The Education of Laura Bridgman | The Education of Laura Bridgman

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Author: Ernest Freeberg
First Published: 2001
Type of Work: Biography
Time of Work: 1829-1889
Setting: Hanover, New Hampshire, and Boston, Massachusetts
Principal Characters: Laura Dewey Bridgman, Samuel Gridley Howe, Charles Dickens, Julia Ward Howe, Mary Swift, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan
Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
Subjects: Teaching or teachers, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Nineteenth century, Blindness or blind persons, New England, New Hampshire, Disabilities or physically challenged persons, Deafness or hearing-impaired persons, Massachusetts
Locales: Boston, MA, New Hampshire

In the middle years of the nineteenth century, Laura Bridgman was one of the best-known women in the world, possibly second only to Queen Victoria. Her mentor, Samuel Gridley Howe, publicized her accomplishments as proof of the power and resilience of human nature. Ernest Freeberg, mindful of Howe’s importance in Bridgman’s life, accords him a major role in her biography, using Howe’s ideas to illuminate mid-nineteenth century beliefs.

Samuel Gridley Howe, born November 10, 1801, attended Brown University because his father, an ardent Jeffersonian, refused to send him to...

The Education of Laura Bridgman | The Education of Laura Bridgman

At a glance:

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