Packed with Packards!

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

Married women at that time in the eyes of the law were "civilly dead." They were not citizens, they were shadows: subsumed within the legal identities of their husbands from the moment they took their marital vows. "The husband and wife are one," said the law, "and that one is the husband." He spoke for her, thought for her, and could do what he wanted with her. (emphasis mine)

1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened—by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they've been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line—conveniently labeled "crazy" so their voices are ignored. No one is willing to fight for their freedom and, disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose...

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an advance copy of The Woman They Could Not Silence, publication date June 22, 2021. Well, Kate Moore did it again. This book was a treasure trove of information about Elizabeth Packard, an absolute beast of a woman. It was fascinating to read her life story and life’s work. I was both fascinated and horrified by McFarland. His “character” was spine-chilling, as was Mr. Packard’s methodical and insidious erosion of Elizabeth’s freedom. As one or two other people mentioned, the work is full of quotes and they can be distracting if you focus on it. However, I also felt they added a very human element to the book, having Elizabeth’s own words as well as several other people’s. Elizabeth Packard is an Inspiration™️ and Kate Moore and did an amazing job bringing her to life on the pages.

Quick note: this looks like a gigantic book - it's not. There's a lot of appendices and sources (almost a third of the book, I think?). Don't let the 560 pages scare you off!!

Also yes, this is Kate Moore of Radium Girls.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars)

Reason: Did not agree with her husband’s religious beliefs

Elizabeth Packard (1816-1897) disagreed with her husband’s, Theophilus, beliefs. Theophilus was a Calvinist minister, but his wife’s views were closer to Swedenborgianism. After Elizabeth argued with Theophilus in front of his congregation and announced she was moving to the local Methodist church, he decided that she seemed “slightly insane.” So, he had her committed to the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane in 1860. (In many states at the time, a man could easily institutionalize his wife, and she was not allowed to contest the decision). 

Elizabeth spent three years there before her eldest son turned old enough to have her released. During that time, she appealed to the superintendent in a 21-page letter for her release, which was ignored. 

Once home, Theophilus locked Elizabeth in the nursery and nailed the windows shut. He forbade the children to speak to her, intercepted her mail, and made plans to have her committed in her home state of Massachusetts. Elizabeth managed to slip a letter out of the house, and a friend reported her treatment to a local judge. 

The judge demanded Theophilus bring his wife before him to deem whether or not she was actually insane. During the trial, Theophilus’ sister and brother-in-law testified that Elizabeth had tried to distance herself from her husband and the church, which they claimed were actions of a mentally unwell person. Despite this, a jury deliberated for only seven minutes before declaring that Elizabeth was in fact sane. 

Elizabeth separated from her husband shortly afterwards, and became an advocate for the rights of women and people being held in insane asylums. She was able to successfully lobby for laws that helped protect the rights of mental asylum patients in Massachusetts, Illinois, Iowa, and Maine. She also was the driving force behind an 1874 act of Congress which stated that mental asylum patients must have the right to access the postal service. 

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More Reading: 

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/outrageous-ways-to-be-admitted-to-an-insane-asylum-in-the-19th-century/news-story/e590c54e3469606d1b2330a52c3d8f6b

https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/packard-elizabeth-1816-1897

Elizabeth Packard

Born

Elizabeth Parsons Ware 28 December 1816

Ware, MassachusettsDied25 July 1897 (aged 80)Known forWrongful involuntary commitmentMovement

Women's rights

Anti-Insane Asylum Society

SpouseTheophilus PackardChildren6

Discovered this woman through my 2023 summer reading experience in Kingfield, ME.

THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE

11. Something you want to do again next year?

I really want to go to the beach in the off-season again. I really enjoy a long walk on the beach when it's very chilly and no one else is there lol

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Hmm, not counting rereads, I'd go with:

Fiction: The Will Darling Adventure series by K-J Charles. This was just a really fun series! I really liked all of the characters, good and bad, and especially loved Will (I'm a sucker for a brawler with a good heart lol). I feel like a lot of queer stories focus only on romance and building the relationship without much actual substance beyond that in the story, but this series had a really solid plot with a little bit of mystery with the romance.

Non-fiction: The Women You Could Not Silence by Kate Moore. A great, in-depth look at Elizabeth Packard's life and how the injustices done to her by her husband who did not like her outspoken intelligence led to massive strides towards divorce, fairer custody rights, better conditions for mental health facilities, and wider criticisms of Christianity as an organization. I really liked her book Radium Girls, too, and this book confirmed that I'll basically read anything Moore publishes from now on lol

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear

by Kate Moore - Biography, History, Nonfiction

Review: “The Woman They Could Not Silence” by Kate Moore

Initial reaction: Wow. Elizabeth Packard was a boss on so many levels. I’m glad that I was able to read this account by Kate Moore of her story in full. It’s upsetting to say the least of the treatment of women and the unjust confinement and treatment of those deemed mentally ill, often for no other purpose other than power hungry parties, but I found it an engaging read. 4.5 stars for my likely…

Kate Moore’s The Woman They Could Not Silence is an excellent read. It’s about Elizabeth Packard, a woman whose preacher husband had her committed to an insane asylum in the 1860s because of her feminist ideas.  Despite appalling treatment in the asylum, Elizabeth kept her sanity and managed to gain her release—and then became a tireless crusader for the rights of women and the mentally ill. Honestly, I felt exhausted just reading about all this woman accomplished in her life: She truly was a force of nature, and the shitty men in her life never stood a chance, the poor dumb dumbs.

i hope you’re doing well! 💖

I am doing well! I miss your book reports! lol I hope you are doing well, too!

6. what books have you read in the last month? answered here!

11. what non-fiction books do you like if any? I love non-fiction! -I really enjoy any sort of niche science (anything by Mary Roach) -deep dives on a topic (rocket fuel, salt, swearing, cannibalism) -anything surrounding medicine, death, funerals (I have like two shelves devoted to these books after I wrote my thesis lol) -biographies and memoirs from historical figures I like or who had a major impact on how things are currently structured (like Elizabeth Packard who reformed medical institutions and divorce rights for women as we know them now) -History books on topics that interest me (radium girls, Donner Party, Salem Witch Trials (like the radium girls in the 1920s and how it affected work codes today) -investigative journalism (anything by Patrick Raddon Keefe) -anything to do with queer history -true crime, but not just limited to serial killers/murder. I like heists and robberies, etc

12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings? Some, yeah! The Catcher in the Rye, The Crucible, Mrs. Dalloway, Iliad and Odyssey, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

13. do you have a goodreads? Yep!

West Hill Cemetery

Summit Road

Gravestones in Hingham 09/30/21

Gravestones at Hingham Cemetery 09/30/21

ab. 1795 James Earl - Captain Samuel Packard and his wife Abigail Congdon Packard

(can we stop calling them “Pilgrims” already? they weren’t on a pilgrimage, they were just religious fanatic colonists. and BBC programs including Horrible Histories always call them “the Pilgrim Fathers” which is even worse. americans used to call them that too, until in the mid-20th century White Feminists ™ were like “what about the Pilgrim Mothers?” and the UK just didn’t get the memo apparently.)

anyway the book also had Love Brewster’s will, and apparently ONE generation of Wrestling Brewster wasn’t enough, because Love (a dude, not a woman, as i assumed) also had a son called Wresteling or Wrasteling (his name was spelled 2 different ways in the same paragraph. i think the first Wrestling must have been one of those “open the bible to a random page and pick the first word you see” names puritans gave their kids. he was the youngest child so maybe his parents were running out of ideas.