In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4.“True Womanhood” and Perfect Madness: The Sanity Trial of Mary Todd Lincoln We, the undersigned jurors in the case of Mary Todd Lincoln, having heard the evidence in the case, are satisfied that said Mary Todd Lincoln is insane, and is a fit person to be sent to a state hospital for the insane. —Jury verdict, reached in ten minutes If one were to use the jury decisions we have seen so far, it could be inferred that in the nineteenth century, women of gentle birth were expected to be demure, picture-perfect icons of domesticity. To violate social norms was to face penalties ranging from social ostracism to legal action. Women who stood out too far from the crowd were often ruined socially, slandered by the press, or, worst of all, declared insane and locked away. This could lead one to believe that women who stay with the prescribed limits would be safe. Surely there was no reason to prosecute a woman unless she actually committed a crime? In reality, women who did toe the feminine line were not much safer, for their existences depended upon the good will of paternal protectors who may or may not have agreed upon where that line was to be drawn. Women in this era walked a cultural minefield without the benefit of a map. Modern researchers have attempted to assemble such maps to proper behavior—much too late, of course, to help the women who had to live by them. What these maps have accomplished, however, is to remind us that no norm is without its rhetorical ancestor and that these ancestral narratives can easily be manipulated to alter, manipulate, or reapply those norms to fit the judgment desired by society. These cultural narratives provided the map for women of the day, but they also could be used to alter the terrain in midjourney. Luckily, as women themselves began to examine the outlines of their territory , they began to see the possibilities for alteration themselves. Although gender expectations could constrain a woman, a woman with enough skill 70 the crimes of womanhood could use those same expectations to constrain male behavior in relation to those expectations. She might even be able to manipulate those expectations in order to liberate. Let us now examine a case wherein the art of rhetoric successfully altered a public interpretation of behaviors that were ostensibly so constrained by public narratives that no new interpretation was possible. Mary Todd Lincoln was the epitome of nineteenth-century genteel womanhood. The narratives created by the rhetors of the time were very clear as to how all womanly virtues were to be used to judge behavior. Under the strict interpretation of these narratives, Lincoln was labeled as insane. Yet through the rhetorical artistry of a strong woman named Myra Bradwell, these narratives were used in such a way that new interpretations became possible. These new interpretations were compelling to enough people that the initial judgment was reversed, and Lincoln was once again called sane. The basic elements of the narrative were not altered, but ownership of the story itself was subtly shifted so that the use of those elements was entrusted to the group most likely to be affected by them: women. Lincoln was a woman who adhered to feminine norms too well. These norms, interpreted once by male rhetors and once by a female rhetor, were used to produce radically different portraits of her mental state. The rhetoric surrounding her case demonstrates how even a traditionally oppressive narrative may be manipulated to serve a libratory purpose. Commitment Laws in Illinois The fact that Mary Todd Lincoln was even given a sanity hearing was due to the activities of Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard. After her escape from her husband, Packard launched a legislative campaign to stiffen the criteria used to commit individuals to insane asylums. One of the new steps added to the process was a trial much like the one she was accidentally afforded. No resident of Illinois could be locked away without a formal, public hearing. The victory of Elizabeth Packard was an unprecedented abridgment of the power of physicians in the process of commitment. Where previously the word and signature of one “expert” could determine a patient’s entire future, it now took the approval of a judge and jury, untrained in medical literature, before the dark label of “insane” could be applied to a patient. There were, of course, two sides to this change. On one...

Share