This Week's Story

Elizabeth Packard's husband committed his wife to an Illinois insane asylum for refusing to accept his viewpoints.

This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.

I shall put you into the asylum! part one

In Washington State, where I lived, I heard references to Northern State Mental Hospital located in Sedro Woolley. A hospital for the insane! From 1909 until 1973, it housed tens of thousands of patients. I think the public assumed that perhaps cures were available there. At least the insane were out of sight.

Some patients received electric shock treatment. When the hospital closed, comments were made that its treatment had been questionable.

The book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was released in 1962. I read it. It was released as a movie in 1975. I saw it. Book and movie portrayed abuses of patients by care-takers in an asylum for the insane. Their characters burned images into my memory.

During the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s I was involved closely with three individuals who had received institutional treatment for mental illness. I became convinced that mental illness has many confusing forms. Misdiagnosis is a reality. Institutional care for mental illness is often ineffective, a temporary salve, often cruel, and intensely demoralizing to the patient.

In April of 2024 a friend gave me the book, The Woman They Could Not Silence. It is a true story with documentation about the culture and laws for protecting or abandoning the rights of women in the 1800’s.

The primary case history is of Elizabeth Packard. As the story begins Elizabeth has been married twenty-one years to Theophilus, a preacher. They live in Illinois. Their six children are Elizabeth’s delight. This day, June 18, 1860 six-year-old George is sleeping beside her. Her husband is gone.

What was he doing? During the night Elizabeth had slipped from her bed and seen him searching through her trunks. For long he had been trying to control her. Sometimes he kept her mail, money, and friends from her. Never before had she seen him going through her things.

Elizabeth had married Theophilus in 1839 when he was thirty-seven and she was twenty-two. Marrying Theophilus pleased her father. Her husband showed her no affection and was uninterested in her opinions. She did not complain, but listened to him and tried to make him happy.

Their lives changed when the first Woman’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Across the United States newspapers and families began discussing and disagreeing about women’s rights.

Theophilus stated, “A woman has no rights that a man is bound to respect.”

Elizabeth declared, “Wives are not mere things. They are a part of society. I have a right to state my thoughts.”

Theophilus warned Elizabeth, “If you do not cooperate, I shall put you into the asylum!’” June 18, 1860 she was removed from her home by her husband and four men.

Check out thisweeksstory.com. Soon we will continue Elizabeth’s story.

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