The Imprisoned Guest
Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, The Original Deaf-Blind Girl
by Elisabeth GitterWhen she was born on 29th December, 1929, Laura Bridgman met the expectations of all. She learned to speak, single words and then phrases. Disaster hit the Bridgman family in the form of scarlet fever when Laura was two. Laura's two older sisters died. Having rallied from her deathbed, the crisis was thought to have passed for Laura when the infection returned in Laura's head. The doctor informed the Bridgmans that Laura's sight was gone. Due to her invalid status, the Bridgmans were slow to realize that Laura's senses of hearing and, to a lesser degree, taste, had also been removed. After two years, Laura was no longer an invalid; she enjoyed exploring with an adult friend, and could sew, churn butter, knit, braid, and set the table. At seven, she was sent to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where she was taught to read and write raised letters, as well as to finger-spell. As a girl, she was displayed for large audiences who enjoyed the romantic image of a pathetic blind-deaf girl and who contributed to the Perkins Institute. Dickens spent almost a chapter on her in his
American Notes. Laura was used to defend and demonstrate philosophical ideas on education and the absorption of knowledge. While Laura enjoyed the attention of Perkins' director, Samuel Gridley Howe, during her early education, she fell out of favor with him after his return from his honeymoon, during which Laura underwent puberty. Although Howe continued to be very involved in overseeing Laura for the rest of his life, it was no longer with the affection and intimacy from before. To improve Laura religiously, he found a companion for Laura who lived with her for years but then married. Laura spent the rest of her life going between the Perkins Institute, her family's home, and visiting her teachers.
Samuel Howe was an enthusiastic proponent of many causes, each of which he heartily pursued for a limited time. Howe was very opinionated, always certain of his own position. Returning from the Greek Revolution, Howe found himself well known and well thought of in Bostonian circles. Bostonians had already the funds and a board for a school for the blind, but lacked a director. Howe presented himself, and was accepted. He was sent to Europe to study European schools for the blind, but was sidetracked in Paris by the Polish rebellion against Russia. He became so involved in the cause that he was jailed for a month in Prussia, and was therefore unable to study schools for the blind in Prussia or in Prussia's ally Austria. Nonetheless, Howe returned to Boston with the conviction that Europe did not have decent schools for the blind. He would instead build his own program. With a printing press, Howe printed books in raised print for the blind to read. His school curriculum encouraged the blind to read, write, be active, and to learn normal mannerisms such that the blind could be integrated into normal society. While his pupils were not, for the most part, integrated into society, they were educated such that Howe received much acclaim and imitation schools sprung up. Howe, not content with his success, wanted something larger. He wanted to educate a blind-deaf child, preferably a girl. One such at Gallaudet was proficient at sign but not English, which disgusted Howe, an oralist. A friend found Laura Bridgman, and Howe wasted no time convincing Laura's parents to send her to him. Due in part to her success and the fame that she garnered him, Howe treated and addressed Laura as his daughter. She and her teachers ate and lodged with Howe. Despite her actual impulsive behavior and stubbornness, Howe wrote of her as a docile and perfect being. Having taught(or more accurately, ordered taught) Laura English and shown to his satisfaction that one without sight and hearing could learn language, Howe decided to make Laura an example of his religious convictions. He believed that children naturally knew of God. To prove his beliefs, he forbade any from mentioning God to Laura, theorizing that Laura would, through her observations of the world around her, come to belief in God without teaching. It is impossible to gag people entirely about what matters to them most, which is often God, and Laura gained knowledge of God through people. She had many questions concerning Him. Howe went on his honeymoon, and on his return, over a year later, Laura had found God. Howe set about finding her a teacher who believed in his same religious convictions. Bridgman was then isolated from all but her teacher in order to instill in a docility and obedience as well as knowledge of God. After the teacher married, Howe and the Bridgmans traded Laura back and forth. Howe promised another teacher, but did not deliver. After Howe's death, Perkins Institute was left in the directorship of Howe's son in law, who was head of Perkins Institute when the Kellers asked for a teacher for their daughter Hellen. The teacher sent, a graduate of Perkins, had learned finger spelling and had formed her theories on the education of the blind-deaf, from knowing Laura.
Gitter compares Laura Bridgman to Hellen Keller often, to compare their fame, education, and pull to the general public. Gitter cites numerous contemporaries of Laura who assumed that their readership knew of Laura's story or marvelled on her great fame. In this way,
The Imprisoned Guest reminded me of
Seabiscuit. Gitter explores the social climate causing the events of this book, and grounds her story very firmly in its times and place. Gitter's writing style is highly erudite. While the wording is generally concise, some points were repeated in different parts of the book, almost verbatim. Why Gitter considers Laura the original deaf-blind girl is unclear; Gittman even compares Bridgman's usurpation in the public eye of Julia Brace as
the deaf-blind girl to Helen Keller's usurpation of Laura Bridgman. Pictures, endnotes and an index are included.
Happy reading.
: 10:15 AM
