Happy Women's Equality Day! Today I want to share a book about a remarkable woman, Elizabeth Packard, "the woman they could not silence." Thank you to Sourcebooks for providing my ARC on NetGalley. This book was published on June 22, and it's Kate Moore's follow-up to her bestseller The Radium Girls.

It's 1860, and Elizabeth Packard has lost her freedom. Her husband had her committed to an asylum because she is too intelligent and independent for him to control any other way. What follows is a long and winding tale of her pursuit of freedom. She attempts to work with her doctor Andrew McFarland, finds that effort unsuccessful, and then mounts a major court case in order to win her freedom. She subsequently works to free her friends in confinement and to publish her ideas for the world to read.

I was completely in awe of Elizabeth's strength while reading this story, and it's also eye-opening to see how much women were controlled by their husbands just a little over 150 years ago. I think we're all aware of the long fight for equality that continues today, but this story really put things in perspective for me.

This book is a little long and intimidating due to the long course of justice in the case (hence my post-pub date review). But it's definitely worth the read if you enjoy narrative nonfiction. I'm so looking forward to what Kate Moore writes next!

This book was infuriating and so well-researched. An important piece of women's history and excellent writing from Kate Moore, as always.

This is an amazing book that every current feminist woman needs to read. I couldn't believe how well researched this book was, and how much I learned about the history of oppressing women in the name of insanity. Mental health has been coming to the forefront of national issues, especially during the pandemic, and this book highlights how far we really have come, while still showing how much better we can do. This book was upsetting, inspiring, and such an important part of women's history. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

First line: This is not a book about mental health, but about how it can be used as a weapon.

Summary: Elizabeth Packard, a wife and mother of six, has displeased her husband with her differing views on religion and politics. According to the laws of the land he is within his rights to commit her to an insane asylum. And this is exactly what he does. However, Elizabeth will not go quietly. For three years she lives inside the walls of the institution, writing her story and about the abuses of the staff and the superintendent. Finally, when she is released her problems are not over. There is still a battle to be won and no one is going to silence her until it is finished.

My Thoughts: If you are looking for a non-fiction book that reads like fiction then this is it. The story is very easy to follow, the flow is consistent throughout and the plot is compelling. Elizabeth’s story is probably more common than anybody realizes. A husband, father, or brother has become disgruntled with a woman and sends them away. It is sad and fascinating all at the same time.

I listened and read this at the same time. Both were very enjoyable ways to consume this book. The reader did a great job and kept my attention while I was doing other things as I listened.

I did get a little frustrated at times with Elizabeth. Even though she knew that certain men were the ones that put her in the asylum she continued to try and persuade them to change their minds. I liked to see that she was smart enough to manipulate the situations she was in or make the best of her times in the asylum. She kept her wits about her which many other women would not be able to do.

With her limited resources she improved the lives of many of the women trapped in the asylum with her. And when she left she did not forget the ones that were still imprisoned. She was an intelligent woman who knew how to get her points heard. Because of her campaigning she brought about changes for married women and patients in the asylums.

FYI: From the author of Radium Girls.

Kate Moore, has followed up her hugely successful title <i>The Radium Girls</i>  with another book I'm absolutely convinced will be a resounding success.     In her superbly researched work of narrative non-fiction  <b>The Woman They Could Not Silence</b>
Moore once again demonstrates her skill at bringing the voices of women from history alive.  She wrote a compelling story that alternately incited feelings of anger in me and made me want to jump with joy.  All in all it provided a fabulous insight into the life of Elizabeth Packard a woman who was instrumental in progressing the rights of women and those in the mental asylums of the nineteenth century.

At times I wanted to rail against the unfairness, the injustices levelled at our protagonist and other women of her time.   Elizabeth Packard (1816 - 1897), wife and mother of six was locked away in a lunatic asylum (to use the terminology of her day), accused of insanity.  There was no need for a trial nor proof of illness. "<i> Most states then had no limits on relatives’“right of disposal”  to commit their loved ones.</i>.   I was shocked by some of the reasons.     <i>"An unbuttoned blouse, an undone bun, or even simple carelessness of dress was considered damning evidence a woman’s mind roamed free from its moorings"</i>....another shocker was <i> “novel reading.”  Doctors believed that those who indulged in this “pernicious habit” lived “a dreamy kind of existence, so nearly allied to insanity that the slightest exciting cause is sufficient to derange.”</i>  Women of the Goodreads community would have been in strife in the nineteenth century!!!   Questioning her pastor husbands religious views, speaking her mind and challenging him were the main grounds for Elizabeths committment and he had her locked away with ease.

With the benefit of hindsight she was certainly outspoken and a radical thinker but there is no doubt she was sane.    She was educated, a former teacher, and was both likeable and popular.   During her first few months at the asylum she was granted privileges and freedoms few others had.   However, she spent much longer amongst some truly deranged and unwell women.    Their conditions were abysmal.  Filthy,  violence filled wards where patients were at the mercy of cruel attendants. Throughout it all Elizabeth treated  these women with kindness and compassion, and it only strengthened her determination to stand up for not only herself, but also for these downtrodden, mistreated women.

Her educated mind would not allow her to accept the situation and the seeds of feminism began to sprout.     Throughout her life she never gave up her battle, advocating  for womens rights.  In total  <i> "she secured the passage of thirty-four bills in forty -four legislatures across twenty-four states. She campaigned for women’s equal rights and for the rights of the mentally ill..."</i>

What a remarkable woman she was especially given the prevalent attitudes towards women in those days.   It was an equally impressive, must read book.     I don't think of myself as a feminist but this book sure opened my eyes to just how far we've progressed and thanks must go to women like Elizabeth Packard for working tirelessly to make this possible.

Thanks to Kate Moore for her dedication to unveiling the story in such an interesting way.    Thanks too to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

Already impressed with her Radium Girls, I picked up this book for Kate Moore.

The detailed narrative brings us the struggle of Elizabeth Packard, and her courage in fighting out a society that did not treat its intellectual women right. A very inspiring read.

This is the true story of Elizabeth Packard who lived in Civil War times. She was a courageous woman who fought back against her controlling husband who had her committed to an insane asylum because she expressed her own views that were different from his. She also fought to have laws for women changed, against the doctor who ran the asylum and brought the mistreatment of patients to light. Very well-researched and written.

“She blocked out all that usually dominated and made the world stop and stare.”

Incredible true story about a woman who never gave up fighting for her truth. In 1860, Elizabeth Packard was unjustly detained in an asylum by her husband for speaking her own mind and not sharing his beliefs. While most people would have given up against the myriad of obstacles she faced, she never did. Against all odds, she was not only able to secure a release from her prison, but was also legally declared sane by a jury. Elizabeth Packard eloquently and tenaciously represented the oppressed, championing the rights of women and the mentally ill for the rest of her life. She was responsible for several laws promoting the rights of married women and of the mentally ill. She wrote several books about her experiences. And she ultimately helped initiate an investigation into the abusive behaviors toward asylum patients in Jacksonville, IL. She was a pioneer, a reformer, a hero, but mostly, a mother.

The author’s absolute passion for Elizabeth Packard comes through loud and clear. Her book is extensively researched and comes together impeccably detailed. While it is a work of non-fiction, the narrative and sudden twists make it read like a novel. The content is overwhelming to the heart and forces the reader to pause and reflect on how things have changed and yet how they still remain the same. After reading this, you will think twice before flippantly calling another person crazy again.

4.5 stars

Read a finished copy from the library.

Review going up on 7-28-21

Kate Moore does not shy away from the lesser told stories, and she tells those stories well. In fact so well that you forget your reading a non-fiction book at times because of how easy her books are to read.

The Woman They Could Not Silence is about Elizabeth Packard who is one of the first women to fight for women's rights and succeed in doing so. But Mrs. Packard's journey was hard and long, and at times has you wondering how she didn't just give up because of how many things were working against her.
Elizabeth Packard was put into an Insane Asylum by her husband because she had different beliefs than him when it came to religion and wasn't afraid to speak those beliefs. This was a big problem because her husband was a preacher and he can't have his wife going against him. Her husband was able to get doctors to believe she was insane in several different ways, and with this had her locked up in an Asylum for three years before she was finally released. During those three years though she saw fellow patients being treated horribly by staff, as well as seeing multiple other women also falsely accused of being insane and put into the asylum by either their husbands or fathers.
Once she was finally released we see her having lost everything and not even being able to see her children. This leaves her wanting to publish the book she was writing during her time in the asylum to show what it was like in one and how terribly people were being treated.
The last half of the book is this entire journey as well as seeing her become an advocate for all people in insane asylums to be treated justly and for women to have more rights so that they would stop being put into insane asylums by their male family members who didn't like what they were doing.


Overall I loved learning about Elizabeth Packard and seeing all that she was finally able to do to get women's rights and to become an advocate for those falsely accused of insanity.
I can't wait to read Moore's next book and see what she is going to teach us about next.

"What a story—and what a telling! Kate Moore has hit another one out of the park. In the best tradition of The Radium Girls, Moore recounts the stunning true account of a woman who fought back against a tyrannical husband, a complicit doctor, and 19th-century laws that gave men shocking power to silence and confine their wives. By challenging these norms, Elizabeth Packard became a heroine on the scale of the suffragists. In Moore's expert hands, this beautifully-written tale unspools with drama and power, and puts Elizabeth Packard on the map at the most relevant moment imaginable. You will be riveted—and inspired. Bravo!"
—Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code Girls

“The Woman They Could Not Silence tells the captivating story of Elizabeth Packard, a forgotten heroine whose harrowing ordeal in an insane asylum seems straight from the mind of Stephen King—except every word is true. Blending impeccable research with novelistic flair, Kate Moore brings the indomitable Packard to brilliant life, and proves she belongs among our most celebrated women leaders.”—Abbott Kahler, author (as Karen Abbott) of The Ghosts of Eden Park

This narrative non-fiction book paints a picture of a situation that was unfortunately all to common in the 1800s: Elizabeth Packard, a perfectly sane woman, is sent to an asylum because she challenges her husband. Forced to leave her children and life behind, Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Illinois State Hospital where she learns how many women are in the same position that she's been forced into. When Elizabeth refuses to stay quiet and submit, she's treated horrifically and then must fight her way back to freedom.
This book details one woman's arduous pursuit for freedom, as well as the women she meets along the way. It also details that horrific facts of how patients were treated, and how little doctors knew about mental illness and how they tried to cure them.

I've read Radium Girls also by Kate Moore and absolutely loved that book, so I was very excited to get the opportunity to read this latest book by Moore. I had never heard of or learned about Elizabeth Packard, but her story is so incredibly important as part of the history of both womens rights and mental illness. There is plenty of historical fiction that sheds the light on how women, especially married, were unfairly committed to insane asylums for so many reasons that we'd find absolutely ridiculous today. Moore takes it so much further by crafting an engaging non-fiction narrative around the lead up to and fight Elizabeth Packard went through to change laws from which women, like myself, benefit. My only critique of the book is that Moore has done such an incredible amount of research, but it often overtakes the narrative itself where I found myself struggling to make it through certain large parts in the first half of the book, making it overly long in my opinion. I would still recommend this to anyone who really enjoyed Radium Girls though.

Elizabeth Packard is the civil rights and women's rights activist you have never heard of. She pioneered women's ability to speak, earn wages, and live independently both inside and outside the bounds of marriage. In 1860, when Elizabeth beguns to openly disagree with the teachings of her very religious husband, he decides something must be done to protect his pride and his reputation. Thankfully for him, the laws in the US (namely in Illinois) allowed for wives (and other women) to be committed to an asylum with little to no cause. And thus, Elizabeth's decade's long fight to prove her sanity and the fight to allow others to do the same began.

I really enjoyed reading Radium Girls so when I was offered the chance to review this book, I was pretty excited. Also, as a mental health professional I was very intrigued to learn about this pioneer who clearly had such a larg impact on many of our laws and yet I never learned about her! The author did a great job at making this story alive and accessible despite the change in the times. I found myself identifying with and empathizing with many of the problems and issues presented in this book, even today. Makes you question how much has really changed over time.

It was clear the author did EXTENSIVE research to prepare for this novel. However, the use of "quotes" and superscripts proved a bit excessive to me and at times disrupted the reading flow for me. I use "quotes" because often, the author would use ONE WORD and put it in quotation marks with a superscript. Almost every single chapter had 40-50 such quotes with superscripts and the Notes section of the book citing all of these was about 135 pages. That just seems like a lot to me and as I said, it interrupted the reading flow and on some occasions did not meaningfully add to the message. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I loved radium girls, and so I was super excited to read Kate Moore's next novel. However, this one did not grab me like radium girls did! Perhaps the beginning is just super slow but I tried to keep going several times and could not get invested. I really like radium girls in audio format, so perhaps I will try this one on audio as well.
Definitely an intriguing part of history, the beginning is just so slow!!

“Devalue the words of women and half the battle is won.”
Kate Moore (author of the 2017 bestseller The Radium Girls) writes these words in the final pages of her new book The Woman They Could Not Silence, but the principle is conveyed throughout the entire work. Moore has spoken to our cultural moment by telling the story of a woman in the mid-1800s who overcame a system that was specifically stacked against women.
The Woman They Could Not Silence focuses on Elizabeth Packard, a wife and mother whose husband (a pastor) sends her to an insane asylum in 1860 for the unconscionable act of (gasp!) pushing back against his newly-changed religious beliefs. Elizabeth, influenced by the ascendant women’s rights movement of mid-19th century America, disagreed with her husband’s beliefs and said as much. She wakes one night to her husband rifling through her things. Moore writes:
Elizabeth’s heart quickened, wondering what he was up to. He’d long been in the habit of trying to control her. “When I was a young lady, I didn’t mind it so much,” Elizabeth confided, “for then I supposed my husband…knew more than I did, and his will was a better guide for me than my own.”
So, given that power, did her husband try to bring her along? Try to persuade her into his new beliefs?
He did not encourage her growth. Instead, he wrote that he had “sad reason to fear his wife’s mind was getting out of order; she was becoming insane on the subject of woman’s rights.”
This is astounding from our point of view, but is all too mundane for the mid-1800s. In a society where women had no legal rights, Elizabeth was seen as being an extension of her husband and had no right to such thoughts and actions. She could be declared “mad” for any reason whatsoever. Men were taken at their word and literally nothing else. Moore explains:
To Elizabeth’s consternation, when Theophilus had declared that she was mad, his parishioners had taken him at his word. They’d begun to weigh her behavior, looking for evidence to support his claim. Her “every motion; every look; every tone of the voice [became] an object of the severest espionage.” “As soon as [the allegation of insanity] has been whispered abroad, its subject finds himself…viewed with distrust,” explained a leading nineteenth-century psychiatrist. “There still lingers something of the same mysterious dread which, in early times, gave him the attributes of the supernatural.” It was not so many years since the whisper would not have been “insane” but “witch”…
A couple of concepts stick out here. First, the parallels to earlier literal witch hunts are unmistakable when reading The Woman They Could Not Silence, as are the parallels to attempts to silence women today. In the last few years, women who accuse powerful men of sexual assault have been met with harassment, gaslighting, and the full weight of inflexible institutions aligned against them. Yet they endure because truth is on their side. One can see each of these women in Elizabeth Packard, as she relentlessly fights against institutions, laws, and a society that is built to consume her as if she is nothing.
Also, the reader can see the degree to which an initial “diagnosis” (especially about a psychological disorder) causes people to evaluate all ensuing behavior in light of that diagnosis. (Her “every motion; every look; every tone of the voice [became] an object of the severest espionage.”) And guess what, after you think someone has a psychological disorder, it’s very easy to interpret any behavior that person exhibits as new evidence of the disorder. This is also a clear theme in Susannah Cahalan’s The Great Pretender, which would be a perfect complement to Moore’s book. Cahalan writes about the story behind David Rosenhan’s “On Being Sane in Insane Places”, where Rosenhan’s participants (or possibly just him; this gets complicated in Cahalan’s book but I’ll leave it at that) checked themselves into insane asylums and then were assumed to be insane because of their ensuing (completely sane) behavior. A diagnosis can lead to assumption of truth, even when that diagnosis is based on nothing but a man’s accusations.
Elizabeth Packard had to fight for her own freedom, but also the freedom of other wives throughout America. The laws were stacked against them. During Elizabeth’s stay in the insane asylum, she attempts to file for a proper trial. However, Moore writes:
The law did not apply to married women. They could be received at an asylum simply “by the request of the husband.” Because married women at that time in the eyes of the law were “civilly dead.” They were not citizens, they were shadows: subsumed within the legal identities of their husbands from the moment they took their marital vows. “The husband and wife are one,” said the law, “and that one is the husband.” He spoke for her, thought for her, and could do what he wanted with her. The law gave him power “to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.”
And later, when her husband Theophilus takes all their things along with her children:
“Can I replevy it as stolen property?” she asked the attorneys briskly. A replevy was a writ that enabled a property owner to reclaim goods. But the lawyers shook their heads. At first, Elizabeth feared that her time in the asylum had invalidated her legal status, despite the recent verdict, but the situation was actually worse. “You cannot replevy anything, for you are a married woman,” her attorneys explained, “and a married woman has no legal existence, unless she holds property independent of her husband… This is not your case… Your husband has a legal right to all your common property — you have not even a right to the hat on your head!” “Why?” asked Elizabeth, outraged. “I have bought and paid for it with my own money.” “That is of no consequence — you can hold nothing, as you are nothing and nobody in law.”
So Elizabeth devotes the rest of her life to fighting to change the laws themselves. People talk often about “strong women” and Elizabeth Packard is more than deserving of that label. She was a one-woman wrecking crew to the laws and customs of mid-19th century America, and she did it to help all married women that found themselves abused and mistreated by their husbands. One man later in the book says as much to Elizabeth, and her response is telling:
“You have more boldness than any four women that I ever before saw, combined!” Elizabeth pulled herself up to her full height. “I claim, Mr. Fuller,” she retorted, “that I need a quadruple share of courage to cope with such men as I have had to deal with.”
The Woman They Could Not Silence is written about days long past, but it is immensely relevant to today. Moore knows this and shows the reader without saying it outright or twisting the history to make a point. The result is a terrific work of nonfiction (better even than The Radium Girls in my opinion) that speaks to the value of women and the hope that comes when just one person fights for the marginalized. I highly recommend The Woman They Could Not Silence, one of my favorite books of 2021 so far.
I received a review copy of The Woman They Could Not Silence courtesy of Sourcebooks and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

This is an utterly fascinating and true story of a woman, Elizabeth Packard, who was sent to a mental institution simply for being opinionated and disagreeing with her husband. (It was completely legal for her husband to send her there in Illinois of 1860.) More people should know about this aspect of the way women were treated at the time. I was astounded by the list of reasons women could be institutionalized, including for "too much reading." Yes, that's right, intelligent and strong minded women could be sent away from their families and put in a mental institution for having an intellect or for having an issue with their husband. What follows is the story of how Elizabeth began to fight for herself and the lives of other women. This is an unforgettable story.

Wow, I am so glad that I was introduced to Kate Moore's style of narrative nonfiction when I read The Radium Girls earlier this year! The book was done just as well at that one. The research that went into is absolutely outstanding and I think that it's really impressive when someone can bring a nonfiction story to life like this!

This was such an intense and interesting read. Elizabeth’s story was one that I was not aware of previously but it illuminated even more the mistreatment of woman and the “insane” in America history. This book definitely brought to light issues that were thankfully addressed by Elizabeth but that is also an issue of current women. This is a book for anyone who wants a look into womens right, asylums, resiliency, and a mother’s love.

The Woman They Could Not Silence is a fascinating look at asylums in the mid 1800s, especially their treatment of women. Though this story is a biography of one woman, Elizabeth Packard's experience in the Illinois State Hospital represents the experiences of many women. I've read many historical fiction books and have watched television series/movies that delve into asylums in this time period, but The Woman They Could Not Silence is my first experience reading a nonfiction account.

During this time period, married men owned their wives. When women married, they gave up their right to their own property; children belonged to their father; if a woman earned money, it belonged to her husband. A wife was told that her opinions and beliefs could not differ from that of her husband. If they did, she certainly was not to voice them. Husbands could have their wives committed to an insane asylum for a large number of reasons. If you've never searched the internet for those reasons, you've got to! Some of the reasons include the following: novel reading (I'd have been admitted before I was 10!), hard study, asthma, grief...the list goes on and on. We laugh at things like novel reading and hard study, but it was no laughing matter.

Elizabeth Packard was admitted for having religious views that differed from those of her husband, Theophilus.. She was also very intelligent. Elizabeth had begun sharing her religious views within her community, and her husband was enraged. Rather than believing that Elizabeth could have differing opinions, he placed her in an asylum.

How many of us women would be in asylums today had the laws not changed? Interestingly, Elizabeth' was instrumental in facilitating some of those changes.

The Woman They Could Not Silence is a riveting look behind the doors. You'll meet women like Elizabeth who were completely sane, yet admitted by their husbands for ridiculous reasons. You'll meet women who were admitted because they were depressed. And, yes, you'll meet women who were there for quite legitimate reasons. You'll also meet both kind and completely evil asylum workers. And you'll meet Dr. Andrew McFarland, the psychiatrist who played God at Illinois State Hospital.

If you enjoy reading historical accounts of mental health or about women in history, you really should read The Woman They Could Not Silence.

The chilling story of Elizabeth Packard, American housewife and mother, who dared to voice her own opinions about religion, thus incurring the wrath of her husband who had her committed to an asylum for the insane, the Illinois State Hospital, where she was incarcerated against her will, an experience that was as devastating as you might imagine. Conditions were appalling, the treatment of the women abysmal, and not one of them had any rights. But Elizabeth refused to be silenced. She fought back with any means at her disposal against this barbaric practice of legally locking women up sometimes for simply being inconvenient or just not the docile creatures their menfolk wanted them to be. She didn’t want any other woman to suffer like she had. This is narrative non-fiction at its best. The book is wonderfully, indeed grippingly written, meticulously researched, and historically accurate. A truly compelling and often even nerve-wracking read. Excellent.