Carville's Cure
Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice
by Pam Fessler
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Pub Date Jul 14 2020 | Archive Date Jun 30 2020
W. W. Norton & Company | Liveright
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Description
The story of the only leprosy colony in the continental United States, and the thousands of Americans who were exiled—hidden away with their “shameful” disease.
Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Mississippi River curls around an old plantation thick with trees, with a stately white manor house at its heart. Locals knew it as Carville—the site of the only leprosarium in the continental United States from 1894 until 1999, where generations of afflicted Americans were isolated, often until death. While experts today know that leprosy is not nearly as contagious as once feared, there remains a virulent stigma around those who suffer from it. Pam Fessler tells the story of Carville’s patients against the backdrop of America’s slowly shifting attitudes toward those cast aside as “others.” She also reveals how patients rallied together with an unlikely team of nuns, researchers, and doctors to find a cure for the disease, and to fight the insidious stigma that surrounded it. With original interviews and newly discovered archival material, Fessler presents an essential history of one of America’s most shameful secrets.
About the Author: Pam Fessler is an award-winning correspondent with NPR News, where she covers poverty, philanthropy, and voting issues.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781631495038 |
| PRICE | $28.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 352 |
Featured Reviews
JENNIFER S, Librarian
Read if you: Want a moving and fascinating medical history read.
I grew up in Louisiana and vaguely heard about the Carville residential hospital, but never knew the full history until now. It was shocking to read how people with Hansen's Disease have been feared, ostracized, and stripped of their rights. Most of Carville's residents did not want to be there (and escaped or tried to escape), but they also formed an extraordinary society. They created a newspaper, advocated for their rights, celebrated Mardi Gras, and courted each other. Fessler also draws apt comparisons between the way people with Hansen's DIsease were treated (and are treated--she recounts several instances of modern day discrimination and ignorance toward Hansen's Disease in the US and other places) and the way people with AIDS were treated at the height of the AIDS pandemic. The author's grandfather-in-law was a Carville resident, and recounts her husband's journey to find out more about his grandfather (the last paragraphs of the book made me cry at 6:00 AM this morning, when I was finishing the book before heading to work.). Definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
Librarians/booksellers: Even readers who don't normally read medical history will be drawn to it.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
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