Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.
Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.
In 1887, a twenty-three-year-old newspaper reporter named Nellie Bly did something no journalist had ever done: she faked insanity to get herself committed to a New York City lunatic asylum. Posing as a confused woman at a boarding house, she was arrested and sent to Blackwell's Island, where she spent ten days documenting the horrors inside the Women's Lunatic Asylum. She witnessed nurses beating patients, food so rotten it couldn't be eaten, women forced into ice-cold baths in filthy water, and residents tied with ropes like animals. Her firsthand account, originally published as a series of articles in the New York World, caused an immediate public outcry and sparked a grand jury investigation that led to real reforms. More than a century later, her audacious stunt remains a foundational text of investigative journalism and a harrowing window into how the most vulnerable were treated in America's institutions.
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“I said I could and I would. And I did.””
— Nellie Bly
“It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.””
— Nellie Bly
“While I live I hope.””
— Nellie Bly
“To have a good brain the stomach must be cared for.””
— Nellie Bly
“I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from 6 A. M. until 8 P. M. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, give her bad food and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane. Two months would make her a mental and physical wreck.””
— Nellie Bly
“The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.””
— Nellie Bly
“Compare this with a criminal, who is given every chance to prove his innocence. Who would not rather be a murderer and take the chance for life than be declared insane, without hope of escape?””
— Nellie Bly
“I felt sure now that no doctor could tell whether people were insane or not, so long as the case was not violent. Later””
— Nellie Bly
“A pretty young Hebrew woman spoke so little English I could not get her story except as told by the nurses. They said her name is Sarah Fishbaum, and that her husband put her in the asylum because she had a fondness for other men than himself.””
— Nellie Bly
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Bly, Nellie. Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.. Lex, lex-books.com/book/ten-days-in-a-mad-house-or-nellie-bly-s-experience-on-blackwell-s-island-8250831d-9be7-48fc-942e-e6a9a3994838.Bly, N. (n.d.). Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/ten-days-in-a-mad-house-or-nellie-bly-s-experience-on-blackwell-s-island-8250831d-9be7-48fc-942e-e6a9a3994838Bly, Nellie. Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/ten-days-in-a-mad-house-or-nellie-bly-s-experience-on-blackwell-s-island-8250831d-9be7-48fc-942e-e6a9a3994838.
