Sane or Insane?: Or, How I Regained Liberty (Asylum Stories Book 3)

Publishing pseudonymously in 1904, Margaret Starr describes how she was incarcerated for fifteen months at "Mt. Anchor" insane asylum (probably Mount Hope Retreat, in Baltimore). During her time behind bars at Mt. Anchor, Starr witnessed and suffered physical assults and petty authoritarianism, was denied communication with the outside world, put in a straight-jacket for no discernible reason and generally deprived of every right, all under the command of the martinet Madame Pike. Starr eventually escaped and sued for her liberty, and her book stands as testimony to the many abuses of the asylum system.