Excerpt from Zahn’s “Slaves or Patients” describing the work program https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=1720&&page=2
Excerpt from Zahn’s “Slaves or Patients?” pleading for the people of Maryland to protest https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=1720&&page=2
This article by Zahn published in The Catholic Worker called “Slaves or Patients?” argues for the rights of individuals with disabilities. The article discusses, just as the title puts it, if these individuals are being treated like patients or like slaves within mental institutions they are forced into. Zahn’s article focuses specifically on “The Rosewood State Training School” in Maryland, with over a thousand patients who span “the idiot class to high level moron or borderline cases”, as the article says (Zahn 1946). Zahn states that the patients are being treated more like slaves as they are being forced into these institutions and being forced to work 12-hour days with no pay at all. Zahn’s plea and goal through writing this article seems to be for the larger population to fight for the rights of individuals with disabilities and to help them out of the horrible conditions of training schools like Rosewood State. It is gravely important that it was published in The Catholic Worker, as it was a popular journal in the mid 1900s and therefore could reach a large population and exploit what the reality of these training schools were at this time. It is powerful for Zahn’s concluding point to be a call for protest and support for these individuals who currently have no little voice.