Kaisa Vehkalahti
Sensitive sources and emphatetic reading
This paper discusses letter-writing in a reform school context. I focus
on the letters composed by girls in a reform school "Vuorela", from
which opens a unique path to a history of juvenile institutions - but
also to the lives and reasoning of young women themselves, and the opportunities
available to them as they progressed to adulthood in the reformatory
environment. In the reformatory also letter-writing served the goal
of moulding the girls into an acceptable female adulthood. Expectations
concerning female behaviour and procedures through which the institution
aimed at re-structuring the girls' identities along acceptable guidelines
are present in the ways the girls expressed themselves.
In this paper special emphasis is laid on ethical issues concerning
the use of such sensitive and intimate sources as personal letters.
How to treat gently enough this kind of material? How to do justice
to the people, whose lives I am using in my research? The paper is based
on my PhD work-in-progress, which discusses the historical construction
of gender-specific conceptions of delinquency on one hand in the public
debate and on the other hand in the Finnish reform school practices
at the first half of the 20th century.
The Reform School "Vuorela" and it's inmates
Founded 1893 and located in Nummela, Vuorela served as a first and
until 1940's also the only state reformatory for girls in Finland. The
institution was founded as a result of reforms in criminal policy: young
lawbreakers under 15 years of age were to be sentenced to new reformatories,
whose methods were based on education instead of punishment, at least
in principle.
Vuorela was designated only for girls (7-15 years old), most of them
convicted for crimes in the court of justice. In addition to them, a
certain number of girls whose placing was requested by their parents,
guardians or most commonly by municipal authorities, due to their disorderly
behaviour, were admitted as well. Until the 1920's the number of convicted
girls exceeded the number of those accepted by petition. However, the
proportion of these girls was increasing. By the 1930's the majority
of inmates in all Finnish reformatories were sentenced to reformatories
on the basis of child welfare, and no longer due to criminal legislation.
Finland has followed the "Scandinavian model" of treating delinquent
children, emphasizing the child welfare system instead of youth custody.
The very role of reformatory schools has been to specialize in the treatment
of troublemaking youth by using the methods of social work and education
as well as isolation and discipline to some extent. (See e.g. Siltanen
1990; Pösö 1993)
Girls that were sentenced to the reformatory by court conviction and
by petition didn't differ much from each other. Majority of the girls
were convicted for stealing or petty larceny. Of the total number of
184 girls sentenced to Vuorela by court conviction between 1894-1919
only 24 had been convicted for something else than crimes against property
(e.g. arson, homicide or sexual offence). In the applications of girls
assigned to the reformatory by petition, the single most commonly noted
factor was also petty larceny. The background and family circumstances
of these girls seem quite similar too: poverty; negligence of school;
loitering out on the streets; untruthfulness, slandering and other behaviour,
which was described as disturbing by teachers or neighbours; and finally
parents and their incompetence to raise their children according to
the standards set by authorities. The aforementioned reasons are mentioned
in applications written by local authorities, reports of the crime proceedings
and verdicts.
Most of the girls sentenced to Vuorela had already encountered several
other procedures - many of them had, for example, been placed to foster
homes, but the placement hadn't been successful. Most of the girls taken
into Vuorela were 13-15 years old, some of them even younger than 10
years of age, and they were kept in the reformatory until they were
young women, 18-20 years of age. In the reformatory they got their primary
school -education and attended the confirmation school. The older girls
attended also various practical courses aimed to facilitate their capability
to support themselves in the future. Usually this education included
handicraft (weaving etc.), housework or livestock rearing. Like in many
other similar institutions, the role for which girls were mainly prepared
was one of a domestic servant or housewife. Before leaving the institution
most of the girls were sent "on parolee" as domestic servants in respectable
families. A small minority of the most "successful" girls with best
grades continued their studies in some other schools (for example in
rural homemaking schools or folk high schools). When the time came for
leaving the institution, the girls either returned to their homes and
relatives or were positioned to jobs arranged by the reformatory - again
mainly as maids. This has been quite a typical life-course for girls
in various child care institutions of that era. Girls who ended up in
reformatories and orphanages came from lower classes and were brought
up to be servants. Both class and gender restricted their lives. (See
e.g. Bjurman 1995; Alexander 1998; Söderlind 1999.)
Letter-writing in a reform school
When exploring such delicate topics as delinquency, the researcher
faces many ethical questions, which are no less complicated in historical
research than they are in research concerning young people of today;
in fact quite the contrary. To some extent the historian has an even
more powerful position as an interpreter: the people whose history he/she
is writing, are not present to tell their own stories, which sets new
responsibilities upon the historian's shoulders. The central ethical
question in my study relates to the "disorderly", "delinquent" or "wayward"
girls themselves. How could I make them visible in my research and at
the same time do justice to them? How could I avoid neither labelling
the once so strictly labelled "delinquent" girls nor reducing them merely
to passive objects of policies? I wouldn't like to be the last one in
the long chain of judges estimating them, nor would I like to make them
just "victims of unfortunate circumstances". Is there any other role
vacant for the girls themselves in the studies written about the repressive
mechanism they faced?
My sources constitute of archive material collected by the reformatory
personnel. I have beautifully hand written letters, files and reports
about the inmates written by the reformatory personnel, as well as verdicts,
statements and reports composed by girls' previous teachers, municipal
authorities or police authorities etc. All of these are sources in which
the girls themselves - objects of all proceedings - have very little
to say. The risk that the girls themselves are superseded since most
of the sources are composed by authorities is always close in a study
like mine. Fortunately, alongside with the documents composed by officials
I also have some material composed by the inmates. During their sentence
in the reformatory the inmates' correspondence was under a careful censorship.
All letters that girls received or wrote were carefully read and censors
could refuse to pass letters that might upset or undermine the inmates'
reform. The personnel in Vuorela also copied extracts of those letters
in order to observe the inmates' development in the institution. These
copies have been retained: there are five notebooks filled with closely
hand written extracts, some of the letters copied in their full extent,
plus the personnel's comments about hundreds of intimate letters in
the archive. Thanks to this censorship, considered today as harsh, I
have some material that provides a narrow, but interesting entrance
to the girls' own reasoning.
As recent studies on the history of letter-writing have proven, letters
have not been as intimate and spontaneous form of communication as we
might assume. Like any other communication it is restricted by cultural
guidelines, i.e. practices that restrain and channel the individual
writing into commonly shared forms. (See e.g. Chartier, Boureau & Dauphin,
1997; Barton & Hall 1999). Letters written under such exceptional circumstances
as in a reformatory environment have been composed under multiple limitations,
but also expectations. In letters to their families the girls may have
for example disguised their sentiments or activities as they wrote down
what they thought the officials wanted to hear or tried to protect their
privacy and independence. These letters open a path to a history of
expectations, orders and instructions rather than one of urges and desires
(Compare: Alexander 1998.)
Nevertheless, the inmates' efforts to portray and explain themselves
provide important clues about the otherwise often implicit or hidden
practices and goals of the reformatory education. In their letters the
girls for example describe their life in the reformatory, but also those
homes and people they have left behind when entering Vuorela. Letters
are filled with nostalgic memories, homesickness and questions concerning
family members. Along with everyday news and future plans the girls
discuss the incidents that had lead to their sentence. They try to reason
what has happened and at the same time they often - consciously or not
- try to convince the receiver (if not the censor above all) of their
willingness and efforts to reformation. In their letters the girls present
illumining narratives of themselves as offenders: fallen, penitent or
incorrigible etc. The traditional question of what is true and what
is false, is not necessarily the most relevant one. Sometimes the "fictional"
autobiographical narrative presented by a reformatory inmate may be
even more interesting and revealing than the "factual" events behind
the narrative.
As an example I enclose extracts of letters written by a swedish-speaking
girl, born in 1902 and sentenced to Wuorela in 1913. Both letters have
been sent to her parents. Abridgments have been made by the reformatory
personnel and marked with "----".
3.11.1916.
Älskade Egna! ----
---- Jag har väntat tre år att få se Eder. Jag väntar nog fast tre
år till. Men efter tre år så får mamma ett paket. Mamma får mig hem.
Och när jag kommer hem, så får mamma vila, från allt arbete, jas sköter
nog om allt som behövs. Jag sköter om korna och lagar mat och gör
allt vad mamma behöver. Mamma gjorde så mycket arbete när jag var
hemma. Mamma gjorde för mig också många gånger. Mamma! Sedan så gör
jag allt för Mamma! - Jag har så många gånger tänkt: om jag skulle
vara hemma, så nog skulle jag kunna vara snäll och flitig!
Jag mår nog bra. Hälsa alla från mig.
Eder lilla [namn]
(Translation in English)
The above mentioned homesickness and efforts to reinforce the affinity
between the child and her parents - especially mother - are clearly
visible in the first letter. Like Roger Chartier (1997, 18-19) has stated,
many family letters take as their main topic the path that binds the
correspondents. Over the long run, family correspondences create a sediment,
a basis of memory. The existence of letters criss-crossing between family
members is a prime means of safeguarding links that distance places
in jeopardy.
On the other hand, the letter reveals also something about the expectations
that the reform school had for example on children's relationship to
their parents. A good girl respected her parents and regret her wrongdoings.
In her letter the young inmate is desperately describing herself as
"snäll", worth her parent's love and remembering. The idyllic
future home, shared with mother and father that she is describing in
her letter, had probably more to do with her memories of the past and
her homesickness, than the "real" alternatives that were open for her.
(Compare: Johannisson 2001) When portraying the future she is also manifesting
her willingness to reform. The same could be said about the following
letter as well. In this letter the same girl describes her religious
manners. When doing so, she is responding to the Christian education
in the reformatory and following certain patterns of religious discourse,
favoured in the reformatory. She is convincing the multiple readers
of the letter of her penitence and ability to reform.
25.12.1916
Käraste föräldrar!
Tack, tusen tack för brevet, som jag fick. Det var trevligt att få
höra lite hemifrån. ---- Vet Mamma att jag har ämnat vara snäll hela
nästa året, som nu kommer. Jag skall försöka om jag kan vara det.
---- Vet Mamma att jag kan ej somna om kvällarna när jag går till
vila, om jag inte ber till Gud förrän jag somnar. Först läser jag
min aftonbön, sedan ber jag Gud att han skall bevara Eder där hemma.
Jag tackar honom för dagens arbete och hans beskydd, som han om dagen
har givit mig och alla andra med. Många kvällar har jag försökt att
såva, när jag ej har bedt om aftonen, bara läst aftonbönen, men har
ej kunnat sova. Jag såver då så oroligt; jag måste bedja fast midt
i natten, när jag vaknar.
En natt så sov jag så dåligt att jag vaknade många gånger den natten.
Så bad jag tre skilda gånger till Jesus. Varje gång, när jag hade
slutat bedja, så somnade jag igen. När jag vaknade så bad jag igen.
Så att jag bad tre gånger den natten. Om morgonen när jag vaknade,
så hade jag så bra att vara; om dagen så kunde jag vara snäll emot
mina kamrater. Den dagen gick så bra till enda.
Alla morgnar, då jag vaknar litet förr än vanligt, så tackar jag för
nattens vila. - Mamma och Pappa skall alltid bedja, när Ni kommer
om kvällarna hem från Ert arbete. När Ni går till vila om kvällarna,
så skall Ni inte glömma att bedja till den goda Guden, som vi har.
Skriven snart svar till Eder lilla eget barn [namn]
(Translation in English)
Sensitive topic - intimate sources
The topic of my research is in general a rather sensitive one and
arouses strong emotions - but the same goes for my sources as well.
Especially the letters composed by reformatory girls constitute a fascinating,
but also demanding and even dangerous body of sources. How to treat
sensitively enough this very personal material that was once composed
for private purposes, then observed, censored and criticised in the
reformatory - and now it is finally analysed and made public for new
purposes in my own study? How to do justice to the people I am using
in my study?
The claim for sensibility entails the aspect of justice. Do I even have
the right to make this kind of sensitive material public? Did these
people ask for stepping into publicity? We like to think that we are
doing a favour when coming forward with problematic and "unfair" issues,
and speaking for people who otherwise would keep - or be kept - silent
in our society. For example the Microhistorical school set as one of
its purposes rewriting history from the grass roots perspective, from
the point of view of those who had vanished in the traditional canon
of history. Criminals, prostitutes, witches etc. have been made "subjects"
of their history. But are we really doing them a favour when making
ourselves their voluntary representatives?
As one possible answer to my questions - most of which still remain
unanswered - would be serious reasoning over my own purposes as a researcher,
my own moral values, sympathies as well as antipathies and my relationship
to the girls in the focal point of my study. Furthermore, the historical
research should be understood as being necessarily a narrative composed
by the historian from his/her point of departure, this being the case
even if the researcher makes all the possible efforts not to take sides
or promote any ideological goals. Like Liz Stanley has pointed out,
also a researcher writes in a cultural context. When creating the interpretation,
he/she chooses among many other possibilities. The choice is influenced
by e.g. the narrator's age, class, gender, race and other social and
cultural factors. (Stanley 1992; Saresma 2000)
On the other hand, I should be aware of the possible reactions my study
may evoke. The sources I am using are open for multiple reactions ranging
from amusement aroused by the oldish and naive expressions used by the
girls to silent sympathy. Since the past reformatory education doesn't
always meet our modern standards for child welfare, the stories of reformatory
girls evoke anger and moral disapproval as well. But what kind of sentiments
do I wish to evoke? Do I wish to tell horror-stories or what is it that
I want to say with my work? Even as a historian the researcher is always
a political actor: doing a research on something means constructing
the object of research, and the way the research is presented is not
inconsequential either.
This is another reason why empathetic reading of sources and sensibility
in reporting about them is needed. However, understanding why and how
something happened is not the same as accepting it uncritically. Empathetic
reading and efforts to make the foreign past understandable don't imply
approval of the treatment that "wayward" girls encountered - nor does
it imply blind admiration and positive attitude towards "whatever the
girls did". Empathy could be created also by placing girls and their
actions as well as the reformatory education into its historical context
and by this way trying to make it understandable. (Blom 1992. See also:
Zemon-Davies 1983 and1997; Ambjörnson, Ringby & Åkerman. 1997; Leskelä-Kärki
2001)
As another possible answer I can state that I remain within the limits
of letters as texts. Like it has been pointed out in biographical and
autobiographical studies, it is impossible to reach the foreign past
and peoples comprehension as it "really" was. (Stanley 1992; Zemon-Davies
1997; Coslett, Lury & Summerfield 2000) Though the flesh-and-blood girls
have captured my fascination, I can't reach their actual thoughts or
feelings felt at the moment they wrote their letters. What I can reach
instead, is the cultivation process they faced in the institution and
the marks it left to the way they expressed themselves in their letters.
Therefore, on the basis of this material, I am able to say something
for example about the instructions concerning letter-writing in the
institution and the way that letter-writing served the goal of moulding
the girls into an acceptable female adolescence. Expectations on female
behaviour or even procedures through which the institution aimed at
re-structuring the girls' identities along acceptable guidelines are
present in these letters and it is this very process that I am also
most interested about. The girls' "true meanings" escape my reach, but
the mutual discourse they construct in their letters can be reached.
Finally I have to say that somehow I feel quite "relived" to be able
leave the girls' "inner thoughts" and "true meanings" for them selves
and out of my study.
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Appendix: Translations in English
3.11.1916.
To all my dearest ones at home ---
---- I have waited for three years to see you. I will wait three more
years but after three years Mother will have a package. Mother will
receive me back home.
And when I come back Mother will get a chance to rest from all her
work, I will certainly take care of everything that is necessary.
I will take care of cows, cooking and anything else that Mother needs.
Mother worked so hard when I was at home. Mother did so much for my
benefit as well. Mother! After [I have come back] I will do everything
there is to do for You Mother! - I have thought for so many times
that if I only were at home surely I would be able to be kind and
diligent!
I am all right and send my greetings to all
Your little [name] ]
(Back to the article)
25.12.1916
My dearest parents!
Thank you so much for the letter I received. It was so nice to hear
something from home. ---- Do You know, Mother, that I have decided
to behave well the whole New Year, which is to begin now. I'll try
if I can manage it.
---- Do You know, Mother, that I can't fall asleep in the night when
I go to bed, if I haven't said my prayers first. First I read my evening
prayer, then I ask God that He would take care of you all back there
at home. I thank Him for the day's work and His protection, which
He has granted me and all the others as well. Many times I have tried
to fall asleep without praying after evening prayer, I have just read
my evening prayer, but I haven't been able to sleep. I sleep so restlessly;
I have to pray even in the middle of the night, if I wake up.
One night I woke up many times during the night. I had to pray for
Jesus three separate times. Every time I finished my prayer, I fell
asleep again. When I woke up, I started again, and by that way I prayed
three times altogether. In the morning, when I woke up, I was in such
a good state of mind; during the day I was very kind towards all my
mates. The whole day got well on until the night.
Every morning, when I wake up a bit earlier than usually, I do thank
God for the rest. - Mother and Father should also pray, when You come
back home from Your work. When You go to sleep in the evening, You
shouldn't forget to pray the kind God we have.
Write soon an answer to Your own little child [name] ]
(Back to the article)
* * *
Kaisa
Vehkalahti is working as a Research associate in Finnish Youth Research
Network & the Finnish Academy project: "A Pen of One's Own - Cultural
History of Women's Writing, 1880-1930" (Cultural History, University
of Turku).
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