| This dissertation explores how the issue of disability prompted reinterpretations of the traditional values of personal liberty and limited government during a time of economic and social change. After the Civil War, disabled veterans represented victory and the preservation of the nation. Within two decades, however, disabled workers symbolized the costs of industrialization. Historians have studied industrial accidents but have not analyzed them using disability as a category of analysis. My analysis considers disabilities as a set of social constructions that reveal more about the society in which they develop than about actual physical impairments.Although most disabled people worked and shared the common value of economic self-sufficiency, the increasing risk of injuries created fears of a city, state, and nation supporting a large class of dependent cripples. Seeking to redistribute the costs, Clevelanders turned to government institutions to control the obvious negative effects of an industrializing economy. The city council passed a workplace ordinance in 1880 but the law remained unenforced. Some residents turned to the court of common pleas to express frustration about trying to maintain economic independence under conditions that posed constant threats to health and life. The working situations explained in the suits included intractable problems that required a large-scale solution.The state of Ohio addressed industrial workplace safety in 1884 with the establishment of factory inspection. Although problems such as child labor and unguarded machinery persisted, state legislators continued to pass laws that regulated workplaces further. To ensure safety and prevent disabilities more broadly, the state began regulating most public buildings. In 1911, Ohio adopted no-fault workmen's compensation to prevent disabled workers from becoming impoverished.Although contemporaries expected to find disabled people receiving charity, a citywide survey in 1915 found most disabled Clevelanders integrated into their communities as wage earners, homemakers, and students. Nevertheless, the survey resulted in educational, medical, and vocational approaches to help disabled people who had not "normalized" themselves. Thus, Clevelanders came to terms with industrialization by fixing the damage. But the solutions blunted critiques of a system that routinely caused disabilities and allowed the system to continue. |
