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Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities

From: Modern Persecution
Creator: Elizabeth P. W. Packard (author)
Date: 1873
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16


Introduction

During the post-Civil Wars years, Elizabeth Packard was one of the key champions of rights for women and people labeled as insane. At this time, men could declare their wives insane and have them institutionalized without a public hearing—a fate that befell Elizabeth Packard in 1860. She spent three years in the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, for disagreeing with her husband’s conservative religious philosophy, views on slavery, and how to raise their children.

In 1863, the asylum doctors declared her incurable and released her to her husband. He deprived her of clothing and boarded her up inside a room, actions that were illegal. She smuggled a letter to a friend, who convinced a judge to grant a writ of habeus corpus. At the trial of Packard v. Packard, the jury decided in her favor in only seven minutes.

After gained her freedom, Packard became an activist for women’s rights and personal liberty. Her writings inspired Illinois and several other states to pass laws that prevented husbands declaring their wives insane and that required jury trials before people could be committed.


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INTRODUCTION.

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"A wounded spirit who can bear." Spirit wrongs are the keenest wounds that can be inflicted upon woman. Her nature is so sensitively organized that an injury to her feelings is felt more keenly than an injury to her person.

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The fortitude of her nature enables her to endure physical suffering heroically; but the wound which her spirit feels under a wanton physical abuse is far more deeply felt, and is harder to be borne than the physical abuse itself.

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Her very benevolent, confiding, forgiving nature, renders it a greater crime to abuse her spirit, than to abuse her person. To most men, and some women, this position may appear absurd, yet it is true; neither do we feel disposed to blame this class for not appreciating it, for their coarser organization incapacitates them to understand us.

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When woman is brought before our man courts, and our man juries, and has no bruises, or wounds, or marks of violence upon her person to show as a ground of her complaint, it is hard for them to realize that she has any cause for appeal to them for protection; while at the same time her whole physical system may be writhing in agony from spirit wrongs, such as can only be understood by her peers.

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Spiritual, sensitive women, knowing this fact, suffers on in silent anguish without appeal, until death kindly liberates her from her prison-house of unappreciated suffering.

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It is to delineate these spiritual wrongs of women, that I have given my narrative to the public, hoping that my more tangible experiences may draw the attention of the philanthropic public to a more just consideration of married woman's legal disabilities; for since the emancipation of the negro, there is no class of American citizens who so much need legal protection, and who receive so little, as this class.

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As their representative, I do not make complaint of physical abuses, but it is the usurpation of our natural rights of which we complain; and it is our legal position of nonentity, which renders us so liable and exposed to suffering and persecution from this source.

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In the following narrative of my experiences, the reader will therefore find the interior of a woman's life delineated through the exterior surroundings of her bitter experiences. I state facts through which the reader may look into woman's soul, as through a mirror, that her realm of suffering may be thus portrayed.

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Mrs. E. P. W. PACKARD.
CHICAGO, ILLS., January, 1873.
(1498 Prairie Avenue.)

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Illustrations.

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PICTURE I.
The Home from which Mrs. Packard was kidnapped.

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PICTURE II.
Rev. Theophilus Packard.

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PICTURE III.
Senate Scene, Springfield, Illinois.

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PICTURE IV.
Dr. McFarland Punishing One-Armed Wyant.

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PICTURE V.
Dr. McFarland's Self-Accusation.

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PICTURE VI.
Dr. Morrison's Interview with Governor Palmer.

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PICTURE VII.
Governor Carpenter, of Iowa, Signing the "Bill to Protect the Insane."

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PICTURE VIII.
The Re-United Family -- Mrs. Packard and all her Children.

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CONTENTS.

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Introduction. 3
CHAPTER I. Imprisoned at Home by my Husband. 9
CHAPTER II. My Release on a Writ of Habeas Corpus. My Jury Trial. 22
CHAPTER III. Mr. Packard Takes my Children and Property and Flees his Country. 62
CHAPTER IV. Return to my Home -- Married Woman a Slave. 66
CHAPTER V. Defense of my Right to Property. 73
CHAPTER VI. An Incident. 81
CHAPTER VII. How to Commence Business without Capital. 84
CHAPTER VIII. Visit to my Father in Massachusetts -- Mr. Packard Forbids my Seeing my Children. 91
CHAPTER IX. My Successful Appeal to the Massachusetts Legislature. 96
CHAPTER X. My Father Becomes my Protector. 101
CHAPTER XI. Mr. Packard a Beggar. 107
CHAPTER XII. Why I do not get a Divorce. 111
CHAPTER XIII. The Opinions which Caused this Family Rupture. 117
CHAPTER XIV. Progression the Law of Our Being. "Seeing Eye to Eye." 126
CHAPTER XV. An Asylum Incident -- A Spiritual Conquest. 132
CHAPTER XVI. A Dream audits Interpretations. 142
CHAPTER XVII. A Prophecy and its Fulfillment. 151
CHAPTER XVIII. Can you Forgive Mr. Packard? 156
CHAPTER XIX. Mr. Packard Condemned by the Popular Verdict. 160
CHAPTER XX. Mr. Packard's Monomania. 163
CHAPTER XXI. Strong Language an Appropriate Drapery for Reformers. 174
CHAPTER XXII. Testimonials. 178
CHAPTER XXIII. Dangerous to be a Married Woman in Illinois! 186
CHAPTER XXIV. Passage of the Personal Liberty Bill in Illinois Legislature. 190
CHAPTER XXV. Opposition to the Bill. 196
CHAPTER XXVI. Signing of the Bill by the Governor. 207
CHAPTER XXVII. The Personal Liberty Bill and its Application. 210
CHAPTER XXVIII. Appointment of the Investigating Committee. 220
CHAPTER XXIX. Dr. McFarland's Punishment of Mr. Wyant. 228
CHAPTER XXX. Dr. McFarland's Infamous Proposal to Miss Julia A. Wilson. 232
CHAPTER XXXI. Testimony Presented to the Committee by Mrs. Tirzah F. Shedd, of Aurora, Illinois. 238
CHAPTER XXXII. Testimony of Eight Employees Taken by Committee, Under Oath. 245
CHAPTER XXXIII. Dr. McFarland's Self-Accusation. 258
CHAPTER XXXIV. Result of this Investigation. 261
CHAPTER XXXV. Dr. McFarland's Exit from the Asylum. 266
CHAPTER XXXVI. The Death Penalty to be Annihilated. 272
CHAPTER XXXVII. The Imputation of Insanity a Barrier to Human Progress. 276
CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Guilt of Folly. 281
CHAPTER XXXIX. Orthodox Heaven and Hell. 288
CHAPTER XL. My Effort in Connecticut Legislature. 291
CHAPTER XLI. The Opposition of the Conspiracy. 295
CHAPTER XLIL Tribute to Dr. Bushnell and Dr. Hawes, of Hartford, Connecticut. 300
CHAPTER XLIII. Passage of the Iowa Bill to Protect the Inmates of Insane Asylums. 303
CHAPTER XLIV. Opposition to the Enforcement of the Law. 317
CHAPTER XLV. An Act to Protect the Insane by Law. 326
CHAPTER XLVI. Educating the People. 329
CHAPTER XLVII My Visit to the Insane Asylum, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. 333
CHAPTER XLVIII. The Belgium Mode of Collecting the Mail from Inmates of Asylums. 341
CHAPTER XLIX. Life in Bloomingdale Asylum, New York. 345
CHAPTER L. Testimony from Ward's Island, Taunton, Trenton and Brattleboro Asylums 354
CHAPTER LI. Is Man the Lord of Creation? 361
CHAPTER LII. Getting my Children -- A Re-united Family. 365
CHAPTER LIII. The Family Disperse. 382
CHAPTER LIV. An Appeal to the Government to Equalize the Rights and Responsibilities of the Husband and Wife. 385
Appendix. 393

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