WEBVTT - Part One: Helen Keller Was a Socialist But Also Complicated 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:10.240 Are you ready to rumble? Coming in from location? 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:16.079 We have our hosts, the one and only Margaret kid Joe. 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:20.760 I've always wanted to do that. I'm Mac. 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:21.599 But that's amazing. 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:25.680 That was better than my introduction I had planned, so 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:26.200 we'll go with that. 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.760 I loved it. It was such a broadcasting voice too. 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:30.160 Wow. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.120 I don't know if I've ever heard you do that before. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:33.320 I've never done it before. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.720 This is just for the two of you, well, for 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.960 everyone else who's listening besides the two of us. This 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.400 is a show called Cool People Did Cool Stuff, which 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:44.920 is a history podcast. It's the only history podcast that 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.760 I believe. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy with me today. 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:54.160 I'm very excited about. This is Samantha McVay. Ye are 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:54.920 you doing yay? 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:56.920 I'm so excited to be on with you again. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:01.520 Yes. Yeah, for anyone who Sophie likes that, I turn 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.959 everything into an ad for my other episodes. We had 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.800 Sophie on when we talked about the Jane Collective performing. 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.800 Samantha, you said, so, we also had Sophie. I was 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:10.600 technically there. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:12.000 You were there. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:16.720 It was There's one thing I know about you, you 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:17.039 are not. 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.399 Yes, I was on I think was it your inaugural show. 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:25.040 It was one of the first episode, first ones. 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.120 Okay, I know it was, right after all the debacle 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.319 with turning over Robie Wade. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.319 Yeah, yes, but well the news cycles moved on, so 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.360 fortunately everyone still has full bodily a ton Oh right, 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:44.240 well no, never mind. Okay, So Samantha other people might 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:46.440 know as the host of the podcast Stuff Mom Never 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.480 Told You, which is probably not a history podcast because 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.400 this is the only history podcast ever, right, yeah, I 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.440 think so. Yeah, I think we like claimed that. 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:00.000 Yeah, I think you should. We pepper in some history. 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.640 But typically we are a current affairs type of thing. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.520 We stretch from everything anything that has to do with 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:07.800 intersectional feminism. 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:15.160 We we do it awesome. And our radio announcer is Sophie. Hi, Sophie, 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:15.600 how are you doing? 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.240 I like, I don't like that title. 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.040 It was so good. Your radio voice was like shocking 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:24.720 because it was that. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.080 Good, like a boxing match thing announcer. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.720 I think it's close to announcers. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:33.239 My sports announcer boys. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.919 I mean, okay, it was good, Okay, fair enough. Next time, 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:38.839 when I get an even larger truck and put even 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.000 larger wheels on it, I will have you with a 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.440 megaphone announce every time that I arrive. 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.480 I mean I would enjoy nothing more than that. 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.960 To it and actually would be amazing. 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.880 Comes from Georgia, I think, I think that's the only 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:57.000 place you're allowed to be with that. 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:58.200 It's true. 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.639 We in it Ian edits are audio on woman wrote 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.440 her theme song. So today I really love not telling 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.240 my guests who we're going to talk about before they 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:08.600 show up. 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:09.640 Blind let's go. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.480 Yeah, Today we're going to talk about an American icon, 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.399 one of the most famous women in US history. We're 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.799 going to talk about how complicated her legacy is, how 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:24.239 badly her story is told. Today I'm going to be 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:25.920 curious when you figure out who're talking about. Today, we're 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:27.880 going to talk about probably the most famous person in 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.560 the history of the US Socialist Party, although no one 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.079 knows she was a socialist. How even more than that, 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.840 she's probably the most famous Wobbly. A member of the 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.280 Syndicalist Union, Friend of the pod Industrial Workers of the World, 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.720 she was one of the founders of the ACOU. She 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.280 was a white Southerner who was an early member and 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:50.280 supporter of the NAACP and was an outspoken proponent of 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:55.160 civil rights. That's right. Today we're talking about Helen Keller. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.400 Oh that he threw me for a loop. Yeah, that 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:01.840 is the plant that you did agree to. 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:04.560 Thanks, I guess to get it out of the bag. 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:10.400 The reason that people are is complicated is that there's 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:15.960 some eugenics in her. But yeah, and we're going to 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:17.440 talk about how odd it is. And I think that 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.920 actually it ended up a more useful way of exploring 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:24.360 some of these concepts than I originally expected. I thought 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.240 originally I was going to be like, we're going to 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.480 talk about the fact that everyone ignores that Helen Keller 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.280 was a socialist, And then I was like, we're gonna 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:32.560 talk about that, but we're going to talk about so 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:33.120 much more too. 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.400 Oh have you ever seen The Miracle Worker? 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.640 No? But I read so much about the Miracle Worker 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.880 during this I've like, I've read so many takes on 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.200 the Miracle Worker. I don't want to watch it at 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:46.680 the end of this. 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.600 Ah, you shouldn't. We actually performed that as a high 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:51.680 school play. I was in it. 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:53.760 I won't tell you the character I was in because 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.560 it's so degraded. Not degrade, yes, degrading and racist. But 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.479 I was in it. Wait, who would be the degrading 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.279 racist character for you to have been stuck? Oh? 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.840 Okay, all right, So I am the in my high school, 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.880 I'm the only pretty much only minority outside of one 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.240 other Asian girl and maybe a few Latino students. So 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.040 I was the only non white person in the drama 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.520 and in Helen Keller or in the Miracle Worker, there 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:26.120 is a servant but is obviously of black descent. Guess 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.599 who played that really problematic role. And they would not 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:29.880 let me not do an accent? 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:31.240 Cool? 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.440 It is horrifying, and I because of who she was. 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.400 She also had children, so I have had to pretend 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.400 these little kids were Mike. It was bad and they 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:39.719 were both. 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.800 I think that that is actually a very fitting way 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:50.200 to understand the ongoing harm caused not by Helen Keller, 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.200 but by the way people tell her fucking story. 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.240 Oh let's start, Oh god, all right. 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.279 All right. Helen Keller, of course, is famous for what 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.880 she believed and not anything else. I'm not trying to 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.320 downplay what else she did. She was one of the 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:07.920 first deaf blind people in Western society to be given 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.120 the chance to learn to read and write, and was 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.440 the first to get a bachelor's degree. We're gonna call 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.240 this episode Helen Keller was a Socialist and also complicated. 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.400 Because Helen Keller was a socialist and complicated, her legacy 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.080 is a disability rights icon is a lot more popular 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.440 in abled society than in disability justice communities, who are 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.000 critical not only of what gets called inspiration porn, but 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.479 also of assimilation as politics more broadly. So we're going 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.479 to talk about all that. We're going to talk to 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.680 the story of Helen's life, what she did that was 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:41.719 super cool, what she did that was super not cool, 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.599 And we're going to talk about the social model of disability, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.760 and in classic form, we're going to start decades before 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.120 she was even born. Oh yes, because we're going to 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:57.560 start with another woman whose name is Laura Dewey Bridgeman. 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.480 I'm just curious. I had never heard of Laura. Had 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:02.520 you heard of Laura before this? 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:03.880 I have not. 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.159 Yeah, I Laura Dewey Bridgeman was born in New Hampshire 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.160 on December twenty first, eighteen twenty nine, to a farming family. 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.200 She's white. I think they're more farm owners than like homesteaders, 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:20.560 because there's references to her her parents' employees at various points. 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.320 When she was twenty four months old, she was sick, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.360 she got scarlet fever, and when she recovered, she'd lost 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.120 her sense of hearing, sight, and smell, and with smell 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.360 goes most of taste, so she was deaf blind, a 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.120 specific impairment that it was more common in the nineteenth 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.160 century than the twenty first, but still exists. It was 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.160 more common back then because it was often caused by 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.080 various infections that we have way better ways of treating now. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.360 And when she first lost these senses, she would sit 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.120 around and whisper dark dark for a while, because she 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:55.960 knew some words already because she was two years old. 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:58.880 I worry about the way that she was represented as 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.000 a youth because I have less information about her, or 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.240 I looked up less information about her than I do 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.600 about Helen. But I know how Helen Keller is misrepresented, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:14.240 and actually I believe by the Miracle Worker. Probably as 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:18.200 the story goes, Laura had a really hard time communicating 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.720 with her family and was therefore unruly. Was completely unruly. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:23.800 Only her father could get her to do anything, and 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.200 that was by physically restraining her. Basically, a lot of 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:32.240 media will refer to deaf blind children as basically wild animals. 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.120 This is not true. This is not true of Helen 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:42.400 Keller's youth, and I'm inferring that it is not true 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.839 about Laura's youth. I'm sure it was hard. Don't get 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.480 me wrong. Deaf blind folks were at the time usually 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.679 treated as essentially hopeless cases. And again I'm saying in 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.600 Western society, because that's what I have information about, no 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.360 one was known to have learned a consistent way to 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.160 communicate it across that barrier, besides some of what are 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.080 called home signs, which are basically DIY sign languages that 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:09.400 people develop themselves with their loved ones. But when she 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.400 was a kid, Laura was not fully communicative. But when 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:17.440 she was seven, there was a school vaguely nearby called 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.760 the Perkins School for the Blind, which I have seen 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.920 as being originally in New Hampshire, or maybe it's in Boston. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.720 I'm kind of confused because it's still around, and you 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.120 feel like I feel like I should have been able 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.559 to find a more concise answer, But it's in New 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.120 England alongside of her. The Perkin School of the Blind 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:38.000 is like, hey, let's try to teach her, and specifically 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.080 the director of the school who gets held up as 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.959 a hero, and we're gonna talk about that, doctor Samuel 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:48.000 Gridley Howe. He taught her and I'm going to quote 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.040 from the Perkins School for the Blind's website about this. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.920 He gave her familiar objects such as forks and keys, 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.439 with name labels made of raised letters pasted upon them. 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.240 When he gave her detached labels with the same words, 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.440 she matched them to their objects. How next cut up 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.520 the label so each later letter was separate. He spelled 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.720 the now familiar words, showed them to Bridgeman, then jumbled 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.920 the letters. She was able to rearrange them so they 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.559 once again spelled the words. And so this is how 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.640 the Sally taught Laura English and how to communicate. She 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.040 learned English, she was off. She studied at the school 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.960 like the other students, and this accomplishment got written about 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.920 all over the world. It's funny because she's not remembered 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.800 now because Helen Keller is now the famous first quote unquote, 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:38.600 I'm making air quotes, but no one in the audience 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.400 can see that the first stef blind person to you know, 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.800 learn how to communicate or whatever, right Charles Dickens met 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.400 her and wrote about her, and this increased her fame substantially. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.319 One article I read about her refers to her as 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.480 the second most famous woman in the world, after only 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:00.640 Queen Victoria during much of her early life. But this 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.560 is kind of it's that media cycle thing, right. We 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:03.920 tend to think of it as like a Twitter brain 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.280 thing that people have an attention span of fifteen minutes. 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.440 You know, the attention span might have been slower back then, 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.280 but it's still ebbs and flows, right, Thousands of people 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.760 come to visit her, like literally, at one point there 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.000 was more than a thousand people there's here on one day. 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.640 Newspapers around the world are covering her story. According to 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.559 the author Rosemary Mahoney from her book For the Benefit 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.480 of Those who see quote, all over America, little girls 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.080 began poking their dolls eyes out, tying green ribbons across them, 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.319 and renaming them Laura. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.840 I don't know what. I don't want to say. Okay, 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.120 I feel like I can't give them proper reaction because 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:49.800 I'm like confused. Well, yeah, okay, this is. 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.240 This is why I'm gonna talk about what inspiration porn is. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.559 I'm like wait is it No, it's it's it's weird. 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:03.920 How do I react? Yeah, no, keep going. Yeah, I 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:05.960 think this is an example of the long and the 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.280 long history of problematic ways that people have of you 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.360 and people with disabilities. Yeah, this is one of those 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.160 things that I'm like, I'm glad they didn't hate her. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:23.960 Like, what is that equating poking dolls out of somebody's. 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.600 Yeah, it kind of thing. I'm going to say. It's 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.040 kind of like cultural appropriation, when you love something a 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:30.800 little too much and then you take it on and 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:35.240 it becomes like problematic and offensive. Oh yeah, maybe it's 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:36.200 along those lines. 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.000 No, you're right, there's almost certainly. Probably I don't know 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.280 the history of Halloween well, and I you'd think I would, 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.160 but like, yeah, like there's almost certainly people dressing up. 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:51.400 Yeah you think I would. That was so funny. 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:53.440 I know more about the history of Christmas than Halloween. 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:58.160 And I feel guilty. My goth card is melting. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:12:59.520 You're failing. 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.160 Yeah, you're failing in this. Let me go get my 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.160 goth card out of the coffin in the other room. 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.320 Inspiration porn. This is a particular phrase that was coined 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.600 by comedians Stella young. I thought I wrote the year 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.120 in the script, but I didn't. I think it was 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.760 twenty twelve that this particular phrase was coined. She defined 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.800 it as quote an image of a person with a disability, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.400 often a kid doing something completely ordinary, like playing or 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:28.720 talking or running, or drawing a picture or hitting a 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.559 tennis ball, carrying a caption like your excuse is invalid 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.400 or before you quit, try what's wrong with this? The 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:42.280 author Stella continues to say, quote, these modified images exceptionalize 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.440 and objectify those of us they claim to represent. It 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.800 is no coincidence that these genuinely adorable disabled kids and 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.600 these images are never named. It doesn't matter what their 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.520 names are. They're just there as objects of inspiration. Our 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.720 later subject, Helen Keller, is probably the single most used 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.360 in space spiration used as inspiration porn person in the 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.480 history of the world. Laura's life was not immune to 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.040 it either. And I think the thing that irritates a 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.600 lot of people in the disability community is like, Okay, 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.760 this idea that the great accomplishment is being normal, right, right, 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:21.040 and it's assimilation specifically, that like all people want to 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.320 do is you know, live like everyone else or whatever, 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:26.640 And this is going to be a recurring theme this week. 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.160 Back to Laura. As much as she was a student, 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:36.320 she was a test subject. How he wasn't just teaching 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.920 her because he was cool and nice. He was using 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:40.480 it as a science experiment. 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.040 So yeah, I was going to ask when you said 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.120 thousands of people were visiting her, why so were they 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.360 getting knowledge from her? Or were they watching her like. 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:54.520 A sideshow side show? Okay, yeah, no, they would like 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.160 leave with like a piece of her hair, or like 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.920 something she had sown, or like and she would buy 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.640 I mean she would they would buy the stuff she sewed. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:09.520 But yeah, no, it's they were like, come see this 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:10.760 wonder of the world. 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:15.560 Right, Yeah, that's exactly. It literally is like again one 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.320 of those side shows, old school circus traveling shows that 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.680 I'm like, why would they visiting? Were they trying to 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.640 get knowledge? Okay, that's that's cool. 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.200 But yeah, no, okay, they were watching her, and I'm 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.640 sure some people were coming and studying this, and we'll 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.080 talk about how. I mean it was other students at 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:34.800 the School for the Blind who went on to like 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.480 further this style of education and teach teach Helling Keller 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.720 later to spoil some of it, you know. But but yeah, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.160 this guy, how he he wanted to know what was 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.320 in and what was learned? Right, right, Like what are 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:48.880 we born with? What do we what do we learn 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.040 through society? It's this, you know, big question that's been 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.600 with Western world ever since the Enlightenment or whatever. So, 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.560 for example, when she was eleven, he decided he wanted 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.600 to find out if religion is in it or if 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.480 it's learned. So he told her teachers to not answer 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.400 any questions about God, just to find out if she 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.800 would end up religious if she was never taught about God. 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.640 But then he skipped down for honeymoon for a year 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:18.720 and some of the evangelical teachers just like taught her evangelicalism. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.760 So he comes back and she's evangelical, and he's like, no, 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.600 my science experiment, it's been ruined, you know, poor guy. 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:27.080 Poor guy. 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.200 Yeah, And so at least according to one narrative, and 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.840 I have no reason to doubt it. He kind of 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:34.840 turned on her a little bit at this point. He 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.200 started talking about her. He started referring to her as defective. 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.920 At one point, apparently he said that the reason she 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.400 got scarlet fever is that her parents weren't smart. Not 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.840 that her not smart parents had done something not smart 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.880 by exposing her to the illness, but literally that they're 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.440 not smart brains had created a not smart brain child, 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.760 and people with not smart brains were more likely to 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:03.800 be susceptible to illness. Yeah, you know, it's so wow 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.760 wow wow. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.040 So wait, so he turned on her because she became 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.320 religious or because that she wasn't exactly what he wanted 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.480 her to be the Peatrie dish that he wanted to create. 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.200 I believe it's that I've read a couple different ways 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.840 of describing their relationship. This is the most negative way 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:25.280 I've seen, but it's also the one I've read with 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.880 the most detail, and it comes from Rosemary Mahoney, who 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.920 I'm going to quote again quote how had stated firmly 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:35.800 at the start of his career that the blind were 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:37.879 no different from the sighted, and that blindness was a 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.760 superficial handicap, But after ten years of work at the 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.720 Perkins Institution, he radically reversed his position. In his sixteenth 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.280 annual report, he claimed that his views had been modified 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.200 by experience. He stated, this is going to be able us. 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.159 This thing that I'm about to read he stated in 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.080 emphatic uppercase letters, the blind as a class or inferior 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.960 to other persons in mental power and ability. So he sucks. 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.199 And this is the guy who found the school for 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:09.320 the blind, and they still credit him as like an icon. Yes, 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.720 oh my god. And it's interesting because he's like, he 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.959 is the first person that we know of to teach 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.280 this style of language to a deaf blind person. There 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.439 was actually a deaf blind woman before them, who I 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.600 can't remember. Her name is later in the script, who 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.960 learned tactile sign language rather than written word. 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.640 Right, So was he using brail? Is that what he's 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:35.800 using or is he using his own system? 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.600 They're using a different system. This is a little bit okay, 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:40.800 it's like around this is the middle of nineteenth century. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.280 I don't remember what year brail started getting standardized. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:47.919 I think it's like early eighteen, eighteen hundreds, eighteen twenty something, okay. 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.080 I think that, Oh, okay, No, that's good to know. 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.000 And I think that they're also she does learn braille, right, okay, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.080 But the initial stuff that she's handed are this other 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.320 alphabet that I can't remember the name of, that's like 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:05.399 a tactile alphabet. Okay, so now I'm going to talk 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:07.639 about all the cool shit how did but for a reason. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.040 Okay, so I want to pretend like he's cool for a second. 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.560 I got it because it's worth highlighting the way that 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:18.960 people who are otherwise so fucking cool can be ablest 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:23.800 as fuck. Right, So, How's grandfather was at the Boston 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:27.600 Tea Party. I'm famously neutral on the American Revolution as 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:29.720 a later removed from the position of the indigenous and 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:31.280 enslaved people in North America. 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:32.440 So I just that's fair. 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.080 Whatever. However, how himself, he went and fought in the 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.439 Greek Revolution in the nineteen twenties. He brought back Greek 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.680 refugee children to personally teach in America. Then he went 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.560 to France and fought in the eighteen thirty second French Revolution. 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.679 Back in the US, he started an abolitionist newspaper, and 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.800 he did not just leave it at starting an abolitionist newspaper, 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:54.399 A lot of people get ridden about in history. It's 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.040 like pretty cool because they were abolitionists and they wrote words. 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.320 He funded John Brown. He had to flee the country 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:04.200 over fleeing John Brown. His house was a stop on 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.520 the underground railroad At one point, him and a couple 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.280 of his friends stormed a building, breaking down the door 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:12.560 of the battering Ram, shooting a cop in the face 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.080 to rescue a fugitive from slavery named Anthony Burns. This 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.040 is part of how the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.480 is because of how and his friends shooting a cop 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.480 to try and free amn. Okay, this is why it's 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.560 so heartbreaking, right they were repelled. He did not successfully 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.240 free Anthony Burns, so they raised up the funds to 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.720 buy Anthony his freedom. He helped it. He directly helped 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.080 at least one other person escape slavery. He probably helped 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.000 uncountable others. But there was one other name I found. 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:43.159 During the Civil War, he was a bit older at 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.440 this point. He worked to keep disease outbreaks in Union 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.200 camps at a minimum. After the Civil War, he worked 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:50.320 with the Freedmen's Bureau to make sure that people had 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.160 food and clothes and everything they needed, helping reunite families 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.840 and shit. He's like, and then he goes on and 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.479 if you read the Wikipedia level of him or whatever, 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.000 he's like, he did all this amazing shit, and then 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.240 he goes on, goes on to like found the school 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.200 for the blind and dedicate his life to teaching people 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.359 how to read and like all the shit, and you're like, 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.800 it's so but he's so ablest and we're gonna this 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:16.560 is not the only time this is going to happen 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.040 in this story. 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.919 So when he because he sounds really cool and did 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.800