![]() ![]() Bennett reveals their grim backgrounds and details the harsh disciplinary methods, including savage whippings, that were dispensed at Samarcand and other reform schools in the early twentieth century. The girls, who became known as the “Samarcand Sixteen,” were described by administrators and the media as incorrigible and troublesome. Barbara Bennett not only offers a dramatic retelling of this historic case in Smoke Signals from Samarcand, but also reveals a case study of the misguided social-engineering schemes-fraught with racism, classism, and sexual stereotypes-that churned through North Carolina and other Southern states during this time. In 1931 sixteen poor, white girls-all teenaged inmates at Samarcand Manor, officially named the State Home and Industrial School for Girls, in Samarcand, North Carolina-were accused of burning down two campus buildings in protest against living conditions. ![]()
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