Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval

Bedford Hills is a reformatory that operates more like a prison. Mostly poor women from northern cities are sent there, where they face “cruel and unusual punishment” (264). The authorities at Bedford Hills consider this abuse to be appropriate treatment. Subjected to a Binet-Simon intelligence test, many Black women there are diagnosed as “feeble-minded” despite their actual intelligence. After several years, inmates are sent to be domestic servants in white homes. This is Eva Perkins’s fate, too, as she is not permitted to return home to her husband Aaron. Eva is overworked and sexually preyed upon as a domestic in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Outhouse, so she leaves. This violates her parole, and she is shortly after found and returned to Bedford Hills. Meanwhile, Aaron continues to write Eva about his employment and hopeful plans for their future. Aaron and Eva do not want property or ownership; they just want to live freely. In his letters, Aaron threatens to take legal action against the superintendent, Miss Cobb, for Eva’s mistreatment and detainment. He promises to take care of Eva and insists, unsuccessfully, on her release.

A newspaper article describes Black and white inmates’ testimonies to the State Prison Commission about their abuses at Bedford Hill.