Suffering Silences, Woeful Afflictions: Physical Disability, Melodrama, and the American Charity Movement

Suffering Silences,Woeful Afflictions: Physical Disability, Melodrama, and the American Charity Movement Sheila C. Moeschen On 17February 1821 an audienceassembledatfhe Houseof Representatives in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania,to attend a unique performance involving pupils from the Pennsylvania Institute ofthe Deafand Dumb. Mr. Seixas, administrator of fhe educational asylum, introduced five students who illustrated their "actual progress in writing, counting, and describing a variety of external objects."A writer for the the Philanthropist provided a detailed account of the spectators' response: "And such was the resistless impression made upon their hearts and such the strong practical conviction forced upon their minds, of the great importance and utility ofthe institution for the deafand dumb, that not a shadow of doubt remains with me [the author ofthe passage] ofan act ofincorporation and an approbation of a portion of the public funds for its aid."1 Many patrons who attended these public performances expressed feelings of humility and awe in witnessing the transformation of destitute "creatures" into instruments of God. One gentleman described an exhibition similar to the one above, testifying that the spectacle produced by the deaf/dumb "arrested my attention and impressed my soul."2 More than the pupils'startling skills,the emotional elements ofthe educational performance became defining features of the event. The capacity to "move" the audience, to stimulate the heart and soul, determined the success or failure ofthe philanthropic agenda underlying the exhibition. However, it is hardly coincidence that reformers chose a theatrical mode to further their charitable endeavors. By the time of the performance in Harrisburg, antebellum citizens were versed in the language of high 433 434Comparative Drama emotionalism and exciting spectacle due to an influential theatrical genre: melodrama. Educational asylumsforfhe deaf/dumb andblind appeared inAmerica as early as 1817 with Reverend Thomas H. Gallaudet's Connecticut institution for the deaf/dumb. Institutionalized benevolence alleviated the burden of civic welfare by offering housing, physical care, and selfimprovement for those determined as needy. These institutions replaced the family unit as the center of care and purported to transform the disabled into contributing members of society. The construction of an educational institution was a momentous undertaking: in addition to securing land and building resources, teachers and staff required specialized training. In order to accomplish what many viewed as both a moral and social imperative,reformers depended upon the material support and emotional investment of the general populace. The charitable crusade to "save" the deaf/dumb and blind became America's first experience with collective benevolence. Prior to the campaign to form these institutions, individuals took on various social "causes" such as poverty, temperance, and spiritual conversion by working either independendy or within religious sects. An interest in servicing the needs ofthose unable to communicate effectivelywith one another,participate in thepublic sphere, or gain access to Christian doctrine galvanized large sections of the country. Moreover, numerous articles espousing the works of institutions in France, Britain, and Scotland fueled nationalistic outrage over America's supposed neglect of its own people. Asylum administrators gained valuable publicity with their educational performances. Displaying the deaf/dumb and blind in all their pathos and inspiration for their "novel charity" allowed educators to co-opt creatively the emotional and spectacular elements of America's sentimental culture.Along with its connotations as a literary and artistic style, sentimentalism gradually evolved into a set of social practices. According to literary historian Robert Markley sentiment encompassed a "series of discursive formations that describe what amounts to an aesthetics of moral sensitivity, the ways in which middle- and upper-class men can act upon their'natural'benevolent feelings for their fellow creatures ."3Within this discourse, the disabled were conventionally coded in terms of what Mary Klages identifies as "sentimental signifiers." Physi- Sheila C. Moeschen435 cal disability, operating as a material "mark or sign" within this system, produces emotional meaning that works to reify the disabled"as necessarily suffering, and thus deserving of others' compassion."4 Under Klages's logic, the disabled were viewed as naturally distressed, inherently signifying via their physical impairments the emotional markers of pity and tragedy. What Klages understands as intrinsic, I contend reflects a cultural practice of employing visual and rhetorical devices associated with sentimental culture to code the...