Damnation Island with Stacy Horn

Today we are talking about poverty in the 1800s and how the U.S. treated its poor, criminal, and mentally ill populations. New York City addressed this issue in the most horrific way by ferrying large numbers of its sick and disadvantaged across the East River to Blackwell's Island, a tragically underfunded, overcrowded, and grossly mismanaged institution for the city's so-called "undesirables." Stacy Horn is my guest today. She is the author of six nonfiction books and has done extensive research on New York's underprivileged on Blackwell's Island. Stacy came on the podcast to discuss her new book Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York.

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