Nellie Bly, an American journalist, releases her book, Ten Days in a Mad-House. The book reflects Bly’s ten day experience going undercover into a female only insane asylum. The asylum was located on Blackwell Island, which was filled only by the asylum, a poorhouse, a smallpox hospital and a prison. She describes the asylum as so horrid that it made her “look insane.” The asylum was freezing cold with poor food and consisted of several women who had no reason to be there. Some were immigrants and were mistakenly committed to the asylum because they couldn’t understand English, and some were just poor and believed they were going to the poorhouse on the island. Not long after her book was published and received overwhelming support, the asylum was given $1 million more dollars to improve the conditions. Bly broke barriers as being one of the first successful female journalists and earning a reputation as a “stunt girl.”

Bly was under an immense amount of pressure, as neither her nor her editor believed she’d be able to convince experts that she was insane and needed to be admitted into an asylum. To make her act believable, she explains that she looked in the mirror and tried to reflect all qualities she has seen in “crazy people.”  Her alias was a Cuban immigrant who suffered from amnesia. She would stay in boarding houses and refuse to sleep or eat and would wander around and yell out random phrases. Eventually, one of the assistant matrons called the police and she was then admitted into Blackwell Asylum.

While in the asylum, Bly explains that she acted somewhat calm and the doctors and officers would say there was no hope for her to recover because she was “positively demented.” She writes that these doctors did not really know for sure if these people belonged in an asylum. In the asylum, Bly met many different people who she didn’t feel belonged in the asylum. One was a German woman who spoke very little English and could not put together a case that the court would understand to prove she was not crazy. This woman was sent away for life “without even being told in her language why and wherefore.”

There were over 1600 women in the asylum, with poor conditions throughout. These conditions made the women sick and would often make them seem crazier than they really were. They were treated inhumane, and when Bly was able to be released from the asylum, she published this book and gained the attention of people in high power. They were able to expand the budget of the asylum which improved the conditions tremendously. Bly’s written experience was a major step in reforming asylums and stopping the racism and sexism that were the cause of thousands of people’s admittance.

Source:

Bly, Nellie. Ten Days in a Mad-House. 2017.

Associated Articles:

Blackwell's Island (Roosevelt Island), New York City (U.S. National Park Service). www.nps.gov/places/blackwell-s-island-new-york-city.htm.