Friday, May 9, 2014

Mother, Don't Let the Sun Set on You Here

On Mother's Day, May 11, 2014, after more than two years in production, the fifth book in my Ladd School anthology will make its debut.

The stars, it seems, are especially aligned for this occasion; not only does it occur on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Dr. Ladd's passing, but I cannot think of a more appropriate day to launch this particular title.

I should say that Exeter Girls is very much a book about mothers, and motherhood, among other things. The three women about whom it is written were young mothers, each of them unwed, and unfortunate enough to birth their children in state custody as a result of disadvantaged circumstances.

Given our understanding of contemporary mores, it is likely to be little known, but the fact of the matter is that in the early 1900s, pregnancy outside of wedlock - especially among the impoverished classes - was not only frowned upon, but punishable by law. It was called bastardy, and, in conjunction with socio-economical and certain diagnostic factors, was cause for countless women to be institutionalized on the basis of sexual promiscuity.

I mean that, in no uncertain terms, they were quite literally arrested and incarcerated as a method of state-sanctioned birth control; and, indeed, as a means of eliminating entire family bloodlines from the population. Such was the purpose of the American mental hygiene and eugenics movements.

The tragedy of this remains as yet untold. It is practically impossible to know how many of these women died in state custody, from communicable, but curable, diseases born from the overcrowded, sub-standard living conditions at the institution to which they were indefinitely remanded. Neither can we know just how many more remained in custody until old age or to the end of their natural lives. Or how many others were coerced, surreptitiously, to undergo an operation for the removal of their reproductive organs in order that they be permitted to return to their families on the outside.

And still yet we must ask, how many families were victimized by these practices; how many children were stolen away from their so-called feeble-minded mothers, and placed in orphanages, only to be later committed to the same institution when they became of age? How many more of their descendants, who now live among us, hardly know their original name?

Not only why, but how did this happen?

Surely these are much deeper questions, and it is a much larger story, than can be answered for in any one volume. But though at a modest 264 pages in length, Exeter Girls is a powerful book, the first and only one of its kind; a rare collection of personal letters exposing the shocking reality of a dark age in social services through the first-hand accounts and true life stories of three women - Evelyn, Cora, and Dorothy - committed to Rhode Island's School for the Feeble-Minded nearly a century ago.

And so it is now my great privilege to bring their fates finally to rest, quite literally in the palm of your hand, by making known not only their names, but their lives. I hope you will join me this Mother's Day in finally delivering them to the light.


Exeter Girls (officially) goes on sale May 11, 2014, at Amazon.com. Free shipping is available to Prime members, and to non-Prime members for some orders. See Amazon.com for details.

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