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Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York

By (author) Stacy Horn

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normal price: R 490.95

Price: R 441.95

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| book description |

""Enthralling; it is well worth the trip.â€ --New York Journal of Books Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New Yorkâ€™s Blackwellâ€™s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse, and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, ""a lounging, listless madhouse."" Digging through city records, newspaper articles, and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the islandâ€™s inhabitants. We also hear from the eraâ€™s officials, reformers, and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. And we follow the extraordinary Reverend William Glenney French as he ministers to Blackwellâ€™s residents, battles the bureaucratic mazes of the Department of Correction and a corrupt City Hall, testifies at salacious trials, and in his diary wonders about manâ€™s inhumanity to his fellow man. Damnation Island shows how far weâ€™ve come in caring for the least fortunate among usâ€”and reminds us how much work still remains.