
Madness
Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum
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Narrated by:
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Antonia Hylton
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By:
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Antonia Hylton
About this listen
In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a compelling 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation’s last segregated asylums, told by an award-winning journalist on her decade-long search for sanity in America’s mental healthcare system.
On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state’s Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports listeners behind the brick walls of a Jim Crow asylum.
In Madness, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family’s experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations.
As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, the institution became a microcosm of America’s evolving battles over slavery, racial integration, and civil rights. During its peak years, the hospital’s wards were overflowing with almost 2,700 patients. By the end of the 20th-century, the asylum faded from view as prisons and jails became America’s new focus.
In Madness, Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people’s bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable.
©2024 Antonia Hylton (P)2024 Legacy LitListeners also enjoyed...
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When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has $10,000 in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun - but no Katherines.
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struggled to finish listening
- By Daniel on 03-11-20
By: John Green
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Madness
- A Bipolar Life
- By: Marya Hornbacher
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have the piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. At age 24, Hornbacher was diagnosed with type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disorder. In Madness, in her trademark wry and utterly self-revealing voice, Hornbacher tells her new story.
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THANK YOU!!!!!
- By kelly massoni on 10-01-21
By: Marya Hornbacher
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Wild Girls
- How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation
- By: Tiya Miles
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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This work of history puts girls of all races—and the landscapes they loved—at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women's independence, resourcefulness, and vision.
By: Tiya Miles
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The South
- Jim Crow and Its Afterlives
- By: Adolph L. Reed Jr., Barbara J. Fields - foreword
- Narrated by: Langston Darby
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The last generation of Americans with a living memory of Jim Crow will soon disappear. They leave behind a collective memory of segregation shaped increasingly by its horrors and heroic defeat, but not a nuanced understanding of everyday life in Jim Crow America. In The South, Adolph L. Reed Jr.—New Orleanian, political scientist, and according to Cornel West, "the greatest democratic theorist of his generation"—takes up the urgent task of recounting the granular realities of life in the last decades of the Jim Crow South.
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Adolph Reed is a master.
- By Will Shogren on 06-07-22
By: Adolph L. Reed Jr., and others
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The Devil You Know
- A Black Power Manifesto
- By: Charles M. Blow
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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From journalist and New York Times best-selling author Charles Blow comes a powerful manifesto and call to action for Black Americans to amass political power and fight white supremacy.
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A radical plan for Black liberation
- By Elizabeth on 01-27-21
By: Charles M. Blow
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The Survivors of the Clotilda
- The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade
- By: Hannah Durkin
- Narrated by: Tariye Peterside
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on American soil, docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860—more than half a century after the passage of a federal law banning the importation of captive Africans, and nine months before the beginning of the Civil War. The last of its survivors lived well into the twentieth century. They were the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history. In this epic work, Dr. Hannah Durkin tells the stories of the Clotilda’s 110 captives, drawing on her intensive archival, historical, and sociological research.
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Great reader!
- By Robin E Moore on 07-07-24
By: Hannah Durkin
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Our Hidden Conversations
- What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity
- By: Michele Norris
- Narrated by: Michele Norris, full cast
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The prompt seemed simple: Race. Your Story. Six Words. Please Send. The answers, though, have been challenging and complicated. In the twelve years since award-winning journalist Michele Norris first posed that question, over half a million people have submitted their stories to The Race Card Project inbox. The stories are shocking in their depth and candor, spanning the full spectrum of race, ethnicity, identity, and class. Even at just six words, the micro-essays can pack quite a punch, revealing, fear, pain, triumph, and sometimes humor.
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Excellent in every way
- By Deb Evans on 02-21-24
By: Michele Norris
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Black Women of the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Wendi Manuel-Scott, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Wendi Manuel-Scott
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Original Recording
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The fight for democracy and social justice is a collective, ongoing project. And those fighting for justice today cannot afford to forget the remarkable accomplishments of Black women who were activists in the Civil Rights movement. Their lives and accomplishments are a testament to the power of activism and to the enduring and evolving struggle for equality. In her Audible Original, Black Women of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Wendi Manuel-Scott illuminates the lives of six extraordinary Black women—most of whom, regrettably, remain unknown to many.
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Pity this woman's students
- By Jennifer Quail on 02-15-24
By: Wendi Manuel-Scott, and others
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Gracefully Insane
- Life and Death Inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital
- By: Alex Beam
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Its landscaped ground, chosen by Frederick Law Olmsted and dotted with Tudor mansions, could belong to a New England prep school. There are no fences, no guards, no locked gates. But McLean Hospital is a mental institution - one of the most famous, most elite, and once most luxurious in America. Gracefully Insane, by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, is a fascinating and emotional biography of McLean Hospital from its founding in 1817 through today.
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It was presented kind of boring
- By Mandy Alexander on 09-17-24
By: Alex Beam
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Until I Am Free
- Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America
- By: Keisha N. Blain
- Narrated by: Tyra Kennedy
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A blend of social commentary, biography, and intellectual history, Until I Am Free is a manifesto for anyone committed to social justice. The book challenges us to listen to a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual of the civil rights movement as we grapple with contemporary concerns around race, inequality, and social justice.
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Underappriciated figure
- By Adam Shields on 02-16-22
By: Keisha N. Blain
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Language City
- The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York
- By: Ross Perlin
- Narrated by: Ross Perlin
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century, and when they're gone, it will be forever. Ross Perlin, a linguist and codirector of the Manhattan-based non-profit Endangered Language Alliance, is racing against time to map little-known languages across the most linguistically diverse city in history: contemporary New York.
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Fascinating Read
- By annei on 06-02-24
By: Ross Perlin
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Undivided
- The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church
- By: Hahrie Han
- Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The inspiring story of evangelicals in Cincinnati struggling to bridge racial divides in their own church, their community, and across the nation.
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Great analysis, compelling storytelling
- By Jennifer Hill on 05-02-25
By: Hahrie Han
What listeners say about Madness
Highly rated for:
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- Mo
- 02-28-24
Historical impact on today
Excellent!! This book uncovers the relationship between crime, mental illness and the need for society to wake up.
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5 people found this helpful
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- L Williams
- 04-01-24
Should Be Required Reading
I read this for personal learning reasons. I love history and I’m a counselor. Every school counselor school psych school social worker foster care worker and administrator should read this for context. Yes this is a book focused largely on history, But understand that this book is a VERY clear depiction of what has happened in this country to people of color with (or without!) mental health needs, especially children. It is a snippet of what has happened. The beliefs and effects of this do not magically disappear with legislation. The writing, research, organization, and performance make this a five star listen. It does not “read” like a history book. Hylton is a talented historian and writer. This book makes me very proud to be a Black woman in mental health care. The dedication to writing this is UN.MATCHED. Thank you so much for writing this. Thank you thank you thank you
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4 people found this helpful
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- Adrian W. Rich
- 01-29-24
Powerful interlacing of a history of mental health and the social context…
…in which mental health care was presented. As a Marylander living 20 minutes from Crownsville I was never aware of the legacy of those grounds. My kids have gone to the Indian Creek School for events and the juxtaposition of one side of Crownsville Road to the other side is an apt metaphor for the context in which that hospital evolved and its place in Maryland history. The story was not only poignant but it gave a human face to the people who worked and were treated at that facility.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rebecca Auten-Grenier
- 02-13-24
This is must read!
I really don't even know how to describe the importance of this book. For anyone who is involved in health, mental health or the education system this is a must read.
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- Fred
- 06-16-24
Good book about bad times
I was very glad I picked this book to listen to. I grew up in New Jersey but went to college in SE Texas and saw Jim Crow in the early 1960s. This book was a great reminder of what discrimination can and still dies to the oppressed. I can't say I enjoyed the book but I praise the author for researching it and writing it. Also, I'm very glad I read it.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-13-24
Thank you!
Thank you for honoring those who were at Crownsville and telling their story! Thank you for inspiring us to do the right things in the future!
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7 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-20-24
Jim Crow Era Assylum
Definitely a good story. The author does a good job of pulling everything together. The ability to meet with the families and staff and share their story is wonderful. I wish there were more details about specific people, but they just don’t exist.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bruce Cline
- 11-01-24
Jim Crow Lives
This is the story of Crownsville State Hospital in Maryland, an institution for mentally ill Blacks that for most of its history was an underfunded and poorly administered dumping ground in the guise of a hospital. It housed not only psychiatric patients, but persons with other disabilities, criminals, and more generally Blacks who for whatever reason — legitimate or not — crossed paths with law enforcement. It is a horrific story of abuse, neglect, racial stereotyping, and general disregard for people who desperately needed support and expert care, but who were often brutalized by a system supposedly designed to benefit them. This institution existed until the early 21st century. Sadly, it’s just one example of similar institutions around the country. And, though to a much lesser degree, is an indictment of some systems and institutions (large and small) currently serving persons with disabilities, especially minorities, that continue to be underfunded, poorly staffed, and often incapable of providing expert care to their residents/patients.
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- Ja'keria Beard
- 04-30-25
Great read
This book was knowledgeable and very heavy. I’ve worked in the mental health field for almost 12 years and never heard about this. Please read if you’re in the field. It’s sad that parts of this book is still alive today.
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- Patrice Neely
- 02-25-24
Madness
I never gave any thought to this subject matter. Enlightening, emotional and devastating. I am in tears.
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6 people found this helpful