

Carville's Cure
Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice
Author: Pam Fessler
Narrator: Pam Ward
Unabridged: 10 hr 48 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Published: 07/14/2020
Categories: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, History, Us History, Medical, Medical History
Synopsis
Though shunned by their fellow Americans, patients surprisingly made Carville more a refuge than a prison. Many carved out meaningful lives, building a vibrant community and finding solace, brotherhood, and even love behind the barbed-wire fence that surrounded them. Among the memorable figures we meet in Fessler's masterful narrative are John Early, a pioneering crusader for patients' rights, and the unlucky Landry siblings as well as a butcher from New York, a nineteen-year-old debutante from New Orleans, and a pharmacist from Texas. Though Jim Crow reigned in the South and racial animus prevailed elsewhere, Carville took in people of all faiths, colors, and backgrounds. Aided by their heroic caretakers, patients rallied to find a cure for Hansen's disease and to fight the insidious stigma that surrounded it.