Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory

by Karin Lorene Zipf

Of the many consequences advanced by the rise of the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century, North Carolina forcibly sterilized more than 2,000 women and girls in between 1929 and 1950. This extreme measure reflects how pseudoscience justified widespread gender, race, and class discrimination in the Jim Crow South.

In Bad Girls at Samarcand Karin L. Zipf dissects a dark episode in North Carolina's eugenics campaign through a detailed study of the State Home and Industrial School in Eagle Springs, referred to as Samarcand Manor, and the school's infamous 1931 arson case. The people and events surrounding both the institution and the court case sparked a public debate about the expectations of white womanhood, the nature of contemporary science and medicine, and the role of the juvenile justice system that resonated throughout the succeeding decades.

Designed to reform and educate unwed poor white girls who were suspected of deviant behavior or victims of sexual abuse, Samarcand Manor allowed for strict disciplinary measures -- including corporal punishment -- in an attempt to instill Victorian ideals of female purity. The harsh treatment fostered a hostile environment and tensions boiled over when several girls set Samarcand on fire, destroying two residence halls. Zipf argues that the subsequent arson trial, which carried the possibility of the death penalty, represented an important turning point in the public characterizations of poor white women; aided by the lobbying efforts of eugenics advocates, the trial helped usher in dramatic policy changes, including the forced sterilization of female juvenile delinquents.

In addition to the interplay between gender ideals and the eugenics movement, Zipf also investigates the girls who were housed at Samarcand and those specifically charged in the 1931 trial. She explores their negotiation of Jazz Age stereotypes, their strategies of resistance, and their relationship with defense attorney Nell Battle Lewis during the trial. The resultant policy changes -- intelligence testing, sterilization, and parole -- are also explored, providing further insight into why these young women preferred prison to reformatories.

A fascinating story that grapples with gender bias, sexuality, science, and the justice system all within the context of the Great Depression--era South, Bad Girls at Samarcand makes a compelling contribution to multiple fields of study.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

242 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2016

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - good research, but the writing was sometimes repetitive and I couldn't always tell why she decided to include certain things. A chapter focusing on flappers that ends by acknowledging her subjects were not flappers because they were working class? But I still found value in tracing of Samarcand's history across the first half of the twentieth century.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A horrendous story of girls that were sterilized in North Carolina in the early 20th century. Have heard about this, but their pseudoscience just made it easier for them to justify widespread gender, race, and class discrimination. Would consider a less dry book. This had me almost falling asleep.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambitious topic, but I'm not convinced that the early-1930s arson trial as a frame allowed the author to make the points she laid out in the introduction. I'm also not convinced that the epilogue, which felt like a quick rush from the 1930s to the present, was necessary. The epilogue focused heavily on reports of sexual and other forms of abuse at Samarcand and other youth reformatories, which was not treated in much detail in the rest of the book.

The book is at its best when it focuses on Samarcand -- the conflicting views of discipline and reform that went into its founding and early maintenance, especially the tensions around accepting funding in support of venereal disease control, the chapter on life and discipline at Samarcand, and the shift from reform (viewing girls as savable) to eugenics-influenced mental hygiene (viewing girls as defective and in need of sterilization) and the rise of sterilization.

Lots of interesting questions laid out, but the analysis didn't always develop those questions thoroughly: race and class in particular were alluded to but not fully developed. Also, at times the author was too reliant on stereotypes/cultural norms that "might" have affected the girls: the flapper, the (white) Southern lady, the cotton mill girl, the prostitute. There's an interesting opportunity with this kind of book to show how the experiences of the girls committed to Samarcand helped create -- or challenge -- these representations of young women, particularly with the publicity surrounding the arson trials and the concerns about conditions at Samarcand that resulted. The real source limitations that the author refers to in the introduction may have contributed to these weak spots, but at times the arguments seem speculative as a result: one wishes for more evidence of the girls' own views on ladyhood, class, and race identity, but the legal limitations on juvenile records may have made such evidence unavailable.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent research on juvenile detention in North Carolina in the early 20th century. However, the writing is a bit formulaic ("This chapter will demonstrate"), repetitive (repetition does not make a weak thesis grow stronger), and the thesis was anachronistically forced (for example, suggesting that teenage girls knew that arson was a capital offense but were not worried because they also knew that the death penalty was primarily a mechanism for state control of African American men...). The information was solid and interesting, even if the analysis was not always so solid or interesting.

[Debby Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a phenomenal work on an important piece of history.

[Caroline Robert]

Research paper for theories

[Rebecca]

This was a difficult read, indeed. I found the re-telling of the infamous court case involving residents of Samarcand Manor redundent. Far too much of the book covered that element of this institution's history. I, also, am of the opinion that a dearth of primary sources leaves the book sadly lacking. There are many people still of sound mind who dedicated their career to employment at Samarcand. The author made no use of their insight to enhance the content. My personal knowledge is periferal at best, however, I cannot embrace the grimness of her writing totally. My mother was a secondary teacher here for most of her career. I knew of this place from home and community discussions, and regular visits to the campus throughout my life. Many of our family friends were also employed there in a variety of capacities. An insider point of view could have lent better insight to the overall quality of content in this book. I even have knowledge of a foster family member who was sent to Samarcand. Maybe I'll just have to write a fiction book using the sources at hand and tell more of what's to be known of life at Samarcand from a different point of view. Maybe.

[Dan Keefer · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, the book is overpriced at $25.

When you subtract notes, bibliography, etc. you end up with just 217 pages of reading material. Worse, the book was poorly organized and edited, resulting in too much repetition.

Those things aside, this book covers many influences leading to the creation and running of a "reform school" for white girls between 10 and 18 .... Older in some years. It is one of but perhaps the worst such place.

You are given a unique perspective on how age, class, race and sexism can have a negative outcome on "well-meant intentions.
Very enlightening.