Moonlight, Magnolias, and Madness: Insanity in South Carolina from the Colonial Period to the Progressive Era

__Moonlight, Magnolias, and Madness__is a social history of the perceptions and treatment of the mentally ill in South Carolina over two centuries. Examining insanity in both an institutional and a community context, Peter McCandless shows how policies and attitudes changed dramatically from the colonial era to the early twentieth century. He also sheds new light on the ways sectionalism and race affected the plight of the insane in a state whose fortunes worsened markedly after the Civil War. Antebellum asylum reformers in the state were inspired by many of the same ideals as their northern counterparts, such as therapeutic optimism and moral treatment. But McCandless shows that treatment ideologies in South Carolina, which had a majority black population, were complicated by the issue of race, and that blacks received markedly inferior care. By re-creating the different experiences of the insane--black and white, inside the asylum and within the community--McCandless highlights the importance of regional variation in the treatment of mental illness. Pt. 1. Before The Asylum, 1670-1828. 1. Out Of Her Senses: Insanity In Early South Carolina. 2. A Propitious Moment: Founding The Asylum -- Pt. 2. The Antebellum Asylum, 1828-1860. 3. Give The Experiment A Fair Trial: Sustaining The Antebellum Asylum. 4. A House Of Cure: Therapy At The Antebellum Asylum. 5. A Well-regulated Community: Life In The Antebellum Asylum. 6. An Overgrown Nuisance: The Struggle For A New Asylum -- Pt. 3. Beyond The Asylum, 1828-1915. 7. Bound With Cords And Chains: Domestic Care Of The Insane. 8. There Is No Discount On Being Crazy: Local Government And The Insane. 9. How Various And Conflicting: Therapy In The Community -- Pt. 4. The Postbellum Asylum, 1861-192o. 10. The Fearful Ordeal: The Asylum During Civil War And Reconstruction. 11. I Am Not An Office Seeker: The Politics Of Insanity. 12. The Study Of Economy: Managing The Postbellum Asylum. 13. The Horrors Of This Place: Life In The Postbellum Asylum. 14. There Is Nothing Joyful About An Asylum: Progressivism And Insanity. Peter Mccandless. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 323-400) And Index. Moonlight, Magnolias, and Madness is a social history of the perceptions and treatment of the mentally ill in South Carolina over two centuries. Examining insanity in both an institutional and a community context, Peter McCandless shows how policies and attitudes changed dramatically from the colonial era to the early twentieth century. He also sheds new light on the ways sectionalism and race affected the plight of the insane in a state whose fortunes worsened markedly after the Civil War. Antebellum asylum reformers in the state were inspired by many of the same ideals as their northern counterparts, such as therapeutic optimism and moral treatment. But McCandless shows that treatment ideologies in South Carolina, which had a majority black population, were complicated by the issue of race, and that blacks received markedly inferior care. By re-creating the different experiences of the insane--black and white, inside the asylum and within the community--McCandless highlights the importance of regional variation in the treatment of mental illness. -- Publisher description This text is a social history of the perceptions and treatment of the mentally ill in South Carolina over two centuries. Examining insanity in both an institutional and a community context, it shows how policies and attitudes changed dramatically from the colonial era to the early 20th century.