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UVM Theses and Dissertations

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Format:
Print
Author:
Belmont-Earl, Jennifer
Dept./Program:
History
Year:
2013
Degree:
MA
Abstract:
In the decade that followed the Civil War, refonn minded individuals began to question the legitimacy of sentencing children to the same penitentiaries as adults. An understanding of a juvenile was constructed which viewed them as particularly amenable to rehabilitation. This view pushed reformers to envision and build reformatories in rural areas for juvenile offenders, with the chief aim ofproducing the model American citizen. While the legitimacy of such a purpose was eventually questioned, the institutions themselves have remianed and grown since their conception.
In the late nineteenth century the concept of the criminal as a free moral agent came under attack by the Progressives. Progressives believed they could create a more ordered society by scientifically diagnosing social problems and appointing experts to solve them. Unlike the people who had originally founded the industrial schools, who believed that society was composed of autonomous individuals who could choose to do bad or good things, Progessives conceived of society as an organism, and consequently shifted the blame for crime onto society at large. They developed a new scientific understanding of crome, which treated illegal acts as a symption of a sick society, and sought to "treat" criminals rather than to punish them for making an autonomous decision to break the law. Historians of the Progressive movement have this conception of "sick" criminals dovetailed nicely with the approach of the eugenics movement -- simply cut out the bad parts.
This thesis examines the Vermont Industrial School under the tenure of supervisor John M. Barss (1907-1917)--a case study of how Progressive and eugenic measures were carried out in a rural institution with a limited budget. In order to try to save the majority of the young inmates at the Vermont Industrial School from ruin, Barss gradually adopted a variety of eugenic measures, which were symbolized by unprecedented construction under the "cottage plan." The case study explores how Progressive ideology and eugenic ideas interacted, and how these theories changed the institution, paying particular attention to the changing constructions of race, class, gender, and disability.
The thesis begins with an introduction, including an overview of the national Industrial School movement, a contextualization of the founding of the Vermont Industrial School, and a synopsis of Progressivism, with special consideration given to their construction of crime and vision of reform. The first chapter provides a biographical sketch of J.M. Barss; the second offers an overview of the people staffing the industrial school; the third presents a sketch of the inmates of the industrial school, including the reasons they were placed there; the fourth chapter presents a geographical and architectural analysis of the Vermont Industrial School itself; and a conclusion sums up the significance of the case study.