Welcome back to First Sentence Friday/Free Book Friday!
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About the Book – In Case You Missed It
Accused of “promiscuity” in 1940s North Carolina, a young woman unjustly incarcerated and subjected to involuntary medical treatment at The State Industrial Farm Colony for Women decides to fight back in this powerful, shockingly timely novel based on the long-buried history of the American Plan, the government program designed to regulate women’s bodies and sexuality throughout the first half of the 20th century.
The day Ruth Foster’s life changes begins the same way as many others—with a walk through her North Carolina hometown toward the diner where she works. But on this day, Ruth is stopped by the local sheriff, who insists that she accompany him to a health clinic. Women like Ruth—young, unmarried, living alone—must undergo testing in order to preserve decency and prevent the spread of sexual disease.
Though Ruth has never shared more than a chaste kiss with a man, by day’s end she is one of dozens of women held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Some, like 15-year-old Stella Temple, are brought in at their family’s request. For Stella, even the Colony’s hardships seem like a respite from her nightmarish home life.
Superintendent Dorothy Baker, convinced that she’s transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society, oversees the women’s medical treatment and “training” until they’re deemed ready for parole. Sooner or later, everyone at the Colony learns to abide by Mrs. Baker’s rule book or face the consequences—solitary confinement, grueling work assignments, and worse.
But some refuse to be cowed. Against Mrs. Baker’s dogged efforts and the punishing weight of authority, Ruth and other inmates find ways to fight back, resolved to regain their freedom at any cost . . .
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First Sentence Friday Thoughts
There are three main characters in this story and the purpose in writing the novel this way was to give the reader a good sense of how society during this time reacted to individuals, who, no matter their age, might be perceived as having questionable behaviors. This week, you meet fifteen-year-old Stella Temple. Stella lives in a dysfunctional household (you know how much I love to write about those 😉) where her once able-bodied mother is plagued by depression and her father is a menace. Stella doesn’t fit in well at school, but she’s very smart, and school is her safe place. The purpose of Stella’s character is to reveal the circumstances of a helpless victim and the outcome someone like this might face. But, there’s more to the role her character plays than this, much more.
The usual facilities meant to house criminals, i.e. the jails and prisons, weren’t necessarily the place for troublesome citizens who might need to have certain behaviors recalibrated, so to speak. For juvenile boys and girls, the standard reform school met this requirement, and using a facility like this is what I originally intended to write about. I’d just read Colson Whitehead’s excellent novel, The Nickel Boys, and I became curious not only about the reasons a girl might be sent, but what happened after she ended up in one.
What makes Stella’s part in this story so heartbreaking is she’s loosely based on the many “troubled or troublesome white girls.” In some cases, racial purity and proper womanhood in the South compelled parents to send their girls for disciplinary measures before it was too late. That trouble might have been something as simple as the parents believing they were losing control of their daughters and they were on a path toward corruption. In other cases, the trouble might have been an unwanted pregnancy, and no matter who was at fault, it was usually the young girl who was made to undergo the equivalent of jail time whereas the male who got her into that situation, no matter the relationship, was often able to avoid consequences.
One resource I used heavily was a non-fiction book titled, Bad Girls at Samarcand; Sexuality and Sterilization in a Southern Juvenile Reformatory by Karen L. Zipf.
Ultimately, I decided to blend the history of this notorious reform school and that of the State Industrial Farm Colonies, or detention hospitals because I saw overlap in the processes meant to alter the “bad” behaviors, or to “reform” individuals. Both Samarcand, and the “Colony” exist just a little over an hour away from me. In either case, no one was allowed back into society until they could prove themselves as having undergone the requirements necessary for release. Many were returned, time and again. Some escaped. Some wanted to be there. It depended on the situations. It was all very interesting, but mostly, shocking.
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Chapter 2
Stella
Deep Creek, North Carolina
1941
At fifteen years of age, Stella is whisked away by a life event some call bad luck.
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Question of the Week!
Are you familiar with any reform schools, or institutions similar to Samarcand or the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women in your area? Of course reform schools existed across the United States, but did you know places like the Colony did, too? It would be interesting to see what you might find. Do a search, and focus particularly on using State Industrial Farm Colony for where you live, i.e. “near me,” or just a random search. See what pops up, if anything. Drop a comment on what you discover, and in case you don’t find anything, keep in mind, this is buried history, given the stigma of the events on women, and society’s perception of them.
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Free Book!
I’ll choose one individual out of those who participate in our little investigation. Again, it’s reader’s choice of one of my backlist books, either, The Road to Bittersweet, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, The Saints of Swallow Hill, or When the Jessamine Grows.
The winner is selected by Monday a.m. by another post sharing who’s the lucky reader.
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PRE-ORDER – Because It Really Matters!
Pre-orders gauge the interest and signal to the publisher readers are eager for an author’s next work. If you’re holding out because you might win an ARC or a finished copy from First Sentence Friday, remember you can always give away the extra as a gift to a reader friend. 😉
Pre-order links for your convenience:
- Bookshop.org
- Kensington Publishing Corporation
- Barnes & Noble
- Books-A-Million
- Amazon
- Hudson Booksellers
- Target
- Walmart
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Social Media
Last, but not least, don’t forget to:
- Add Women of a Promiscuous Nature to your Goodreads “To Read” shelf
- Share this post with your reader friends
- Follow me on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Bookbub, or my blog!
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I honestly didn’t know anything about these kinds of places!
I didn’t either!
hadn’t heard
This is what I found from my state in Missouri(copy and pasted) Interesting.
In Missouri, the term “Industrial Farm Colony” likely refers to the correctional institution known as the Algoa Correctional Center, which was formerly called the Algoa Intermediate Reformatory. This facility operated as a “prison farm” where inmates worked on agricultural tasks.
Here’s some information about Algoa:
Origins: The facility started with the purchase of land from a person named Ewing, adjacent to an existing prison farm, bringing the total acreage to 777.
Establishment: Inmates started being received in March 1932.
Purpose: The facility initially functioned as a dairy farm, where inmates lived in dormitories and worked. Prison farms generally use the agricultural goods produced to feed the prisoners and other wards of the state, and may also sell goods for profit.
Expansion: Over time, the Algoa site expanded, with significant growth in the late 1930s when the WPA constructed additional dorms and buildings.
Reorganization: In 1981, Corrections in Missouri was reorganized, and the Department of Corrections and Human Resources was established.
Transformation: Algoa Intermediate Reformatory became the medium-security Algoa Correctional Center (ACC) in response to prison overcrowding and the need for new facilities.
It is interesting, and to go a step further, I added “for women” to my search and got this for your state:
04/12/1917 “An Act to Create and Establish a State Prison Board” is approved by the
General Assembly, consolidating the MSP, the Missouri Training School for
Boys, the Industrial Home for Girls, the Industrial Home for Negro Girls, and
any future institutions under one body; eleemosynary institutions are no longer
part of corrections.
I think Algoa was likely a prison for men, and operated like that, while an “Industrial Home for Girls, and another “Industrial Home for Negro Girls” (because of segregation laws at the time) was exactly what I write about in my book. Bizarre history!
Wow! Thanks! Definitely has perked my interest!
Most of the results I found for Texas regarded male facilities.
The Goree Unit is named after Edwin King Goree (1843-1914) who served as a bookkeeper in the office of the Texas Prison System’s Superintendent J.A. Herring. Originally called Camp Goree, the unit was established on 1,000 acres of land as a convict colony for fifty-five ill-behaved inmates from the Rusk Penitentiary. The land that was purchased for the Goree Unit had previously served as a tobacco farm and terminus of the Huntsville Unit’s railroad line.
As a result of the Texas State Prison Investigation of 1909, which revealed the poor treatment of female inmates at Eastham Camp #2, Camp Goree became the new location for the state’s female inmate population. A matron’s position was created at the camp and all male guards at Goree were required to be married.
When the female inmates were moved to Camp Goree in 1910, their living quarters and job duties were segregated by race. The white and Hispanic inmates were used as seamstresses in the garment factory, where they produced inmate clothing for the prison system. The African American inmates, however, were forced to perform agricultural work in the fields adjoining the prison.
Under the management of Captain M. V. Heath and his wife Clyde during the 1930s, the Goree Unit underwent many changes. Most importantly, the women enjoyed more recreation activities, such as attending the Prison Rodeo, watching movies, attending dances, holiday celebrations, and plays put on by other units.
All very interesting.
I also found this about Goree, copied from AI Overview: Discipline at the Goree farm could be harsh, with the “Red Heifer” (a leather belt) used for punishment, and women, especially African-American inmates, faced exploitation and abuse on other prison farms during the early 20th century.”
What I found to be most interesting is that the AI search described these institutions in somewhat positive terms, places where women were taught and helped. The one closest to me is the one in Kinston, NC but others popped up in NYC and Kansas. With a little digging am sure there are more. There is a book set in Asheville- am forgetting the title that describes a home for unwed mothers and troubled women which, while appearing benevolent at first glance was in actuality rather sinister and based on history.
I used ChatGPT and got a somewhat positive spin as well – but also saw this:
Some colonies became entwined with eugenics programs. Women deemed “feebleminded” or promiscuous were sometimes sterilized under state laws without their consent.
The assumption was that such women were unfit for motherhood or incapable of reform.
It’s also true that some women actually didn’t mind being at these institutions because it was better than their home life where there might’ve been abuse, whether a husband or a father. Or simply terrible conditions.
The book was Guests on Earth : A Novel , written by Lee Smith and based on an institution for the mentally ill in Asheville, NC. It seems as if all sorts of people, starting decades ago, ran the risk of being institutionalized for the “sin” of bring different.
I’m glad you told me the title. And yes, that was definitely the case. I had an aunt with Downs Syndrome and my other aunt (her older sister) said my grandmother was constantly being hounded to put her into an institution. She wouldn’t do it. I dedicated this book to my “different” aunt and my grandmother.
There’s another book: One Thousand White Women which is fictional but based on history- the heroine finds herself institutionalized outside of Chicago for “lewd” behavior- committed by her father as he didn’t lke the guy with whom she ran off- she got out of the institution by volunteering for a fictional gov’t program which sent white women to be wives of Native American men in order to facilitate better understanding; it’s fictional but much of it is definitely plausible
I can believe it – they existed everywhere, various facilities classified as “detention hospitals,” etc.