Damian Alan Pargas (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056036
- eISBN:
- 9780813053806
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056036.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America examines and contrasts the experiences of various groups of African-American slaves who tried to escape bondage between the revolutionary era ...
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Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America examines and contrasts the experiences of various groups of African-American slaves who tried to escape bondage between the revolutionary era and the U.S. Civil War. Whereas much of the existing scholarship tends to focus on fugitive slaves in very localized settings (especially in communities and regions north of the Mason-Dixon line), the eleven contributions in this volume bring together the latest scholarship on runaway slaves in a diverse range of geographic settings throughout North America—from Canada to Virginia and from Mexico to the British Bahamas—providing a broader and more continental perspective on slave refugee migration. The volume innovatively distinguishes between various “spaces of freedom” to which runaway slaves fled, specifically sites of formal freedom (free-soil regions where slavery had been abolished and refugees were legally free, even if the meanings of freedom in these places were heavily contested); semi-formal freedom (free-soil regions where slavery had been abolished but asylum for runaway slaves was either denied or contested, such as the northern U.S., where state abolition laws were curtailed by federal fugitive slave laws); and informal freedom (places within the slaveholding South where runaways formed maroon communities or attempted to blend in with free black populations and pass for free). This edited volume encourages scholars to reroute and reconceptualize the geography of slavery and freedom in antebellum North America.Less
Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America examines and contrasts the experiences of various groups of African-American slaves who tried to escape bondage between the revolutionary era and the U.S. Civil War. Whereas much of the existing scholarship tends to focus on fugitive slaves in very localized settings (especially in communities and regions north of the Mason-Dixon line), the eleven contributions in this volume bring together the latest scholarship on runaway slaves in a diverse range of geographic settings throughout North America—from Canada to Virginia and from Mexico to the British Bahamas—providing a broader and more continental perspective on slave refugee migration. The volume innovatively distinguishes between various “spaces of freedom” to which runaway slaves fled, specifically sites of formal freedom (free-soil regions where slavery had been abolished and refugees were legally free, even if the meanings of freedom in these places were heavily contested); semi-formal freedom (free-soil regions where slavery had been abolished but asylum for runaway slaves was either denied or contested, such as the northern U.S., where state abolition laws were curtailed by federal fugitive slave laws); and informal freedom (places within the slaveholding South where runaways formed maroon communities or attempted to blend in with free black populations and pass for free). This edited volume encourages scholars to reroute and reconceptualize the geography of slavery and freedom in antebellum North America.
David Wright
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in the history of disability by investigating the emergence of the so-called idiot asylums in England during the Victorian period. Using the ...
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This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in the history of disability by investigating the emergence of the so-called idiot asylums in England during the Victorian period. Using the National Asylum for Idiots, now known as the Earlswood Asylum, as a case study, it investigates the social history of institutionalisation, privileging the relationship between the medical institution and the society whence its patients came. By concentrating on the importance of patient-centred admission documents, and utilising the benefits of nominal record linkage to other, non-medical sources, the book extends research on the confinement of the ‘insane’ to the networks of care and control that operated outside the walls of the asylum. The book contends that institutional confinement of mentally disabled and mentally ill individuals in the 19th century cannot be understood independently of a detailed analysis of familial and community patterns of care. In this book, the family plays a significant role in the history of the asylum, initiating the identification of mental disability, participating in the certification process, mediating medical treatment, and facilitating discharge back into the community. By exploring the patterns of confinement to the Earlswood Asylum, the book reveals the diversity of the insane population in Victorian England and the complexities of institutional committal in the 19th century. Moreover, by investigating the evolution of the Earlswood Asylum, it examines the history of the institution where John Langdon Down made his now famous identification of Mongolism, later renamed Down's Syndrome. He thus places the formulation of this archetype of mental disability within its historical, cultural, and scientific contexts.Less
This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in the history of disability by investigating the emergence of the so-called idiot asylums in England during the Victorian period. Using the National Asylum for Idiots, now known as the Earlswood Asylum, as a case study, it investigates the social history of institutionalisation, privileging the relationship between the medical institution and the society whence its patients came. By concentrating on the importance of patient-centred admission documents, and utilising the benefits of nominal record linkage to other, non-medical sources, the book extends research on the confinement of the ‘insane’ to the networks of care and control that operated outside the walls of the asylum. The book contends that institutional confinement of mentally disabled and mentally ill individuals in the 19th century cannot be understood independently of a detailed analysis of familial and community patterns of care. In this book, the family plays a significant role in the history of the asylum, initiating the identification of mental disability, participating in the certification process, mediating medical treatment, and facilitating discharge back into the community. By exploring the patterns of confinement to the Earlswood Asylum, the book reveals the diversity of the insane population in Victorian England and the complexities of institutional committal in the 19th century. Moreover, by investigating the evolution of the Earlswood Asylum, it examines the history of the institution where John Langdon Down made his now famous identification of Mongolism, later renamed Down's Syndrome. He thus places the formulation of this archetype of mental disability within its historical, cultural, and scientific contexts.
William Seraile
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823234196
- eISBN:
- 9780823240838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234196.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The demise of the Colored Orphan Asylum at Riverdale was a sad event in the history of an institution that dated to 1836. The founders and early managers were mainly women who sought to do God's will ...
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The demise of the Colored Orphan Asylum at Riverdale was a sad event in the history of an institution that dated to 1836. The founders and early managers were mainly women who sought to do God's will by caring for abused and forsaken black children. They took on this mammoth effort at a time when African Americans were shunned by society. Oppressive laws prohibited much of their daily contact with their fellow white residents unless they were in a subordinate position. The white women, many of whom personally abhorred the horrors of slavery and who wished to do God's will by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, did so at the risk of “unsexing” themselves in the eyes of their less Christian contemporaries. Men and women of means such as John Jacob Astor, R. H. Macy, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., William Jay, Anna Jay, Caroline Stokes, and many others contributed generously to the betterment of the orphan black child.Less
The demise of the Colored Orphan Asylum at Riverdale was a sad event in the history of an institution that dated to 1836. The founders and early managers were mainly women who sought to do God's will by caring for abused and forsaken black children. They took on this mammoth effort at a time when African Americans were shunned by society. Oppressive laws prohibited much of their daily contact with their fellow white residents unless they were in a subordinate position. The white women, many of whom personally abhorred the horrors of slavery and who wished to do God's will by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, did so at the risk of “unsexing” themselves in the eyes of their less Christian contemporaries. Men and women of means such as John Jacob Astor, R. H. Macy, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., William Jay, Anna Jay, Caroline Stokes, and many others contributed generously to the betterment of the orphan black child.
Frances Finnegan
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195174601
- eISBN:
- 9780199849901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174601.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
A small Catholic Magdalen Asylum in 1809 was founded in Peacock Lane, Cork, by a Mr. Terry. A Matron governed the institution under the direction of a committee of ladies, that so many difficulties ...
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A small Catholic Magdalen Asylum in 1809 was founded in Peacock Lane, Cork, by a Mr. Terry. A Matron governed the institution under the direction of a committee of ladies, that so many difficulties were encountered that it was eventually decided to place the Home in the care of a religious community. The Irish Sisters of Charity were invited to undertake the work and following extensive negotiations, and the completion of their new Convent, St. Vincent's, which was built on the Asylum's grounds, they finally took charge of the Home in June 1846. The Contagious Diseases legislation is discussed in detail. Two Homes which had been opened in Cork in Ireland, a Catholic Magdalen Asylum (1809) and a Protestant Refuge (1810), are also described.Less
A small Catholic Magdalen Asylum in 1809 was founded in Peacock Lane, Cork, by a Mr. Terry. A Matron governed the institution under the direction of a committee of ladies, that so many difficulties were encountered that it was eventually decided to place the Home in the care of a religious community. The Irish Sisters of Charity were invited to undertake the work and following extensive negotiations, and the completion of their new Convent, St. Vincent's, which was built on the Asylum's grounds, they finally took charge of the Home in June 1846. The Contagious Diseases legislation is discussed in detail. Two Homes which had been opened in Cork in Ireland, a Catholic Magdalen Asylum (1809) and a Protestant Refuge (1810), are also described.
Valentin-Veron Toma
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719097690
- eISBN:
- 9781526104465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719097690.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on the development of psychiatry in the Romanian Principalities and, afterwards, in the Romanian Kingdom, until the end of WWII. It explores the evolution of ideas on work ...
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This chapter focuses on the development of psychiatry in the Romanian Principalities and, afterwards, in the Romanian Kingdom, until the end of WWII. It explores the evolution of ideas on work therapy and other occupations in four main cities of the country (Bucharest, Iași, Craiova and Sibiu) where the most important public asylums were located. The published works of leading Romanian psychiatrists are explored, in order to understand the origins, interpretations and applications, of their ideas and practices. Some of the authors argued for, and some against, the use of colonies of the Belgian type, but they all shared the view that work had both economic and medical benefits for inpatients. Influenced by key figures of European psychiatry during their studies abroad, or by the results of their own field trips to major European asylums, Romanian specialists also influenced each other. They discussed, in their publications, state of the art strategies relating to work therapy. In summary, it is suggested that, from a transnational standpoint, this cross-fertilisation of ideas and practices and transfers of knowledge were characteristic of psychiatry in European countries. In Romaniaʼs case such transfers were not mechanical, but part of a process of critical reflection and adaptation to conditions existing in different regions of the country at the time.Less
This chapter focuses on the development of psychiatry in the Romanian Principalities and, afterwards, in the Romanian Kingdom, until the end of WWII. It explores the evolution of ideas on work therapy and other occupations in four main cities of the country (Bucharest, Iași, Craiova and Sibiu) where the most important public asylums were located. The published works of leading Romanian psychiatrists are explored, in order to understand the origins, interpretations and applications, of their ideas and practices. Some of the authors argued for, and some against, the use of colonies of the Belgian type, but they all shared the view that work had both economic and medical benefits for inpatients. Influenced by key figures of European psychiatry during their studies abroad, or by the results of their own field trips to major European asylums, Romanian specialists also influenced each other. They discussed, in their publications, state of the art strategies relating to work therapy. In summary, it is suggested that, from a transnational standpoint, this cross-fertilisation of ideas and practices and transfers of knowledge were characteristic of psychiatry in European countries. In Romaniaʼs case such transfers were not mechanical, but part of a process of critical reflection and adaptation to conditions existing in different regions of the country at the time.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in mental disability and its history by investigating the emergence of idiot asylums in England during the Victorian period. By focusing on the ...
More
This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in mental disability and its history by investigating the emergence of idiot asylums in England during the Victorian period. By focusing on the Earlswood Asylum, formerly the National Asylum for Idiots, as a case study, the book looks at the social history of institutionalisation, extending the analysis of confinement to the network of extramural care and control. It argues that institutional confinement of mentally disabled and mentally ill individuals in the 19th century cannot be understood independently of an analysis of familial and community care which existed outside the walls of the asylum. In this account, the family plays a significant role in the history of the asylum, initiating the identification of mental disability, participating in the certification process, mediating the medical treatment, and facilitating discharge back into the community. In this respect the methodological approach of this book owes a great deal to the pioneering work of John Walton, Mark Finnane, Nancy Tomes, and Richard Fox, who all identified the family as central to our understanding of the rise of mental hospitals.Less
This book contributes to the growing scholarly interest in mental disability and its history by investigating the emergence of idiot asylums in England during the Victorian period. By focusing on the Earlswood Asylum, formerly the National Asylum for Idiots, as a case study, the book looks at the social history of institutionalisation, extending the analysis of confinement to the network of extramural care and control. It argues that institutional confinement of mentally disabled and mentally ill individuals in the 19th century cannot be understood independently of an analysis of familial and community care which existed outside the walls of the asylum. In this account, the family plays a significant role in the history of the asylum, initiating the identification of mental disability, participating in the certification process, mediating the medical treatment, and facilitating discharge back into the community. In this respect the methodological approach of this book owes a great deal to the pioneering work of John Walton, Mark Finnane, Nancy Tomes, and Richard Fox, who all identified the family as central to our understanding of the rise of mental hospitals.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Recent work on the emergence of the 19th-century county asylums in England has emphasised the important role that philanthropy played in the establishment of the rate-aided mental hospitals for ...
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Recent work on the emergence of the 19th-century county asylums in England has emphasised the important role that philanthropy played in the establishment of the rate-aided mental hospitals for idiots — people with mental disability. Some of the early county asylums were not purely institutions harbouring the pauperised population, but were also philanthropic institutions that accepted charitable patients. Charities played a crucial role in the development of new techniques for treating the insane. The York Retreat, an institution built by the Society of Friends, pioneered what is now famously known as the ‘moral treatment’ of insanity. With its emphasis on institutional care, moral treatment became the ideological prop for those proposing the construction of therapeutic lunatic asylums. This chapter discusses how the Earlswood Asylum was established with contributions from charity.Less
Recent work on the emergence of the 19th-century county asylums in England has emphasised the important role that philanthropy played in the establishment of the rate-aided mental hospitals for idiots — people with mental disability. Some of the early county asylums were not purely institutions harbouring the pauperised population, but were also philanthropic institutions that accepted charitable patients. Charities played a crucial role in the development of new techniques for treating the insane. The York Retreat, an institution built by the Society of Friends, pioneered what is now famously known as the ‘moral treatment’ of insanity. With its emphasis on institutional care, moral treatment became the ideological prop for those proposing the construction of therapeutic lunatic asylums. This chapter discusses how the Earlswood Asylum was established with contributions from charity.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter explores the factors that may have influenced some families in Victorian England to choose institutional care over familial care in the complex nexus of caring for their children who ...
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This chapter explores the factors that may have influenced some families in Victorian England to choose institutional care over familial care in the complex nexus of caring for their children who were suffering from mental disability. The admission procedure to the Earlswood Asylum enshrined the principle that the family sought and negotiated the application for a place in the asylum. Often applications were endorsed by a prominent and respectable member of the local community — the vicar, a medical man, or county magistrate. Those prospective patients who had been inspected and had completed vaccinations and medical inspections were then officially inscribed on the next election list of applicants. This chapter analyses households grouped by paying status: the private paying families, the partial paying families, and the charitable cases. The demand for private institutional provision lured many medical men away from public and charitable institutions, including the famous superintendent of the Earlswood Asylum, John Langdon Down.Less
This chapter explores the factors that may have influenced some families in Victorian England to choose institutional care over familial care in the complex nexus of caring for their children who were suffering from mental disability. The admission procedure to the Earlswood Asylum enshrined the principle that the family sought and negotiated the application for a place in the asylum. Often applications were endorsed by a prominent and respectable member of the local community — the vicar, a medical man, or county magistrate. Those prospective patients who had been inspected and had completed vaccinations and medical inspections were then officially inscribed on the next election list of applicants. This chapter analyses households grouped by paying status: the private paying families, the partial paying families, and the charitable cases. The demand for private institutional provision lured many medical men away from public and charitable institutions, including the famous superintendent of the Earlswood Asylum, John Langdon Down.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter explores the characteristics of mentally ill patients who successfully navigated through the selection process for confinement in asylums. In England, the Victorian period was marked by ...
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This chapter explores the characteristics of mentally ill patients who successfully navigated through the selection process for confinement in asylums. In England, the Victorian period was marked by the rapid increase in the number and size of county lunatic asylums. The average size of these institutions rose from 300 in 1840 to 980 by the end of Victoria's reign. A similar pattern of growth marked some of the principal idiot asylums during the same period. The Earlswood Asylum, built originally for 400 occupants, was full in 1866, and after it had expanded its facilities in 1871 reached its full capacity of 600 residents in 1878. Relating the charitable dimensions of admission to voluntary hospitals to the legislation of the lunacy laws, one can see that admission to these asylums poses fascinating questions about the nature of institutional confinement in the 19th century. Within this context, this chapter explores some aspects of the admission and length of stay of patients diagnosed with mental disability.Less
This chapter explores the characteristics of mentally ill patients who successfully navigated through the selection process for confinement in asylums. In England, the Victorian period was marked by the rapid increase in the number and size of county lunatic asylums. The average size of these institutions rose from 300 in 1840 to 980 by the end of Victoria's reign. A similar pattern of growth marked some of the principal idiot asylums during the same period. The Earlswood Asylum, built originally for 400 occupants, was full in 1866, and after it had expanded its facilities in 1871 reached its full capacity of 600 residents in 1878. Relating the charitable dimensions of admission to voluntary hospitals to the legislation of the lunacy laws, one can see that admission to these asylums poses fascinating questions about the nature of institutional confinement in the 19th century. Within this context, this chapter explores some aspects of the admission and length of stay of patients diagnosed with mental disability.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Large, purpose-built institutions for people with mental disability dominated the geographical and political landscape of England during the Victorian period. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, ...
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Large, purpose-built institutions for people with mental disability dominated the geographical and political landscape of England during the Victorian period. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, directed as it was to indoor poor relief, obliged Poor Law Guardians to construct hundreds of workhouses throughout the country. Workhouses built for the able-bodied became filled with the sick, elderly, and insane, prompting Guardians to build separate infirmaries or convert existing buildings into makeshift local hospitals. In addition to this variegated state-supported hospital system, Victorian England also witnessed a virtual explosion of charitable hospitals for sick children, epileptics, foundlings, orphans, and the incurable, heirs to the tradition of medical philanthropy pioneered by the Georgian infirmaries. The Earlswood Asylum stood within a matrix of institutional employers eager to attract workers in the southeast of England. Idiot asylums represented new opportunities for working-class women to work independently and achieve modest social advancement, and afforded them relative job security and empowerment in a volatile economic marketplace.Less
Large, purpose-built institutions for people with mental disability dominated the geographical and political landscape of England during the Victorian period. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, directed as it was to indoor poor relief, obliged Poor Law Guardians to construct hundreds of workhouses throughout the country. Workhouses built for the able-bodied became filled with the sick, elderly, and insane, prompting Guardians to build separate infirmaries or convert existing buildings into makeshift local hospitals. In addition to this variegated state-supported hospital system, Victorian England also witnessed a virtual explosion of charitable hospitals for sick children, epileptics, foundlings, orphans, and the incurable, heirs to the tradition of medical philanthropy pioneered by the Georgian infirmaries. The Earlswood Asylum stood within a matrix of institutional employers eager to attract workers in the southeast of England. Idiot asylums represented new opportunities for working-class women to work independently and achieve modest social advancement, and afforded them relative job security and empowerment in a volatile economic marketplace.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
The Earlswood Charity which ran on an election system was established by the clergyman-philanthropist Andrew Reed. During the 1850s and 1860s the election system proved to be remarkably popular. ...
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The Earlswood Charity which ran on an election system was established by the clergyman-philanthropist Andrew Reed. During the 1850s and 1860s the election system proved to be remarkably popular. Thousands of subscribers flocked to the fledgling charity, and by 1860 patients were being elected with more than 10,000 votes each. Over the course of the same period the charity experienced a remarkable increase in its annual income despite the fact that it was more vulnerable than other medical charities to the volatility of annual subscriptions. With the emergence of regional idiot asylums, the Earlswood Asylum scrambled to reposition itself as the national asylum of England. The Board needed income from fees, but did not want to compromise its appeal as a charity for idiot children of poor families. Despite the best intentions of its supporters, the Earlswood Asylum, like many other charitable institutions of the Victorian period, lurched from financial crisis to financial crisis.Less
The Earlswood Charity which ran on an election system was established by the clergyman-philanthropist Andrew Reed. During the 1850s and 1860s the election system proved to be remarkably popular. Thousands of subscribers flocked to the fledgling charity, and by 1860 patients were being elected with more than 10,000 votes each. Over the course of the same period the charity experienced a remarkable increase in its annual income despite the fact that it was more vulnerable than other medical charities to the volatility of annual subscriptions. With the emergence of regional idiot asylums, the Earlswood Asylum scrambled to reposition itself as the national asylum of England. The Board needed income from fees, but did not want to compromise its appeal as a charity for idiot children of poor families. Despite the best intentions of its supporters, the Earlswood Asylum, like many other charitable institutions of the Victorian period, lurched from financial crisis to financial crisis.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
During the Victorian period, England witnessed a dramatic change in the education of mentally disabled children. Before the early 19th century, idiots were thought to be uneducable. Indeed, the very ...
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During the Victorian period, England witnessed a dramatic change in the education of mentally disabled children. Before the early 19th century, idiots were thought to be uneducable. Indeed, the very definition of idiocy revolved around the inability of idiots to be ‘improved’. The moral education of idiot children incorporated traditional classroom teaching, workshop apprenticeship, and the inculcation of accepted norms of social behaviour. All three were to be incorporated within the therapeutic milieu of idiot asylums such as the Earlswood Asylum, where education was also based on a Victorian belief in the organicist origins of mental disability. This organicist understanding of mental handicap was central to the medical model of idiocy — that physical defects of unknown origin were preventing the true expression of the idiot mind. The philosophical underpinnings of education at the Earlswood Asylum were based on a post-Enlightenment belief in the perfectibility of humankind, a Victorian faith in the improvement of individuals, and a non-conformist desire to see spiritual improvement through employment and self-help.Less
During the Victorian period, England witnessed a dramatic change in the education of mentally disabled children. Before the early 19th century, idiots were thought to be uneducable. Indeed, the very definition of idiocy revolved around the inability of idiots to be ‘improved’. The moral education of idiot children incorporated traditional classroom teaching, workshop apprenticeship, and the inculcation of accepted norms of social behaviour. All three were to be incorporated within the therapeutic milieu of idiot asylums such as the Earlswood Asylum, where education was also based on a Victorian belief in the organicist origins of mental disability. This organicist understanding of mental handicap was central to the medical model of idiocy — that physical defects of unknown origin were preventing the true expression of the idiot mind. The philosophical underpinnings of education at the Earlswood Asylum were based on a post-Enlightenment belief in the perfectibility of humankind, a Victorian faith in the improvement of individuals, and a non-conformist desire to see spiritual improvement through employment and self-help.
DAVID WRIGHT
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246397
- eISBN:
- 9780191715235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246397.003.012
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book has demonstrated that idiots represented an important constituency for Poor Law Overseers in England during the Victorian period. After 1834, local Poor Law and lunacy officials colluded in ...
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This book has demonstrated that idiots represented an important constituency for Poor Law Overseers in England during the Victorian period. After 1834, local Poor Law and lunacy officials colluded in keeping harmless idiots and imbeciles out of state asylums, retaining them in local Poor Law Union workhouses, because of overcrowding and the cost of institutional treatment. The pre-institutional experiences of children admitted to the Earlswood Asylum, and the social, economic, and demographic factors which may have played a role in their families' decision to seek institutional care, have been examined. It has demonstrated that the social history of idiot asylums must be seen within the context of patterns of care and kinship of Victorian families and, particularly, the role of women and young daughters in the caring network of the household. This book has also chronicled the tenure of John Langdon Down at the Earlswood Asylum, highlighted by his ‘discovery’ of Mongolism that would prove to have a long-lasting effect on society by formulating the archetype of mental disability.Less
This book has demonstrated that idiots represented an important constituency for Poor Law Overseers in England during the Victorian period. After 1834, local Poor Law and lunacy officials colluded in keeping harmless idiots and imbeciles out of state asylums, retaining them in local Poor Law Union workhouses, because of overcrowding and the cost of institutional treatment. The pre-institutional experiences of children admitted to the Earlswood Asylum, and the social, economic, and demographic factors which may have played a role in their families' decision to seek institutional care, have been examined. It has demonstrated that the social history of idiot asylums must be seen within the context of patterns of care and kinship of Victorian families and, particularly, the role of women and young daughters in the caring network of the household. This book has also chronicled the tenure of John Langdon Down at the Earlswood Asylum, highlighted by his ‘discovery’ of Mongolism that would prove to have a long-lasting effect on society by formulating the archetype of mental disability.
Kristin M. S. Bezio
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462388
- eISBN:
- 9781626746831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462388.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Kristin M.S. Bezio asks us to enter Arkham Asylum, more or less literally, as players of the eponymous 2009 video game produced by Rocksteady. In her analysis, Bezio carefully outlines how the Joker ...
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Kristin M.S. Bezio asks us to enter Arkham Asylum, more or less literally, as players of the eponymous 2009 video game produced by Rocksteady. In her analysis, Bezio carefully outlines how the Joker acts not only as a villain but also as a guide, a situation that puts the player in the awkward position of following him through the Arkham maze. Engaging Derridean notions of the “nonspecies” and Bakhtin’s analysis of the “carnival,” Bezio argues that Batman: Arkham Asylum opens up in the process a more stimulating – because far less stable – ludic environment, one which ultimately is contained by the Joker’s game-ending decision to meet Batman in combat: “By agreeing to meet Batman on his own terms, the Joker has forsaken the only thing that gave him any power – after all, the Joker’s goal in manipulating Batman is not to destroy Batman, but to force him ‘to see the world as I see it.’”Less
Kristin M.S. Bezio asks us to enter Arkham Asylum, more or less literally, as players of the eponymous 2009 video game produced by Rocksteady. In her analysis, Bezio carefully outlines how the Joker acts not only as a villain but also as a guide, a situation that puts the player in the awkward position of following him through the Arkham maze. Engaging Derridean notions of the “nonspecies” and Bakhtin’s analysis of the “carnival,” Bezio argues that Batman: Arkham Asylum opens up in the process a more stimulating – because far less stable – ludic environment, one which ultimately is contained by the Joker’s game-ending decision to meet Batman in combat: “By agreeing to meet Batman on his own terms, the Joker has forsaken the only thing that gave him any power – after all, the Joker’s goal in manipulating Batman is not to destroy Batman, but to force him ‘to see the world as I see it.’”
Hannah Means-Shannon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462388
- eISBN:
- 9781626746831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462388.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Hannah Means-Shannon takes a Jungian approach to Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and suggests that the milestone graphic novel’s confounding symbolic ...
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Hannah Means-Shannon takes a Jungian approach to Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and suggests that the milestone graphic novel’s confounding symbolic vision suggests a reading of Arkham as the underworld. Moreover, Means-Shannon suggests that “when examining a text replete with psychoanalytical references and mythological motifs, it is appropriate to question the precise mythological role that the Joker plays within this vast psychological metaphor.” That role, Means-Shannon suggests, is obscured by the many archetypal possibilities provided by the Joker’s representation, such as trickster, shadow, and anima. Rather, the Joker is “all of these things inclusively, and therefore a collective representation of the unconscious psyche”: a ruler.Less
Hannah Means-Shannon takes a Jungian approach to Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and suggests that the milestone graphic novel’s confounding symbolic vision suggests a reading of Arkham as the underworld. Moreover, Means-Shannon suggests that “when examining a text replete with psychoanalytical references and mythological motifs, it is appropriate to question the precise mythological role that the Joker plays within this vast psychological metaphor.” That role, Means-Shannon suggests, is obscured by the many archetypal possibilities provided by the Joker’s representation, such as trickster, shadow, and anima. Rather, the Joker is “all of these things inclusively, and therefore a collective representation of the unconscious psyche”: a ruler.
William Seraile
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823234196
- eISBN:
- 9780823240838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234196.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The Colored Orphan Asylum (COA) trustees were determined that their new home in Riverdale would be modeled on the cottage system, which was then in vogue. The New York Juvenile Asylum had embraced ...
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The Colored Orphan Asylum (COA) trustees were determined that their new home in Riverdale would be modeled on the cottage system, which was then in vogue. The New York Juvenile Asylum had embraced the cottage system in 1897 as a way to enforce discipline and “to stimulate the intimacy of family life.” The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum in nearby Westchester County, New York, preferred young cottage mothers who had pedagogical training or kindergarten training. The Carson and Ellis College in Philadelphia provided white girls with a complete unit of family life, with kitchen, dining room, and common room. However, not all agreed that the housemothers should be African Americans. Mrs. J. L. Chapin questioned the advisability of employing black housemothers. Despite the initial inconveniences, at the end of 1907 the ladies were pleased with the cottage system, which represented a return to the early days of the asylum and its emphasis on a closely knit home environment.Less
The Colored Orphan Asylum (COA) trustees were determined that their new home in Riverdale would be modeled on the cottage system, which was then in vogue. The New York Juvenile Asylum had embraced the cottage system in 1897 as a way to enforce discipline and “to stimulate the intimacy of family life.” The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum in nearby Westchester County, New York, preferred young cottage mothers who had pedagogical training or kindergarten training. The Carson and Ellis College in Philadelphia provided white girls with a complete unit of family life, with kitchen, dining room, and common room. However, not all agreed that the housemothers should be African Americans. Mrs. J. L. Chapin questioned the advisability of employing black housemothers. Despite the initial inconveniences, at the end of 1907 the ladies were pleased with the cottage system, which represented a return to the early days of the asylum and its emphasis on a closely knit home environment.
Thibaut Raboin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099632
- eISBN:
- 9781526121011
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099632.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gay and Lesbian Studies
Discourses on LGBT asylum in the UK analyses fifteen years of debate, activism and media narrative and examines the way asylum is conceptualized at the crossroads of nationhood, post colonialism and ...
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Discourses on LGBT asylum in the UK analyses fifteen years of debate, activism and media narrative and examines the way asylum is conceptualized at the crossroads of nationhood, post colonialism and sexual citizenship, reshaping in the process forms of sexual belongings to the nation.
Asylum has become a foremost site for the formulation and critique of LGBT human rights. This book intervenes in the ongoing discussion of homonationalism, sheds new light on the limitations of queer liberalism as a political strategy, and questions the prevailing modes of solidarity with queer migrants in the UK.
This book employs the methods of Discourse Analysis to study a large corpus encompassing media narratives, policy documents, debates with activists and NGOs, and also counter discourses emerging from art practice. The study of these discourses illuminates the construction of the social problem of LGBT asylum. Doing so, it shows how our understanding of asylum is firmly rooted in the individual stories of migration that are circulated in the media. The book also critiques the exclusionary management of cases by the state, especially in the way the state manufactures the authenticity of queer refugees. Finally, it investigates the affective economy of asylum, assessing critically the role of sympathy and challenging the happy goals of queer liberalism.
This book will be essential for researchers and students specializing in refugee studies and queer studies.Less
Discourses on LGBT asylum in the UK analyses fifteen years of debate, activism and media narrative and examines the way asylum is conceptualized at the crossroads of nationhood, post colonialism and sexual citizenship, reshaping in the process forms of sexual belongings to the nation.
Asylum has become a foremost site for the formulation and critique of LGBT human rights. This book intervenes in the ongoing discussion of homonationalism, sheds new light on the limitations of queer liberalism as a political strategy, and questions the prevailing modes of solidarity with queer migrants in the UK.
This book employs the methods of Discourse Analysis to study a large corpus encompassing media narratives, policy documents, debates with activists and NGOs, and also counter discourses emerging from art practice. The study of these discourses illuminates the construction of the social problem of LGBT asylum. Doing so, it shows how our understanding of asylum is firmly rooted in the individual stories of migration that are circulated in the media. The book also critiques the exclusionary management of cases by the state, especially in the way the state manufactures the authenticity of queer refugees. Finally, it investigates the affective economy of asylum, assessing critically the role of sympathy and challenging the happy goals of queer liberalism.
This book will be essential for researchers and students specializing in refugee studies and queer studies.
Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, and Ulf Hedberg
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199759293
- eISBN:
- 9780199863372
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759293.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter describes Deaf family life and marriage on Martha's Vineyard, with a view to contrasting it to Henniker. Genealogies for major families with Deaf members are presented, starting with ...
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This chapter describes Deaf family life and marriage on Martha's Vineyard, with a view to contrasting it to Henniker. Genealogies for major families with Deaf members are presented, starting with that of Thomas Brown's wife, Mary Smith. She is representative of numerous Deaf young men and women who grew up on the Vineyard, attended the American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, married a Deaf schoolmate and created a family with Deaf and hearing children. Mary SmithD is also representative in that she could trace her ancestry to just a few early English settlers. By the 1840s, nearly everyone on the Vineyard had two or more ancestors from Kent, in England. The sign language on the Vineyard may have come from there as well. Alexander Graham Bell identified seventy-two Deaf individuals who had been born on the Vineyard or whose ancestors came from the Vineyard.Less
This chapter describes Deaf family life and marriage on Martha's Vineyard, with a view to contrasting it to Henniker. Genealogies for major families with Deaf members are presented, starting with that of Thomas Brown's wife, Mary Smith. She is representative of numerous Deaf young men and women who grew up on the Vineyard, attended the American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, married a Deaf schoolmate and created a family with Deaf and hearing children. Mary SmithD is also representative in that she could trace her ancestry to just a few early English settlers. By the 1840s, nearly everyone on the Vineyard had two or more ancestors from Kent, in England. The sign language on the Vineyard may have come from there as well. Alexander Graham Bell identified seventy-two Deaf individuals who had been born on the Vineyard or whose ancestors came from the Vineyard.
Frances Finnegan
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195174601
- eISBN:
- 9780199849901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174601.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter describes the origins and motivations of the French Good Shepherd Sisters. The newly admitted penitent is exposed to the nun who has dedicated her life to the service of God in a ...
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This chapter describes the origins and motivations of the French Good Shepherd Sisters. The newly admitted penitent is exposed to the nun who has dedicated her life to the service of God in a Magdalen Asylum. The Order's first Magdalen Asylum in Ireland was opened in Limerick in 1848, followed by Houses in Waterford (1858), New Ross (1860) and Belfast (1867). The opening of the Government Lock Hospital in Cork in 1869 led in the Order's fifth and largest Irish Foundation. In the Good Shepherd Asylums, an individual's identity was further suppressed by the Order's universal practice of assigning new names to inmates as soon as they arrived. The Good Shepherd rules advocated strict surveillance at all times. A disturbing aspect of Rescue Work that is specifically performed in Ireland and associated with the Good Shepherds was the long-term consignment of unmarried mothers, and other “first fall” cases, to institutions primarily established for prostitutes undergoing reform.Less
This chapter describes the origins and motivations of the French Good Shepherd Sisters. The newly admitted penitent is exposed to the nun who has dedicated her life to the service of God in a Magdalen Asylum. The Order's first Magdalen Asylum in Ireland was opened in Limerick in 1848, followed by Houses in Waterford (1858), New Ross (1860) and Belfast (1867). The opening of the Government Lock Hospital in Cork in 1869 led in the Order's fifth and largest Irish Foundation. In the Good Shepherd Asylums, an individual's identity was further suppressed by the Order's universal practice of assigning new names to inmates as soon as they arrived. The Good Shepherd rules advocated strict surveillance at all times. A disturbing aspect of Rescue Work that is specifically performed in Ireland and associated with the Good Shepherds was the long-term consignment of unmarried mothers, and other “first fall” cases, to institutions primarily established for prostitutes undergoing reform.
Frances Finnegan
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195174601
- eISBN:
- 9780199849901
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174601.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Limerick's original Magdalen Asylum was opened in 1826 by Rev. Maurice Fitzgibbon of St. Michael's parish. Situated in Newgate Lane, it was managed by a Mrs. Meade, and prostitutes sometimes entered ...
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Limerick's original Magdalen Asylum was opened in 1826 by Rev. Maurice Fitzgibbon of St. Michael's parish. Situated in Newgate Lane, it was managed by a Mrs. Meade, and prostitutes sometimes entered the Refuge from the nearby city jail. Shortly afterwards, the penitents were moved to a more suitable premises on the site in Clare Street that would eventually house the Provincial Monastery of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd. It is shown that some of the women were ill on arrival, their departure for the union hospital in particular, indicating pregnancy or venereal disease. Nevertheless, the number of deaths in the institution, and the frequency with which women left for hospital was unusually high, and poor accommodation may well have been a contributory factor. The inmates in Limerick recall the despair, the fear of never leaving, and the life of “living hell”.Less
Limerick's original Magdalen Asylum was opened in 1826 by Rev. Maurice Fitzgibbon of St. Michael's parish. Situated in Newgate Lane, it was managed by a Mrs. Meade, and prostitutes sometimes entered the Refuge from the nearby city jail. Shortly afterwards, the penitents were moved to a more suitable premises on the site in Clare Street that would eventually house the Provincial Monastery of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd. It is shown that some of the women were ill on arrival, their departure for the union hospital in particular, indicating pregnancy or venereal disease. Nevertheless, the number of deaths in the institution, and the frequency with which women left for hospital was unusually high, and poor accommodation may well have been a contributory factor. The inmates in Limerick recall the despair, the fear of never leaving, and the life of “living hell”.
