On June 15, 1893, Andrew Sheffield wrote a letter to Governor Thomas G. Jones. This letter is one of many letters she has written to governors defending her claim that she was sane. In this letter, Andrew mentioned that she found out by Dr. Bondurant that her letter to the governor reached his desk. Dr. Bondurant also noted that he wrote a letter saying she was insane. Andrew implored the governor to send a disinterested physician to evaluate her. If this physician is “governed altogether by principle, and I will willingly abide his decision.”
She complained that the physicians here are “very, very superficial characters.” If a patient’s appearance is “all right, a genteel pair of kid gloves on, a No. 2 shoe, and a gaudy butterfly colored necktie,” the patient is placed in the “front first class ward, to blaze a paragon of some fashionable Metropolitan; and is seated at the diet table as a special, private patient.” She further complains that these patients’ diet is next to that of the Dr’s and Supervisors, which is perfectly superb, live like Kings and Queens.” The nurses “have a table set apart for themselves, and have respectable poor folks fare.” The third group is the state paupers or indigent. She writes, “Similar to that of a poor old private in war, who does all the work and fighting, receives no pay and get nothing to eat, and subject to the whims of those who have been placed over them.”
She doesn’t stop complaining about the physicians either in this letter. She writes that the “physicians here carry their personal feeling too much into business affairs.” These physicians “avail themselves of every low petty way of taunting and irritating (sp) patients causing them to do and say all manner of things.”
Despite her complaints, Andrew pointed out some essential aspects of Bryce Hospital’s life. Wealthier patients sit close to the doctors and supervisors. Most of these are private patients and hold a special status in the hospital. They could avail themselves of fresh fruits and vegetables. She is part of the far more significant group of state paupers. The state maintains this group at its expense.
The other that Andrew hints at is that agreeable patients showed signs of recovery according to Moral treatment. Moral treatment advocates believe that mental illness is a sign of irrational behavior. If the patient starts to chat civilly with people and dresses well, these are signs that a patient is getting cured. In the United States, moral treatment was a mixture of Enlightenment philosophy and American Protestantism. Patients needed to improve their behavior through wholesome recreational activities and humane discipline such as chores. Andrew reacted negatively to this sort of treatment.
Citation:
Hughes, John S. The Letters of a Victorian Madwoman (University of South Carolina Press, 1993), 47 – 49
“Moral Treatment – an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics.” Accessed November 11, 2023. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/moral-treatment.