions with patients who 384 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:32,320 Speaker 1: were disruptive and violent. Although the commission recommended that McFarland 385 00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: be dismissed, the city of Jacksonville and the hospital's board 386 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:39,680 Speaker 1: of trustees stood by him. He eventually resigned on November 387 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, while continuing to have a career in 388 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:46,880 Speaker 1: mental health. Elizabeth kept up her lobbying through all of this, 389 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,640 Speaker 1: and through a very bitter, very public three way dispute 390 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,320 Speaker 1: among herself, her husband, and her former doctor. Every time 391 00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:59,000 Speaker 1: she proposed new legislation, McFarland publicly raised questions about her 392 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,640 Speaker 1: mental health. The Offulis was also publicly disparaging of her, 393 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:08,000 Speaker 1: and she of him. This whole situation was unsurprisingly extremely 394 00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:12,640 Speaker 1: hard on their children. When the Afulis first had Elizabeth's institutionalized, 395 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:16,680 Speaker 1: the children mostly sided with her. Then, after three years 396 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:18,960 Speaker 1: with their father, they believed that he had been right 397 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:23,360 Speaker 1: about their mother's mental state. Sometime after being reunited with her, 398 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,159 Speaker 1: most of them supported her side of the story again, 399 00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,360 Speaker 1: and this went back and forth repeatedly as they were 400 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:31,880 Speaker 1: with one parent or the other, or had their own 401 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,880 Speaker 1: issues going on with their personal lives and their relationships 402 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: to the rest of the family. The increasingly acrimonious relationship 403 00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: between Elizabeth and the Aflis affected them as well. Libby 404 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:46,080 Speaker 1: Packard in particular struggled with her own mental health and 405 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 1: possibly an eating disorder for much of her life, almost 406 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:54,280 Speaker 1: certainly exacerbated by their stressful and chaotic family situation. She 407 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,040 Speaker 1: ultimately died in the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane 408 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,119 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty nine. Elizabeth got a home in Chicago, 409 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,280 Speaker 1: where her oldest children already lived. Soon after, she learned 410 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: that Massachusetts had passed a law giving mothers equal rights 411 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,879 Speaker 1: to custody. She filed a petition to seek custody of 412 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,080 Speaker 1: her three youngest children, and the awfulist didn't contest it. 413 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:17,880 Speaker 1: By this point, he really didn't have a good way 414 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:20,680 Speaker 1: to support himself or the children. He could not really 415 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: find a congregation for his very conservative Calvinism anymore, and 416 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,119 Speaker 1: in light of Elizabeth's books and varied public testimony and 417 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,120 Speaker 1: ongoing advocacy, a lot of people believed that he had 418 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,199 Speaker 1: maliciously imprisoned his wife and did not, as a result, 419 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 1: want him to be their preacher. Elizabeth, for her part, 420 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: lived a mostly comfortable life in Chicago until the Great 421 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,920 Speaker 1: Chicago Fire, spending more time with her children and less 422 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:46,680 Speaker 1: on her bills and advocacy. The fire destroyed her stock 423 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:49,160 Speaker 1: of books and the plates used to print them, which 424 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,639 Speaker 1: temporarily left her without a way to earn a living. 425 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,320 Speaker 1: She was eventually able to get set up with a 426 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 1: new publisher in New York, but then another fire destroyed 427 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,760 Speaker 1: much of her stock there as well. This time she 428 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: was insured, though, so she had some money to live 429 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,679 Speaker 1: on while she started again. By eighteen seventy two, she 430 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 1: only had one child left at home, and she started 431 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,960 Speaker 1: more aggressively taking up these causes, traveling from state to 432 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: state advocating for bills to protect patient rights and the 433 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,280 Speaker 1: rights of married women. Iowa passed legislation known as Packard's 434 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:24,440 Speaker 1: Law that year. This law established visiting committees, which had 435 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: to include at least one woman, to inspect asylums in 436 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:32,600 Speaker 1: that state. These committees were authorized to fire abusive employees. 437 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,920 Speaker 1: Their contact information had to be posted in every word 438 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: of the hospital, and hospitals were also required to inform 439 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,159 Speaker 1: patients of their right to contact the committee about their concerns. 440 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:47,040 Speaker 1: This law also outlawed the censorship or the withholding of 441 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,480 Speaker 1: patients mail, and it required a coroner's inquest if a 442 00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:54,800 Speaker 1: patient mysteriously died. This bill faced a lot of resistance 443 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:58,960 Speaker 1: from Iowa's hospitals and from the Association of Medical Superintendence 444 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,879 Speaker 1: of American Institutions for the Insane. As Elizabeth started campaigning 445 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: state by state to try to get similar measures passed elsewhere, 446 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: the A M S A I I embarked on what 447 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 1: it called the Project of the Law to try to 448 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,640 Speaker 1: block as many of these bills as they could. They 449 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,159 Speaker 1: thought these bills made it harder for the hospitals to 450 00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,280 Speaker 1: subdue patients, and they worried about how their work was 451 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:25,360 Speaker 1: damaging the reputation of the entire field. Yeah, the idea 452 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,520 Speaker 1: that the M A M. S AI I thought that 453 00:26:27,600 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: patients needed to be subdued caused Elizabeth Packard a great 454 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,880 Speaker 1: amount of outrage. She campaigned through New York and New 455 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,000 Speaker 1: England and then on to other parts of the country, 456 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,679 Speaker 1: facing character assassination by the A M. S AI and 457 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,880 Speaker 1: by her husband everywhere she went. In spite of that, 458 00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: she tended to be very effective. I mean, she wasn't 459 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,080 Speaker 1: always successful. She introduced plenty of bills that didn't ultimately 460 00:26:51,080 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 1: get passed, but in the words of a Massachusetts legislator quote, 461 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,760 Speaker 1: we passed the bill because we could not do otherwise. 462 00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,560 Speaker 1: For Mrs Packard was so very persistent, we could not 463 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,359 Speaker 1: bluff her off. She also went to Washington, d c. 464 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:05,399 Speaker 1: And lobbied President Ulysses S. Grant for a bill to 465 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,280 Speaker 1: protect the right of patients in asylums to get their 466 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:12,680 Speaker 1: mail without censorship or surveillance. Although Grant agreed that such 467 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,679 Speaker 1: a law was needed, that bill did not ultimately pass. 468 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,199 Speaker 1: By the end of Elizabeth Packard's life, more than thirty 469 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,520 Speaker 1: bills had been passed to protect the rights of married 470 00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:24,960 Speaker 1: women or of psychiatric patients. Some of these came from 471 00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: her direct advocacy, and others came from the widespread nudes 472 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:31,960 Speaker 1: coverage of her work and her story. In eighteen seventy five, 473 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:36,200 Speaker 1: Mary Todd Lincoln went through a widely publicized insanity trial. 474 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,160 Speaker 1: One of the doctors who examined her was Dr McFarland, 475 00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,600 Speaker 1: and many reports noted that the laws governing her trial 476 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:48,159 Speaker 1: were very strict because of Elizabeth Packard's advocacy. At the 477 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 1: same time, this trial revealed that it was still possible 478 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:53,840 Speaker 1: for someone to skirt the law to have someone else committed. 479 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 1: Mary Todd Lincoln's son informed her of the upcoming trial 480 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,800 Speaker 1: at the last minute, and then appointed an attorney who 481 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,199 Speaker 1: was in favor of committing her to represent her. In 482 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,840 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight, Elizabeth Packard published The Great Drama, which 483 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:11,720 Speaker 1: was four volumes long, that is sixteen hundred pages. It 484 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,280 Speaker 1: was written during her last month in the asylum, and 485 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: it's very scattered and chaotic. I mean, we talked about 486 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,720 Speaker 1: Dr McFarland saying that he couldn't help her get it published. 487 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:25,120 Speaker 1: It was full of references to spiritualism and personal visions 488 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,119 Speaker 1: that she had connected to the idea of spiritualism. These 489 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,240 Speaker 1: were things that she had distanced herself from an earlier 490 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:35,440 Speaker 1: published writing. It's clear from the text itself that being 491 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,400 Speaker 1: in the asylum for three years had taken a mental 492 00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:41,360 Speaker 1: and emotional toll on her, But it also seems like 493 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: at this point she had established enough of her name 494 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,200 Speaker 1: for herself that she didn't think it was gonna hurt 495 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,080 Speaker 1: her if she made all of these thoughts public. The 496 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 1: Awful Ist Packard died in eighteen eighty five, and then 497 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:57,840 Speaker 1: Andrew McFarland died in November of eight Elizabeth's writing doesn't 498 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,360 Speaker 1: reveal her thoughts or feelings about either of these deaths. 499 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,720 Speaker 1: She was, by all appearances, continuing to lobby for bills 500 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,600 Speaker 1: to protect women and people with mental illness throughout all 501 00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:12,480 Speaker 1: of it. Elizabeth Packard died on July at the age 502 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:16,600 Speaker 1: of eighty after surgery on a strangulated hernia. Her legacy 503 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:18,920 Speaker 1: is a little bit complicated. It's clear that in her 504 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:21,720 Speaker 1: own mind she was mentally well for all of her 505 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: adult life. Some of her writing, though, is chaotic and 506 00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:27,200 Speaker 1: disordered in a way that it suggests she might have 507 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: had some kind of underlying condition, although not necessarily one 508 00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:34,720 Speaker 1: that would have required her to be hospitalized against her will. 509 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: Or this could have been totally situational, just stemming from 510 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 1: this combination of social expectations and her deteriorating relationship with 511 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: her husband, and the hospitalization itself, and just all the 512 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 1: stress that came along with all of that. And there 513 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 1: are also questions about whether the laws she was drafting 514 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:54,760 Speaker 1: really were what was best for patients. It is clear 515 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,120 Speaker 1: that before she lived, it was far too easy for 516 00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: people to have family members committed, especial lee for husbands 517 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:04,680 Speaker 1: to commit their wives. But what's less clear is whether 518 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:07,360 Speaker 1: a requirement for a jury trial is the best way 519 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 1: to protect a person's rights. Many of the laws that 520 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: Packard worked on were later revised to protect patient privacy 521 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,880 Speaker 1: during these trials, or to require some other assessment process 522 00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: rather than a trial before being admitted to an impatient facility. Regardless, 523 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:26,440 Speaker 1: though the laws definitely offered more protection than had existed before, 524 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:30,480 Speaker 1: whether it's ultimately true that those were the right protections 525 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:36,400 Speaker 1: or not. Yeah, that's a stressful one because you find 526 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:41,360 Speaker 1: yourself getting raged up about people involved in Yeah. Well, 527 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,240 Speaker 1: and it's like when we talked about all the moral 528 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 1: treatment stuff in Part one, Like, I've dealt with anxiety 529 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:48,960 Speaker 1: for a lot of my life, and there have definitely 530 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,800 Speaker 1: been times when, like the situation I was in was 531 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:55,800 Speaker 1: exacerbating that, and the idea of being in an airy 532 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,160 Speaker 1: ward with lots of fresh air and a predictable routine, 533 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:03,840 Speaker 1: like that's sounds amazing, But I wouldn't have come out 534 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:08,880 Speaker 1: of that experience with the underlying anxiety addressed at all. Yeah, yeah, 535 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,720 Speaker 1: uh yeah, I mean it's it's a continually evolving field 536 00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:16,760 Speaker 1: as well, like the study of mental health, So who 537 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:18,720 Speaker 1: knows where we'll be in fifty years and if we'll 538 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,400 Speaker 1: look back on how we address various things in today's 539 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: time looks completely archaic and not sufficient in its own right. Yeah, 540 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:31,840 Speaker 1: totally got some listener mail I do it is from Sophie. 541 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,840 Speaker 1: Sophie says Hi, Tracy and Holly. I just finished listening 542 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: to your episode about Julia Sand and Chester Arthur, and 543 00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,479 Speaker 1: it brought up a lot of good memories for me. 544 00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,040 Speaker 1: I got my undergraduate degree and ended up minoring in 545 00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:45,520 Speaker 1: theater arts from the time I spent playwriting and stage managing. 546 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,600 Speaker 1: My first experience in the theater department was as an 547 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:51,720 Speaker 1: assistant stage manager for a play about Julia Sand. It 548 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,400 Speaker 1: was called Great Emergencies, and it was written by one 549 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:57,800 Speaker 1: of the graduate student playwrights, Sean de Mayor. I'm not 550 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:59,479 Speaker 1: sure how to say that person's name. I'm sorry if 551 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,120 Speaker 1: I have banged it. The play incorporated a lot of 552 00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:05,640 Speaker 1: Julia's letters into the dialogue, at times staging her as 553 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 1: sitting at the table with President Arthur's advisers to show 554 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 1: the influence her advice had on his decisions. The play 555 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,280 Speaker 1: also dramatized Arthur's relationship and ultimate falling out with Roscoe 556 00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 1: Conkling in the Stalwarts, and included a hilariously awkward portrayal 557 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,480 Speaker 1: of the day Arthur visited Sand's home. Apparently, she was 558 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:24,760 Speaker 1: so caught off guard that her first instinct was to 559 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:27,960 Speaker 1: try to hide behind the curtains. I remember finding it 560 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,840 Speaker 1: amusing how similar the political issues of the time were 561 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:35,640 Speaker 1: to us today, extreme partisan politics, racist immigration policies. It's 562 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:39,320 Speaker 1: also impossible to avoid admiring Sand for taking the initiative 563 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 1: and using her voice as a writer and political junkie, 564 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:43,320 Speaker 1: as you put it, to make a difference in the 565 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:46,120 Speaker 1: world when she had no way of knowing that anything 566 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 1: would come of it. The play ended on a rather 567 00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: sad note, with an imaginary conversation between Sand and Arthur's ghost, 568 00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:54,120 Speaker 1: who tells her that he's going to have all of 569 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,080 Speaker 1: his papers burned, leaving her with the impression that her 570 00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,760 Speaker 1: letters will be burned with them, so nobody will ever 571 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,320 Speaker 1: know who she was or what she did. I can 572 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 1: only assume that her ghost would be pleased to know 573 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: that through this podcast, you were uplifting her and so 574 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: many other forgotten voices in history. Hopefully these stories will 575 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,840 Speaker 1: inspire others to put their voices to use to even 576 00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:16,000 Speaker 1: when it seems the world will not listen. Keep doing 577 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: what you're doing best, Sophie Thank you so much Sophie 578 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,880 Speaker 1: for this awesome letter. I love hearing about this play 579 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:26,800 Speaker 1: as a former theater kid especially, and I also love 580 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,240 Speaker 1: Julius san Still if you would like to write to 581 00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:31,720 Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcasts, where a history 582 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:33,680 Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff Works dot com and then we're 583 00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:35,920 Speaker 1: all over social media at miss in History. That is 584 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,880 Speaker 1: where you will find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 585 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,120 Speaker 1: You can come to our website, which is missed in 586 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,200 Speaker 1: History dot com. You can look at where it says 587 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: live shows and see our upcoming live shows over this summer. 588 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,880 Speaker 1: You can also find a searchable archive of every episode 589 00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: ever and show notes for the podcast that Holly and 590 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:58,040 Speaker 1: I have worked on. And you can subscribe to our 591 00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,400 Speaker 1: show on Apple podcasts, that I heart rate you app 592 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:07,960 Speaker 1: and wherever else you find your podcasts. Stuff you Missed 593 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:10,320 Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of I Heart Radio's 594 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,280 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 595 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,560 Speaker 1: visit I heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 596 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:17,840 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.