For this reason, hundreds of girls and young women from broken homes, orphanages, jails, hospitals, convents, and shelters across Rhode Island were accused of being a danger to themselves and society and legally committed to an institution for the feeble-minded.
Exeter Girls is a collection of notes and letters following the true stories of three women - Evelyn, Cora, and Dorothy - whose harrowing journeys through this gauntlet of institutionalization will astonish you with confessions of injustice, tragedy, and despair.