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The Prisoners' Hidden Life, or Insane Asylums Unveiled: As Demonstrated by the Report of the Investigating Committee of the Legislature of Illinois, Together with Mrs. Packard's Coadjutors' Testimony
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
498 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1868
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 3, 2015
This is an incredible book. A first hand account of a part of American and women's history that has almost been lost in time. Mrs. Elizabeth Packard documents her abduction and sentence of three years in an Insane Asylum with incredible clarity and presence of mind.
This account speaks of a time when married women were non-entities in the eyes of the law, their identity belonging solely to their husbands. As such, in the state of Illinois it was legal for a woman to be committed to an Insane Asylum by her husband even if she was not insane.
Mrs. Packard displays an incredible faith in her God and was a highly articulate, intelligent, well balanced woman who strove to serve her God in a way that she determined to be the right way rather than what her church and her husband deemed to be the right way. For this reason her husband, at the urging of his church, had his wife committed and denied of her children and her personal effects.
Mrs. Packard then set about her arduous journey of fighting for her rights to her own mind, freedoms and religion and she advocated to get these rights for women.
My parting thought on reading this fantastic book was "Thank you Elizabeth Packard for what you were forced to go through and for changing our world because of it!"
This account speaks of a time when married women were non-entities in the eyes of the law, their identity belonging solely to their husbands. As such, in the state of Illinois it was legal for a woman to be committed to an Insane Asylum by her husband even if she was not insane.
Mrs. Packard displays an incredible faith in her God and was a highly articulate, intelligent, well balanced woman who strove to serve her God in a way that she determined to be the right way rather than what her church and her husband deemed to be the right way. For this reason her husband, at the urging of his church, had his wife committed and denied of her children and her personal effects.
Mrs. Packard then set about her arduous journey of fighting for her rights to her own mind, freedoms and religion and she advocated to get these rights for women.
My parting thought on reading this fantastic book was "Thank you Elizabeth Packard for what you were forced to go through and for changing our world because of it!"
December 3, 2013
One of the original "indie" authors. Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard is not a perfect heroine, but I admire her nonetheless.
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August 11, 2021really worth reading but i wish i'd had a more readable version, it's just a crappy scan of a 1800s book :(
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews