Women Of A Promiscuous Nature by Donna Everhart

 

This historical fiction novel is set in Kinston, North Carolina, right before World War II.  During World War I, the leaders of the military found that they were sometimes short of men before a big battle due to the men needing treatment for venereal diseases.  Moreover, they determined that most had become infected at home before they joined or on leaves.  Now, with things heating up towards World War II, those military leaders put pressure on other areas of government to do something.  What they decided to do was create hospitals/prisons for women who were suspected of being promiscuous.

How did you get there?  It was a good place to put prostitutes.  Men with wives they were tired of or who were unruly put them there.  Anyone could call the sheriff and report a woman so there was lots of payback and disappointed suitors.  Girls who got pregnant at an early age, whether from incest or just fooling around with boys, were not only incarcerated but given abortions and often hysterectomies so that they could never have a child.

Ruth had never exchanged more than a kiss with a date.  But one day on her way to work, the local sheriff insisted she accompany him and soon Ruth was at the State Industrial Farm Colony For Women.  Women were first put in isolation in a dank cell with cut rations that were unfit for human consumption.  Then they were given work assignments but could be put back in isolation or physically disciplined if they didn't follow the rules or weren't producing at their jobs.  Stella was there after her father impregnated her and didn't know enough to realize that she would never be pregnant again.  Frances had mental issues.  Some were there due to mean husbands or because they had the gall to run a business independently.  Regardless, they were kept until they 'learned their place.'

Those in charge were a mix but none had the women's best interests at heart.  Some were sadistic and enjoyed their positions of power, handing out demerits and punishments right and left.  Others believed in the mission and couldn't see that the reality was that most of these women had done nothing more than offend someone somewhere.  The woman in charge had come from another institution which had burned down and she and her second in command were in a battle for power and position.  

Donna Everhart is a North Carolina native and she writes women's novels usually located in the South. I live in North Carolina but had never heard of this facility and what took place there.  It was another control mechanism for women in a time when women could be ripped from their homes and families if they offended husbands, bosses, or men who desired them.  What these women went through was horrendous and it happened in many other states as well, another blot on the nation's history.  This book is recommended for readers of women's history and those interested in the mechanisms used to control women.