FREE: The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai by John Tayman

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The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai (Hardcover)
Much like the early years of the AIDS epidemic, leprosy had created a fear of the unknown and brought out the worst of human nature. Supported by Biblical injunctions (like the ones that supported slavery), bigots would hunt down and exile those with leprosy as if they were sin incarnate instead of a person infected with a disease. Image isolating for life someone with migraines merely for having migraines -- there was no court of appeals, just a prison for life because they were ill.

America's role in this inhumane madness came after the American occupation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1893. The island of Molokai was already the site for exiled lepers on an isolated sliver of land for nearly three decades. American policy was one of neglect and of allowing "The Colony" to exist until 1969 -- a quarter century after safe medical treatment was devised.

The history of "The Colony" on Molokai will make the reader angry and ashamed of how the lepers were condemned, exiled, cut off from the world as if they were subhuman. Mr. Tayman graphically describes the cost that the lepers paid in being ostracized by society and the painful suffering endured by them with minimal medical care, shelter and food. James Michener described the leper colony in his sprawling historical epic novel "Hawaii"-1959. "The Colony" is not an easy book to read but it is a book worth reading.