Hospital Sketches

Content Warning: The section of the guide includes discussion of racism, gender-discrimination, and death.

Folsom was a famous feminist and Abolitionist in Boston during the mid-19th century. She was known for insisting on women’s right to speak in public assemblies, which caused her to be accused of being disruptive. Alcott mentions her Chapter 5 when she discusses the racist behaviors and opinions of her colleagues and her insistence on speaking out against them. She writes, “the blood of two generations of abolitionists waxed hot in my veins, and, at the first opportunity, proclaimed itself, asserting the right of free speech as doggedly as the irrepressible Folsom herself” (58).

The Baltimore riot of 1861, also known as the Pratt Street Riot, is considered the first violence of the Civil War. As Union soldiers from the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania militia were marching through Baltimore on their way to Washington, anti-war Democrats and Confederate sympathizers attacked them, leading to the first deaths of the Civil War. While traveling through Baltimore in Chapter 2, Alcott mentions that she passed the site of “the riot” and felt “as if I should enjoy throwing a stone at somebody, hard” (15), demonstrating her support for the first violent conflict that opened the war.