Kate Moore - The Woman They Could Not Silence

ALSO BY KATE MOORE

The Radium Girls

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Books . Change . Lives .

Copyright 2021 by Kate Moore

Cover and internal design 2021 by Sourcebooks

Cover design by Sarah Brody

Cover portrait from the collection of Elizabeth Hattie Leach Desjardins, used courtesy of her grandson, Michael G. Draper. Other cover images sbayram/Getty Images, Katsumi Murouchi/Getty Images

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The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright holders for permission and apologize for any omissions or errors in the form of credits given. Corrections may be made to future printings.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Moore, Kate (Writer and editor) author.

Title: The woman they could not silence : one woman, her incredible fight for freedom, and the men who tried to make her disappear / Kate Moore.

Description: Naperville : Sourcebooks, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020057492 (print) | LCCN 2020057493 (ebook) | (hardcover) | (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Packard, E. P. W. (Elizabeth Parsons Ware), 1816-1897. | Social reformers--Illinois--Biography. | Married women--Legal status, laws, etc.--Illinois--History--19th century. | Mentally ill--Commitment and detention--Illinois--History--19th century. | Insanity (Law)--United States. | Women--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.

Classification: LCC HN80.P23 M66 2021 (print) | LCC HN80.P23 (ebook) | DDC 303.48/4092 [B]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057492

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057493

For my Elizabeth,
and for John,
the best parents a woman could wish for.

This is not a book about mental health, but about how it can be used as a weapon.

Its a historical book. And as the people about whom Ive written used their own contemporaneous terms to describe madnesssuch as the insane and lunatics and maniacsI have used them too, though theyre clearly not acceptable or appropriate in the modern age. As I hope this book will make clear, they were always blanket terms anyway, too broad and all-encompassing ever to be useful or sensitive to truth.

Its a nonfiction book. Everything in it is based on careful historical research. Every line of dialogue comes from a memoir, letter, trial transcript, or some other record made by someone who was present at the time.

Its a book that is set over 160 years ago. A lot has changed. A lot hasnt. We are only just beginning to appreciate exactly how a persons powerlessness may lead to struggles with their mental health. With that understanding, statistics showing higher rates of mental illness in women, people of color, and other disenfranchised groups become translated into truth: not a biological deficiency, as doctors first thought, but a cultural creation that, if we wanted to, we could do something about.

So in the end, this is a book about power. Who wields it. Who owns it. And the methods they use.

And above all, its about fighting back.

Theres no more powerful way to silence someone than to call them crazy.

Holly Bourne, 2018

Confusion has seized us, and all things go wrong,

The women have leaped from their spheres,

And, instead of fixed stars, shoot as comets along,

And are setting the world by the ears!

Theyve taken a notion to speak for themselves,

And are wielding the tongue and the pen

Now, misses may reason, and think, and debate,

Till unquestioned submission is quite out of date

Like the devils of Milton, they rise from each blow,

With spirit unbroken, insulting the foe.

Maria Weston Chapman, 1840

If she screamed, she sealed her fate. She had to keep her rage locked up inside her, her feelings as tightly buttoned as her blouse.

Nevertheless, they came for her. Two men pressed around her, lifting her in their arms, her wide skirts crushed by their clumsy movementsmuch like her heart inside her chest. Still, she did not fight back, did not lash out wildly, did not slap or hit. The only protest she could permit herself was this: a paralysis of her limbs. She held her body stiff and unyielding and refused to walk to her destiny, no matter how he begged.

Amid the vast crowd that had gathered to bear witness, just one person spoke. The voice was high-pitched and pleading: female, a friend. Is there no man in this crowd to protect this woman? she cried aloud. Is there no man among you? If I were a man, I would seize hold upon her!

But no man stepped forward. No one helped. Instead, a silent and almost speechless gaze met her frightened eyes, their inaction as impotent as her own subjected self.

She didnt know the truth yet. In time, she would.

The only person who could save her was herself.

PART ONE

BRAVE NEW WORLD

A wife once kissed her husband, and said she, My own dear Will, how dearly I love thee!

Who ever knew a lady, good or ill, that did not love her own sweet will?

Chicago Jokes and Anecdotes for Railroad Travelers and Fun Lovers, 1866

Unruly women are always witches, no matter what century were in.

Roxane Gay, 2015

June 18, 1860
Manteno, Illinois

It was the last day, but she didnt know it.

In truth, we never do.

Not until it is too late.

She woke in a handsome maple bed, body covered by a snow-white counterpane. As her senses resurfaced after a restless nights sleep, Elizabeth Packards brown eyes blearily mapped the landmarks of her room: embroidered ottoman, mahogany bureau, and smart green shutters thatfor some reasonwere failing to let in any light.

Ordinarily, her husband of twenty-one yearsTheophilus, a preacherwould have been snoring next to her, his gravity-defying, curly red hair an impromptu pillow beneath his head. But a few long weeks before, hed abandoned their marital bed.