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“The Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl” (1828)
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120 Part 3 been led to think so, by some remarks made to me in Hartford.” In November 1841, Howe visited Hartford again, now with Bridgman in tow, where, escorted by Sigourney, Bridgman met Brace. Howe’s purpose for this visit was not to inspire Brace to talk on her fingers, but was on the contrary to demonstrate, as publicity for himself and his school, the contrast between the “animated child” he had trained and the “impassive” woman who had been trained at Hartford, thus pointing up what he believed were the “destructive effects” of signing .78 The two deaf-blind people, woman and girl, felt each other’s faces, twelve-year-old Laura gave Brace a chain she had braided; Brace, putting it in her pocket, turned and walked away. Brace did end up enrolling at Perkins the following year, where she showed as little interest in learning to fingerspell as she did in learning sign language, and she was consequently sent back to Hartford a year later, after only a month or two of instruction. Brace continued to board at the Asylum until 1860, when she moved in with her sister. She died in 1884. “The Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl” (1828) As mentioned in the introductory remarks to this section, Julia Brace was twenty-one and had been enrolled at the Hartford Asylum for three years when this essay for children was written. The text here is that of the magazine Juvenile Miscellany, vol. 4, no. 2 (May 1828, 127–41). This essay was very widely reprinted, especially in children ’s and Christian periodicals, under titles including “Remarkable Female” and “Julia Brace,” and often without author attribution. These publications include the Christian Advocate and Journal and Zion’s Herald (1831), Christian Register (1831), Christian Watchman (1831), Youth’s Companion (1831), Western Recorder (1831), and Southern Rosebud (1834). Sigourney has an important insight at the end of this essay about people who have been deaf or blind from a very early age: it’s not just that they do not hear or see, and have not been able to do so for a very long time, but more importantly that they have had no opportunity to store up a “treasury of knowledge” gleaned from Sigourney Main Pgs 1-162.indd 120 4/4/2013 12:35:33 PM The Deaf-Blind Girls 121 overheard conversations between strangers or from remembered sights of people who live very differently in a city one has once visited. • The Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl In the city of Hartford, Connecticut, among other interesting institutions , is an Asylum for the education of the deaf and dumb. The building is large and commodious, and finely situated upon a commanding eminence. The present number of pupils is 120, who, in different classes, and under the superintendence of several teachers, are engaged in the pursuits of knowledge. They are cheerful and happy, and enjoy their intercourse with each other, which is carried on by the language of signs, and the aid of the manual alphabet. It is peculiarly affecting to see this silent assembly offering their morning and evening prayers. Many visiters have been moved to tears, by this voiceless communion of young hearts with their Maker. Among the inmates* of this mansion is one who particularly excites the attention of strangers. She is entirely deaf, dumb, and blind. Her name is Julia Brace; and she is a native of the immediate neighborhood of the Asylum. She is the only instance of so great a misfortune, of which any record is extant, except one European boy by the name of James Mitchell, concerning whom the celebrated philosopher, Dugald Stewart, published an interesting memoir, many years since in the Edinburgh Review. He was so irritable that few experiments could be tried for his benefit; but Julia Brace has been mild and docile, from her childhood. She was the daughter of exceedingly poor parents, who had several younger children, to whom she was in the habit of shewing such offices of kindness, as her own afflicted state admitted. Notwithstanding her blindness, she early evinced a close observation with regard to articles of dress, preferring among those which were presented her as gifts, *occupants; “mansion” is used in the British sense of a large building divided into apartments.—Eds. Sigourney Main Pgs 1-162.indd 121 4/4/2013 12:35:33 PM [3.237.65.102] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:24 GMT) 122 Part 3 such...