Elizabeth Packard Is Not Insane (1864) w/ Therese O'Neill
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's January 14th. This day in 1864, an Illinois woman by the name of Elizabeth Packard is on trial, claiming that she has been wrongfully imprisoned -- and accused of insanity -- by her husband.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Therese O'Neill to discuss why Packard was sent to a mental institution to begin with, how she argued for freedom from her husband, and her subsequent career of activism.
Therese is the author of the book "Unbecoming A Lady: The Forgotten Sluts and Shrews Who Shaped America" -- it's out now!
Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!
Find out more at thisdaypod.com
This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.
If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com
Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod
Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day, January 14th, 1864, let's go to Cancacchi, Illinois, where a woman by the name of Elizabeth Packard is on trial, |
| 0:20.0 | claiming that she suffered imprisonment |
| 0:22.1 | and abuse by her husband in their own house. We'll get to the roots of their fallout, but the trial |
| 0:27.6 | ended up being about more than just her relationship with her husband, but this larger question |
| 0:32.0 | of her sanity. Witnesses came forward to argue that Packard was mentally unstable. Others |
| 0:36.9 | lauded her for being of right mind, |
| 0:39.6 | just being outspoken at a moment when women were not expected to be as outspoken as she had been. |
| 0:45.3 | The Packard trial tells us a lot about how women were treated in that era, |
| 0:48.8 | especially women who dared speak up and act, quote, unladylike, or ones who dared to fight for larger rights. |
| 0:56.2 | There is a book out from Simon Schuster called Unbecoming a Lady, the forgotten sluts and |
| 1:01.2 | shrews that shaped America. It is written by Teresa O'Neill, who's a New York Times bestselling |
| 1:06.4 | author, has written a number of books that highlight unspoken heroes like this. But, |
| 1:10.2 | Teresa, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Um, so we'll get to maybe some of the other |
| 1:16.3 | stories from your book, but thanks for focusing in on Elizabeth Packard with us. She deserves our |
| 1:21.3 | time. There you go. Fascinating. Yeah. Um, well, here as always Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt |
| 1:25.8 | and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. |
| 1:28.1 | Hello there. |
| 1:28.9 | Hello, Jody. |
| 1:29.8 | Hey there. |
| 1:30.8 | Elizabeth Packard is claiming that she has suffered imprisonment and abuse. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -73 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.