The Woman They Could Not Silence

by Kate Moore

So in the end, this is a book about power. Who wields it. Who owns it. And the methods they use. And above all, it’s about fighting back. There’s no more powerful way to silence someone than to call them crazy.

one common cause of committal to an asylum in Elizabeth’s time was “novel reading.”

“Incessant talking.” “Unusual zealousness.” “Strong will.” These were, in fact, textbook examples of female insanity in the nineteenth century. Doctors frequently saw pathology in female personality.

As Elizabeth later put it, “In many instances [it] is not Insanity, but individuality”15 that caused women to be committed.

The asylum was, in short, a “storage unit for unsatisfactory wives.”19

There were no cutout dolls here, only real women: hating and loving and shouting and screaming with all the spirit they had. And they would not be silenced.

“I can stand on my own feet, alone, now. I don’t have to be running around to find some tree to climb upon. I am a tree myself.”

Unlike convicts, who could count down toward the end of their jail sentence, Elizabeth and her friends were indefinitely detained at the superintendent’s pleasure. And Elizabeth knew from those around her that sometimes those terms could last for years.

She’d always thought that writing down her thoughts would save her.

The ability to tell your own story…is already a victory, already a revolt. —Rebecca Solnit, 2014

“Nothing venture, nothing have.”1

And yes, they called her crazy. But if that’s crazy, we should stand back and admire. For just look at what “crazy” can do. Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard (1816–1897)