Of the many consequences advanced by the rise of the eugenics
movement in the early twentieth century, North Carolina forcibly
sterilized more than 2,000 women and girls in between 1929 and
1950. This extreme measure reflects how pseudoscience justified
widespread gender, race, and class discrimination in the Jim Crow
South. In Bad Girls at Samarcand Karin L. Zipf dissects a dark
episode in North Carolina's eugenics campaign through a detailed
study of the State Home and Industrial School in Eagle Springs,
referred to as Samarcand Manor, and the school's infamous 1931
arson case. The people and events surrounding both the institution
and the court case sparked a public debate about the expectations
of white womanhood, the nature of contemporary science and
medicine, and the role of the juvenile justice system that
resonated throughout the succeeding decades. Designed to reform and
educate unwed poor white girls who were suspected of deviant
behavior or victims of sexual abuse, Samarcand Manor allowed for
strict disciplinary measures -- including corporal punishment -- in
an attempt to instill Victorian ideals of female purity. The harsh
treatment fostered a hostile environment and tensions boiled over
when several girls set Samarcand on fire, destroying two residence
halls. Zipf argues that the subsequent arson trial, which carried
the possibility of the death penalty, represented an important
turning point in the public characterizations of poor white women;
aided by the lobbying efforts of eugenics advocates, the trial
helped usher in dramatic policy changes, including the forced
sterilization of female juvenile delinquents. In addition to the
interplay between gender ideals and the eugenics movement, Zipf
also investigates the girls who were housed at Samarcand and those
specifically charged in the 1931 trial. She explores their
negotiation of Jazz Age stereotypes, their strategies of
resistance, and their relationship with defense attorney Nell
Battle Lewis during the trial. The resultant policy changes --
intelligence testing, sterilization, and parole -- are also
explored, providing further insight into why these young women
preferred prison to reformatories. A fascinating story that
grapples with gender bias, sexuality, science, and the justice
system all within the context of the Great Depression--era South,
Bad Girls at Samarcand makes a compelling contribution to multiple
fields of study.
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