The Girls Who Were Sent Away

Summary

Summary of NPR's Up First Episode: "The Girls Who Were Sent Away"

Release Date: April 20, 2025
Host: Aisha Rascoe
Guest: Grady Hendrix, Author of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "The Girls Who Were Sent Away," NPR's Up First delves into the harrowing history of the "baby scoop" era in the United States, a period spanning from 1943 to 1973. This era coincided with the post-World War II baby boom, during which abortion was largely illegal, leading to many unwanted pregnancies among unmarried women and teenage girls. These women were often sent to maternity homes, where they were forced to give birth and place their babies for adoption.

Historical Context of Maternity Homes

Aisha Rascoe opens the discussion by highlighting the societal pressures and stigmas faced by unwed mothers during the baby boom. She explains:

"Before Roe v. Wade, there was a period from 1943 to 1973 when many unmarried women and girls were forced to give birth and put their babies up for adoption. These births often happened in secret in places called maternity homes."
[03:30]

Grady Hendrix elaborates on the grim reality faced by these young women:

"They'd spend the last trimester in hiding, have their baby taken from them, and return home with fabricated stories about where they'd been."
[04:46]

The lack of transparency and support in these homes often left the mothers isolated and traumatized, with little to no knowledge about the fate of their children.

Grady Hendrix's Novel: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Hendrix introduces his latest novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, which intertwines this tragic history with elements of horror and magic. He discusses how the novel reflects both historical and contemporary issues surrounding women's reproductive rights:

"Abortion is still a protected right in 21 states and the District of Columbia, and there are abortion pills now that can cross state lines. But with the fall of Roe and the resulting abortion restrictions, some of this history echoes."
[00:46]

Characters and Plot Elements

Rascoe inquires about the novel's protagonist, Neva, a 15-year-old girl forced into a maternity home by her father. Hendrix provides a vivid depiction:

"Neva is taken to a maternity home in Florida, part of approximately 190 such homes across America during that period. These girls were stripped of their identities, given fake names, and kept ignorant about their futures."
[03:30]

As the story progresses, Neva encounters a mysterious librarian who introduces her to a spellbook for witches, leading her and her friends—Fearne Rose, Holly, and Zinnia—to explore dark arts as a means of gaining control over their lives.

Themes of Misogyny and Societal Pressure

The conversation shifts to the misogynistic undertones of the era, where teenage girls bore the brunt of societal condemnation for unwed pregnancies, while the male counterparts faced no repercussions. Hendrix reflects on the long-term psychological impact:

"These girls were not told their options or their legal rights. They were expected to never think about their babies again, a cruelty that haunted many for the rest of their lives."
[16:39]

Rascoe adds context by pointing out the societal double standards and lack of support systems:

"There was a pervasive hatred towards these girls, with editorials suggesting drastic measures like turning Alcatraz into a home for unwed mothers and minimal acknowledgment of unwed fathers."
[18:14]

Magic and Hoodoo in the Novel

Hendrix discusses the integration of magic, specifically hoodoo—a tradition rooted in African spiritual practices—into his novel. He explains the distinction between hoodoo and voodoo and its significance in the story:

"Hoodoo is very much about medicine, root work, charms, and healing, distinct from voodoo which involves gods and loa. Incorporating hoodoo adds a layer of cultural depth and resistance to the narrative."
[14:56]

He recounts historical instances where hoodoo was used as a form of resistance, such as concocting teas to help prevent young men from being drafted into war, highlighting the real-world applications of these spiritual practices.

Author's Motivation and Research

Hendrix shares his personal connection to the subject matter, revealing that two family members were sent to maternity homes. This revelation spurred his interest in uncovering the untold stories of these women. He cites influential works like Ann Fessler's The Girls Who Went Away and Ricky Solinger's Wake Up Little Susie as pivotal in shaping his understanding.

"I was wrestling with why these women were forced to give up their children and the lasting impact it had on them. This led me to embark on writing Witchcraft for Wayward Girls."
[07:55]

Despite facing challenges in writing the book, including numerous revisions and creative disagreements with his editor, Hendrix persevered, driven by a commitment to accurately portray the experiences of these women.

Depiction of Birth and Medical Practices

The novel includes intense and realistic birth scenes that reflect the harsh realities of 1970s medical practices. Hendrix shares insights from his research, highlighting the often brutal treatment women received:

"Doctors would induce labor prematurely or use forceful methods because they didn't want to deal with prolonged births. Women were kept in the dark, sometimes physically restrained, and faced immense pain and fear during childbirth."
[10:35]

He emphasizes the miracle and terror of birth, capturing both the pain and the profound significance of bringing new life into the world amidst such oppressive circumstances.

Exploration of Good vs. Evil

Rascoe probes into the moral complexities within the novel, questioning the nature of evil portrayed. Hendrix responds by highlighting the absence of clear-cut villains:

"There isn't a traditional villain. The people running the homes believed they were doing what was best for these girls. The witches offer knowledge and liberation, but both paths the girls can take are fraught with danger."
[18:36]

This nuanced portrayal underscores the story's exploration of systemic oppression and the desperate measures individuals take to reclaim agency over their lives.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with Hendrix reflecting on the interconnectedness of personal narratives and historical injustices, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in shedding light on forgotten or suppressed histories. He reiterates the novel's aim to blend horror with real-world issues, offering both entertainment and a poignant commentary on women's struggles for autonomy.

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Notable Quotes:

• Grady Hendrix:
  "They'd spend the last trimester in hiding, have their baby taken from them, and return home with fabricated stories about where they'd been."
  [04:46]

• Grady Hendrix:
  "I am a childless, middle-aged man... writing a book in which every character is a pregnant teenage girl required me to deeply engage with the experiences of real women."
  [09:52]

• Grady Hendrix:
  "There isn't a traditional villain. The people running the homes believed they were doing what was best for these girls."
  [18:36]

• Grady Hendrix:
  "I've been in the room for close to 90 live births. In every single one of them is a goddamn miracle."
  [12:57]

---

Production Credits:

• Produced by: Kim Naderfehn Pietersa
• Edited by: Jenny Schmidt and Liana Simstrom
• Engineered by: James Willits
• Executive Producer: Irene Noguchi
• Original Interview Produced by: Weekend Edition Sunday team including Andrew Mambo and Justine Yan

---

This comprehensive exploration of "The Girls Who Were Sent Away" offers listeners an in-depth understanding of the historical context, thematic elements, and creative process behind Grady Hendrix's Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. It underscores the enduring impact of societal pressures on young women and the complex interplay between power, control, and liberation.

Transcript

[Unknown Host]

Foreign.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I'm Aisha Rascoe, and this is a Sunday story where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story. You're probably familiar with the baby boom after World War II. There was a huge spike in fertility rates, but not all of those babies were wanted. At the time, abortion was mostly illegal in the US and so that baby boom, it also led to something that people have called the baby scoop era. Yes, that's actually what they called it. Before Roe v. Wade, there was a period from 1943 to 1973 when many unmarried women and girls were free, forced to give birth and put their babies up for adoption. The exact numbers are hard to know because these births often happened in secret in places called maternity homes. Grady Hendrix is an acclaimed horror writer and he made this tragic history the setting of his latest novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. It's a book that in some ways reverberates with the present today. Things are obviously different from the years before Roe v. Wade. Abortion is still a protected right in 21 states and the District of Columbia, and there are abortion pills now that can cross state lines. But with the fall of Roe and the resulting abortion restrictions, some of this history it echoes. Hendrix's novel is a spellbinding work that explores what happens when people who have been stripped of power suddenly gain it. My conversation with Grady Hendrix when we come back. Stay with us.

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[Aisha Rascoe]

Grady, thanks for joining us.

[Grady Hendrix]

Thanks for having me.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Okay, so set this up for us. The story starts in the early 1970s with a pregnant 15 year old girl, her very angry father at the wheel. They're speeding from Alabama to Florida. And there is so much judg at this time for unwed mothers in general, but especially for teenage unwed mothers. Tell us who the girl is and where her father is taking her.

[Grady Hendrix]

Her name is Neva. She's 15 and she's pregnant and she's being taken to a maternity home in Florida. And there were about 190 of these across America. You know, they were around for a long time, but their peak was really from about 1940, 45 to 1973, when Roe versus Wade passed. And this is where if your daughter got pregnant and didn't have a ring on her finger, you would send her. She'd spend the last trimester, usually of her pregnancy, in hiding, have her baby. Her baby would be taken from her and put up for adoption. And she'd return home with some kind of COVID story. You tell the family or the neighbors, oh, she, you know, visited her aunt this summer or she went to work on her French in Chicago. And she would be expected to never talk about or think about her baby again.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And the girls were kept under very tight control, like the woman running the place where Neva ends up. She instructs the girls, they are not to talk about their real identities. They're given fake names. And they are also kept in the dark about what exactly is gonna happen to them when it's time to give birth. They're told, oh, there's no pain, you'll just go on to sleep, you won't remember anything. And it's not true. Even back then, I mean, they had some stuff going on, but that's not true.

[Grady Hendrix]

Yeah, well, you know, the homes were run by, you know, the Catholic Charities ran homes, the Florence Crittenden Homes, the Salvation army. They were independent homes. And they all varied in how they treated the girls. I mean, you had homes that had nutritionists and obstetricians on staff who gave them classroom teaching, who had social workers. And then you had homes that were almost like prisons. Money was taken from them. They were kept indoors all day. But the few common things between the homes is, yes, you never used your real name, you never said where you were from, and you were kept ignorant. You know, all these girls had these due dates bearing down on them like freight trains. And they were dying to know what's going to Happen. And people say, oh, don't worry about it. That's none of your business. When, you know, it's kind of entirely their business.

[Aisha Rascoe]

You know, the novel's going along. It's all very realistic because, as you see, you know, these homes existed. But then here comes this bookmobile and a mysterious librarian and this spellbook for groovy witches. Yes, Talk to me about Fearne Rose, Holly and Zinnia. That's the kind of the group, or should I say coven, that comes together and their first foray into the dark arts.

[Grady Hendrix]

Yes. Well, you know, these girls are so hungry for information. And who gives people information but librarians? And in the late 60s and early 70s, there was a glut of these sort of supermarket paperbacks of, you know, everyday spells and how to cast charms and how to be a sensual witch. And I thought, well, what if a librarian gave them one of these books that actually gave them what they want, which is some power and control over their lives? What if one of these books really did teach them how to do witchcraft? And, you know, as they say, be careful what you wish for.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Exactly. I mean, so they get a little into it, they do a little spell, and they. Someone feels the effects of it. But, you know, things do get rough. Witches are witches. They're gonna do witchy things, and there's always a price to pay for power. But it really seems here that more of the horror in this book is the reality that the girls are living in, where they just. Over their bodies, their babies, their kids, and they. They're put in this position where they have to make these, like, horrible decisions, and they're just children. Like. Like. What kind of led you to. To write this kind of story?

[Grady Hendrix]

Well, two things, really. I mean, one was. So when I was in my twenties, I found out that you did. Two members of my family had been sent away to maternity homes, and they were both in their 60s or 70s. I would have never talked about it. And it kind of blew my mind, the idea that these women I loved very much had children and were expected not to know them or see them or think about them. And for all they knew, their kids were dead. Or maybe they were alive or everywhere. Maybe they hated them or maybe they had forgiven them, but they had no idea. And so I was sort of thinking about that for a while and really wrestling with it and trying to figure out, what was that? Like, why was this? Okay. And I read a book by a woman named Ann Fessler called the Girls who Went Away, which is. There's Very few books written about the homes. I mean, Ann's book and Ricky Solinger's Wake Up Little Susie are kind of the only two. And Ann Fessler's book is an oral history of the homes, and she lets the mothers talk about their experiences. And I was really blown away. I mean, the fact that millions of kids were born in these homes and that these were kids, you know, these were girls, and they were 14 and 15 and 13 years old. And we were telling them, give up your baby. Never think about it again. I mean, that's impossible for a mother to do. And just the cruelty of it really sort of made me think, there's something here. And it took me years until I was sort of like, okay, I'm gonna try this book. And then it took me two years to write it while my editor and I fought over a lot of it and I failed to write it several times and things just sort of went off the rails. But, yeah, so that's what I was thinking to get me here.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, I'm glad you stuck with it. And that's interesting about, you know, failing to write it, but get into this work. So that should give some people hope because you kept at it and you succeeded, right?

[Grady Hendrix]

Yeah, I mean, you know, and also, I need to say, you know, I am a childless, middle aged man. I have no place writing a book in which every character is a pregnant teenage girl. And so I had about 12 moms who really shared their birth stories. They let me ask stupid questions. I had about 4 obs and laborists who worked with me, both men and. And who I would just keep coming back to. Okay, what's the. And, you know, they really guided me through this. And so a lot of the time writing this book was trying to get that part of it right.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, because there are obviously birth scenes in this book, and they are. They're not for the squeamish. We should say, not for the squeamish.

[Grady Hendrix]

But isn't birth not for the squeamish?

[Aisha Rascoe]

It's not, no. I've done it. And I have to tell you, it's pretty. It is the best thing in the world, but it's also extremely terrifying. And so you talked about researching, were you surprised or shocked by some of the things you learned about hospital births, especially back then, and what they were like?

[Grady Hendrix]

Oh, sure. I mean, listen, giving birth in 1970, my hat is off to any woman who did that because they should get a medal of honor. You know, I had obs telling me stories about doctors who would Induce labor if their patient came in on Friday because they didn't want to mess up their weekend waiting around for her to give birth. Women were regularly tied down at that point when they gave birth. Girls like this who gave birth, as one OB pointed out to me, would probably just be knocked out because the doctor really didn't want to mess around with them too much and have to quote, unquote, deal with them. So even reading things like the Williams Obstetrics manual, Guttmacher's family planning, which was sort of the go tos at the time, the attitude towards things like morning sickness, that's all in a woman's mind. That's just a made up problem because a woman is uncomfortable with giving bir and so she's nauseated by it and if she gets comfortable with the idea of her pregnancy, it'll just go away. I mean, it was so. It really was eye opening in all the worst ways. But one doctor said something to me that really informed how I wanted to approach the birth scenes in this. It was a doctor I've known for a long time and she was telling me about her OB rotations in the 90s and, you know, really harrowing stories, the kind of, you know, war stories that just left my jaw on the floor. And at the end of our interview, she said something that really stuck with me. She said, you know, I've been in the room for, I don't know, close to 90 live births. And she said in every single one of them is a goddamn miracle. Something happens there that we don't have words for. And that really stuck with me and was kind of what I wanted to capture. Yes, it's horrifying. Yes, it's painful, yes, it's in intense. But this is everything, you know what I mean? This is we, this is where we all start. You know, there are two people in a room and then there are three.

[Aisha Rascoe]

When we come back, Grady and I talk magic.

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[Aisha Rascoe]

We're back with author Grady Hendrix. It's not giving anything away to say that this book involves magic, but you deal with different types of magic, right? Or witchcraft, like a certain type from the spellbook. But you also have root work, hoodoo that comes out of the African spiritual traditions. How did you learn about that?

[Grady Hendrix]

Yeah, so I'm from Charleston, South Carolina. I've done some research down in the Sea Islands. I helped someone write a book many years ago that had some hoodoo in it. And I just kept researching because it was this amazing tradition. You know, voodoo and hoodoo often get confused, but they're very different. I mean, voodoo has gods involved in the loa, and hoodoo is very much about medicine and root work and charms and healing. And and so it was this tradition that I worry is going to get lost. And it's a really intense part of sort of that Sea island, you know, South Carolina, going into Georgia tradition. It's so regional and so of those.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Islands, and it's also in North Carolina. I don't want to give away my family business, but we had some root workers in there.

[Grady Hendrix]

It was a form of resistance. You know, Dr. Buzzard, who was a really famous root doctor, he would when someone's son got drafted, he would mix up a tea for them and have them drink it. And what people figured later is the tea had gunpowder in it that would give them some cardiac arrhythmia. And so they'd go into their physicals and flunk their physicals and not be sent to usually Vietnam or Korea. So, you know, there was this really amazing other element to it where there was a really real world political edge to it.

[Aisha Rascoe]

One thing that this book obviously deals with is the misogyny that these girls face. They're all shamed for becoming pregnant. The boys really face no consequences at all. But they're also told that if they just go along with the plan, willingly sign Their rights away to their babies or unwillingly, then they can just go back to their lives like nothing else ever happened. And how damaging do you think that sort of lie is?

[Grady Hendrix]

Oh, I mean, I think that's something that haunts a lot of these women for the rest of their lives. You know, reading Anne Fessler's book, talking to a few people, you know, you're a kid, you can, you know, you can barely make decisions about what to wear, and suddenly you're being told you need to sign these papers and you have no choice. And these, these girls were not told their options. They were not told, you know, their legal rights. And I think a lot of them, I mean, I know a lot of them are haunted by guilt for the rest of their lives. And I've seen people reunite with their kids after being sent to maternity home, and it's incredible. It is really incredible. The, the, the, the healing that's there and, and how something feels completed is mind blowing. And I've seen, on the other hand, women who never saw their kids again. You know, it didn't necessarily ruin their lives, but it was always a shadow that hung over them for, for decades. And the fact that we did this on such a wholesale level as a society. And like you said, what made my jaw drop was how much we hated these girls. I mean, newspaper editorials about how Alcatraz should be turned into a home for unwed mothers, newspaper columnists calling these girls sick and unnatural and no consequences for the men. I read a lot of books of resources. I found one social worker manual, a handbook from 1974 that mentions unwed fathers in one sentence. And that's it.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And obviously you look at this and you think about, like, what is the evil in this book? These teenage girls, they're put into these positions to make these impossible decisions without all the information, without any real adult guidance. Like, is that the real evil in this story?

[Grady Hendrix]

You know, it's funny. I thought about this a lot, right? I write horror novels. I mean, I write entertainment. And in writing this, I was like, well, who are my bad guys? Who are my bad guys? Like, well, it can't be the witches. I mean, the witches are scary, but the witches are also offering knowledge and liberation. And I thought, well, is it the people running the homes? And I thought, no, you know, the people running the homes were really convinced they were doing what was best for these girls. Is it the girl who's got pregnant? No, of course it's not these girls who got pregnant, some of them were date raped, some of them were molested. Some of them just didn't even know what birth control was or have access to it. It's one of those stories where there isn't a villain. There are just a lot of people who were really convinced that they were right. And that conviction did so much damage to so many millions of people.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, it seems like there is a lot of gray in this world that you've created because there is this possibility, freedom in the path of. Of quote, unquote, darkness with the witches. And then there's the. The possibility of that. That lie that the girls are being fed, that if they just go along with giving up their babies, everything will go back to normal. But you show that both of those paths are messy. Like, is that how you think about this?

[Grady Hendrix]

Yeah. I mean, I think we're all told as teenagers, even as adults, to some extent, here's the path, follow the path, and everything will be fine. You won't have to worry about anything. And I think most of us know that that's just not true. And then I looked at these witches who were sort of the counterpoint to that. And what really inspired my witches was less sort of Wicca or paganism and much more. I sort of found the voice of the witches in political action literature of the late 60s and early 70s. Witch, which was a group known as Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground, all these groups that said, we are at war with the mainstream because the mainstream is leading us down a path of destruction. And all these groups have these same internal debates. You know, what is violence justified? How far can we push things if we're at war with the mainstream society? What does that look like? What are we allowed to do? And I think it's one thing to say, hey, I'm going off to join the Liberation Army. I think it's another thing to say, I'm never going home again, and I will live under an assumed name, and I will be on the run for the rest of my life. You know, it's scary. So, I mean, I think these girls are presented with two choices, and one looks very scary and the other looks very safe, and they're both equally dangerous.

[Aisha Rascoe]

And, you know, I wanted to ask you, obviously, you know, you are a horror writer, entertainment writer. You've written books like how to Sell a Haunted House, the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and My Best Friend's Exorcism. How do you come up with your ideas, man?

[Grady Hendrix]

They're everywhere. You know, I mean, the world is one of the reasons I write horror is because it's about the world around us. It's not about space or another planet or a fantasy world or the far future. It's usually about the here and now and people around us. And good God, there's so many stories, you know, if you're just willing to listen. And then once you add in that, like, you can make it not boring by throwing in a vampire or some witches or a werewolf or two. I mean, I wish I could keep up with how many books I want to write.

[Aisha Rascoe]

This episode of the Sunday Story was produced by Kim Naderfehn Pietersa and edited by Jenny Schmidt and Liana Simstrom. It was engineered by James Willits. Big thanks also to the team at Weekend Edition Sunday, which produced the original interview with Brady Hendricks. The Sunday Story team includes Andrew Mambo and Justine Yan. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Up first, we'll be back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

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