Puritans, 20–21, 26–30
Race, xii, xiii, 47, 159, 166, 167, 180, 182; and able-bodiedness, 12, 27, 52; and citizenship, 50, 80, 88, 129; and disability intersections, xiv, xviii, 86, 154–55, 177; and gender, 86–87, 90, 94; and immigration, 105, 109; scientific racism, 57–58, 63, 66, 91; and U.S. census, 63–64. See individual racial communities
Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, 128
Rehabilitation, 128, 133, 138–40, 150–54, 167, 174
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 165–66, 176
Religion, 166, 169; Christianity, 67, 96, 143, 173, 176; First Nations, 2, 4, 121; Judaism, 107–8, 154; Puritanism, 21, 26, 28–30
Revolutionary War Pension Act of 1818, 54, 66
Rhode Island, 22, 25, 29, 32, 35, 37, 47, 55, 76
Roberts, Edward, 162–63, 168
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 131–32, 141, 145
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 131–32, 135, 139–40, 146–47
Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, 139–41
Scarlet fever, 18
Section 504 protests, 168–69, 177
Séguin, Edouard, 71
Senecas, 1
Sexual abuse, 23–25, 44, 59, 112, 121, 177–78
Sexuality, 80, 103, 109–10, 112–13, 117, 129, 163, 177. See also homosexuality
Sign language, 8, 14–15, 67, 96–97, 121, 134. See also American Sign Language (ASL); Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL)
Sims, James Marion, 62–63
Slavery, 12, 15–17, 19, 39, 41–47, 50, 55–64, 76, 91, 93, 96; and reproduction, 62; and slave trade, 15–17, 41–47, 61
Smallpox, 15–17, 39–40, 65
Smith, Alice, 110–13, 116–17
Smith–Fess Act, 150
Social Security Act, 137
Society for Crippled Children. See Easter Seals
South Carolina, 16, 46, 61, 92, 154
South Dakota, 120–24
Sowell, James William, 98
Spirituality. See religion
Steinmetz, Charles Proteus, 105–6
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (Washington, DC), 92, 122
Sterilization, 100–102, 110–13, 116–17, 119, 129, 131
Stigma, 85, 97, 118, 133, 142, 154, 155; and First Nations, 3–5, 10, 41; and Erving Goffman, 162; and posttraumatic stress, 83
Strachan, Paul, 150, 152–53
Stratton, Charles, 90
Stuttering, 1, 59; and Cotton Mather, 26, 30, 39
Suffrage, 52, 116, 161
Sullivan, Anne, 68
Taft State Hospital, 92
TenBroek, Jacobus, 162
Ten Days in a Madhouse (Bly), 144
Tennessee, 92, 141, 157
Texas, 40, 132, 137, 166
Tiegel, Agatha, 95–98
Tongva, 65
Truth, Sojourner, 59
Tuberculosis, 91
Tuskegee Institute, 141
Twain, Mark, 119
Ugly laws, 89
Unemployment, 134–36, 146–47, 163, 183
Unions, 151–52, 155, 157–60, 176–77
United Cerebral Palsy, 169
United Handicapped Federation, 172–79
United Mine Workers of America, 157–60
Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, 52
University of California, Berkeley, 162–63, 168
Urbanization, 51, 88–89, 98, 101
US Department of Education, 172
US Public Health Service, 105, 108
US Supreme Court, 101, 117, 131, 141, 181
Vásquez de Coronado, Francisco, 14
Vermont, 25
Veterans, 21, 77, 94, 129, 151, 154, 161. See also individual armed conflicts and wars
Vietnam War, 166
Vining, Richard, 54
Virginia, 16, 59, 76, 137; and Civil War, 79, 82, 84, 92; colonial, 13, 21; and institutionalization, 37, 117, 137
Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-minded, 117
Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind, 137
Voting rights, 76, 141
Warren, Lavinia, 90
Washington, DC, 92, 122–23, 168
Washington, George, 76–77
Wesley, John, 39
Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, 95
Western State Lunatic Asylum, 84
West Virginia, 92, 157–59
Williams, Henry, 133
Winthrop, John, 25, 28–30
Wisconsin, 76, 87, 124, 126, 163–64
Woodhull, Victoria, 72
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 133–36
World Association to Remove Prejudice against the Handicapped (WARPATH), 167
World War I, 127–28, 131, 150, 158, 166
World War II, 133, 144–50, 152–53, 155, 174; and rationing, 146–47
Wright, Frank Leon, 145
Yankton Sioux, 121
Zola, Irving Kenneth, 162
BEACON PRESS
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
© 2012 by Kim E. Nielsen
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Beacon Press’s ReVisioning American History series consists of accessibly written books by notable scholars that reconstruct and reinterpret U.S. history from diverse perspectives.
The poem “Disabled Country” is printed here with permission of the author.
This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper ANSI/NISO specifications for permanence as revised in 1992.
Text design and composition by Kim Arney
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nielsen, Kim E.
A disability history of the United States / Kim E. Nielsen.
p. cm. — (Revisioning American history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-8070-2203-0
ISBN 978-0-8070-2202-3 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. People with disabilities—United States--History. 2. Sociology of disability—United States—History. 3. People with disabilities—Legal status, laws, etc.—United States—History. I. Title.
HV1553.N54 2012
362.40973—dc23 2012014236
A Disability History of the United States Page 26