The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened – by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.
The horrific conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are overseen by Dr. Andrew McFarland, a man who will prove to be even more dangerous to Elizabeth than her traitorous husband. But most disturbing is that Elizabeth is not the only sane woman confined to the institution. There are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they’ve been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line – conveniently labeled “crazy” so their voices are ignored.
No one is willing to fight for their freedom and, disenfranchised both by gender and the stigma of their supposed madness, they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose…
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
The Reason
I enjoyed The Radium Girls by the same author, and the subject matter of this one seemed really important as well.
The Quotes
“In the end, this is a book about power. Who wields it. Who owns it. And the methods they use. And above all, it’s about fighting back.”
“Unruly women are always witches, no matter what century we’re in.”
“Just think!” Elizabeth later exclaimed. “Forty men and women clubbed together to get me imprisoned just because I chose to think my own thoughts, and speak my own words!”
“We are only just beginning to appreciate exactly how a person’s powerlessness may lead to struggles with their mental health. With that understanding, statistics showing higher rates of mental illness in women, people of color, and other disenfranchised groups become translated into truth: not a biological deficiency, as doctors first thought, but a cultural creation that, if we wanted to, we could do something about.”
The Narrator(s)
The author, Kate Moore.
My Thoughts
Oh my, where do I start? I had about five to six hours left of the book when I had to go to bed, so I set a sleep timer, expecting that I would fall asleep as usual while listening to the audiobook. I ended up extending the timer several times until after 4am in the morning when I finally finished the book! It was so compelling that I couldn’t stop listening and wasn’t able to drift off to sleep.
Stories like this one are so horrifying because it’s an actual true story and men have been and continue to be, even now, abusive to women in ways that are incomprehensible to me. Elizabeth is only one out of many women who have had their husbands put them in asylums for not being obedient, submissive wives, and while I admire Elizabeth so much for her fighting spirit and unending faith, there were so many other women who did not make it through to the other side of this apparently too common experience for unsatisfactory wives.
However, this book focuses on Elizabeth’s experience, and takes details and excerpts from Elizabeth’s own notes and writings about her time at the asylum. Elizabeth’s strength and tenacity, her tirelessness, groundedness, selflessness, the way she fought not just for herself but for the other women who had been unfairly institutionalized, is so inspiring to see. She is an amazing woman and a hero.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?