A Sketch of the Life of Elizabeth T. Stone and of Her Persecutions: With an Appendix of Her Treatment and Sufferings While in the Charlestown McLean Assylum, Where She Was Confined Under the Pretence of InsanityStone, Elizabeth T.
Religion
A Sketch of the Life of Elizabeth T. Stone and of Her Persecutions: With an Appendix of Her Treatment and Sufferings While in the Charlestown McLean Assylum, Where She Was Confined Under the Pretence of Insanity
Stone, Elizabeth T.
McLean Hospital; Mental illness -- Personal narratives; Stone, Elizabeth T., 1811-
the Doctor as soon as possible, for I wished to return in the first
hourly. She made me no reply. I rose and went to the upper end of the
gallery and asked Miss Brigham to excuse me from going to the table, as
my dress was not adjusted, and had not brought my combs and hair brush
with me, and asked her to let me have a cup of coffee there. She threw
a hair comb into my lap and commanded me to come to the table; upon
which I adjusted my dress as soon as possible and went to the table.
Every thing presented a strange appearance. Great tin lid pots and a
wooden waiter and broken dishes. A plate of crackers set on the end of
the table where I sat; I went to take one, and one of the ladies spoke
and said they were hers, but I might have one; I asked her to excuse
me, and took a piece of bread. After breakfast I went to go into my
room, as I had not slept any all night, and found my door locked; I
went and sat down and asked if there was any christians there, when
one lady said she was a baptist, and she knew a Mary Stone in Boston.
I told her it was my sister. I asked her to be my friend, and she said
she would, and that I might lay down in her room. Accordingly she went
into her room with me and covered me up in her bed and shut the door;
just as I had got into a sweet sleep, Mary Brigham came in and ordered
me up. I rose and asked her to let me lay down in my room, as I had
not slept any all night.--She said the ladies were not allowed to lay
down in the day time. One of the ladies told me to ask the supervisor
to let me have my room door open. What it meant to have a supervisor in
a ladies' boarding house I knew not; but when she came in I found it
was the same one that had waited upon me into the gallery. I asked her
to be my friend, and told her she did not know how I did love God; she
said she would be my friend, but she did not want any silly fancies.
What she meant I did not know, for I did not know there was any fancy
about christianity. I asked her if I could have a bowl of valerian tea
and have my door open to lay down. She said yes, and told Mary Brigham
to open my door; just as I had got into a sleep again, Mary Brigham and
Miss Barber came and threw off the clothes. I being weak and excited
got up and asked if my brother had come, for he said he would come and
see me the next day. I wanted to get with some one that knew me, for
such treatment as this I did not know what to make of. Miss Barber
immediately left the room and they would give me no answer. I went to
my room to lay down, but found my door locked and I could not have the
privilege of laying down again that day. About 11 o'clock Dr. Fox, the
assistant physician, came in and began to converse with me; I told
him it was not my reason that was effected, or any distress of mind,
but I had undergone a cleansing or purifying by being washed in the
blood of the Lamb; that I had tasted of the good word, and the powers
of the world to come, and that I was weak and wanted some valerian
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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