Fall River Outrage

Fall River Outrage PDF Author: David Richard Kasserman
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812200888
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Fall River Outrage recounts one of the most sensational and widely reported murder cases in early nineteenth-century America. When, in 1832, a pregnant mill worker was found hanged, the investigation implicated a prominent Methodist minister. Fearing adverse publicity, both the industrialists of Fall River and the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church engaged in energetic campaigns to obtain a favorable verdict. It was also one of the earliest attempts by American lawyers to prove their client innocent by assassinating the moral character of the female victim. Fall River Outrage provides insight in American social, legal, and labor history as well as women's studies.

Fall River Outrage

Fall River Outrage PDF Author: David Richard Kasserman
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812200888
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Fall River Outrage recounts one of the most sensational and widely reported murder cases in early nineteenth-century America. When, in 1832, a pregnant mill worker was found hanged, the investigation implicated a prominent Methodist minister. Fearing adverse publicity, both the industrialists of Fall River and the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church engaged in energetic campaigns to obtain a favorable verdict. It was also one of the earliest attempts by American lawyers to prove their client innocent by assassinating the moral character of the female victim. Fall River Outrage provides insight in American social, legal, and labor history as well as women's studies.

The New Measures

The New Measures PDF Author: Ted A. Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052187131X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
This 2007 book debates about religion and democracy through a cultural history of nineteenth-century revival practice.

The Spectacle of Death

The Spectacle of Death PDF Author: Kristin Boudreau
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161592745X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
In 1787, Benjamin Rush cautioned that public punishments were dangerous to the social and legal authority of the new nation. For Rush, irrepressible human sentiments all but guaranteed that public punishments would turn spectators against the institutions responsible for the punishments. Although public executions of criminals ended early in the 19th century, debate over the morality of capital punishment has continued to this day.In this unique and fascinating glimpse into public reactions to prominent executions, from colonial times to the 1990s, Kristin Boudreau focuses on the central role of populist, often ephemeral literary forms in shaping attitudes toward capital punishment. Surveying popular poems, ballads, plays, and novels, she shows that, at key times of social unrest in American history, many Americans have felt excluded by the political and legal processes, and have turned instead to inexpensive literary forms of expression in an attempt to change the course of history.Among the significant capital cases that the author discusses are: the Haymarket anarchist trial of 1886; the lynching of Leo Frank in 1914; the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 and its effects on the Civil Rights movement; Norman Mailer''s treatment of the Gary Gilmore case in the 1979 novel, The Executioner''s Song; and the 1998 execution of Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who became a born-again Christian on death row.In the concluding chapter, Boudreau examines contemporary writers, musicians, actors, and other artists who are using their artistic media to influence official policies of states that permit capital punishment.By examining these neglected texts, Boudreau brings to light a compelling story about ordinary Americans fighting an entrenched legal system at times of great national crisis.

The Story of Abortion in America

The Story of Abortion in America PDF Author: Marvin Olasky
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433580470
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
Tracing the History of Abortion in America by Looking beyond the Laws to the Dramatic Stories and Colorful Personalities of the People They Touched Fifty years ago, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion-on-demand sparked nationwide tensions that continue to this day. In the decades since that ruling, abortion opponents and proponents have descended on the Capitol each year for marches and protests. But this story didn't begin with the Supreme Court in the 1970s; arguments about abortion have been a part of American history since the 17th century. So how did we get here? The Story of Abortion in America traces the long cultural history of this pressing issue from 1652 to today, focusing on the street-level activities of those drawn into the battles willingly or unwillingly. Authors Marvin Olasky and Leah Savas show complex lives on both sides: Some sacrificed much to help the poor and others sacrificed the helpless to empower themselves. The Story of Abortion in America argues that whatever happens legally won't end the debate, but it will affect lives. A Fair Survey of the History of the Debate: Opening with a foreword by renowned social conservative thinker Robert P. George, this book explores historic cases and key cultural moments from 1652 to 2022 Examines 5 Selling Points Used by Each Side in Different Eras: Anatomy, Bible, Community, Danger, and Enforcement Chronicles the History of Abortion through Personal Narratives: Includes the memorable stories of Isaac Hathaway, Susan Warren, Elizabeth Lumbrozo, John McDowell, Hugh Hodge, Madame Restell, Augustus St. Clair, Inez Burns, Robert Dickinson, Sherri Finkbine, Henry Hyde, John Piper, Lila Rose, Terrisa Bukovinac, Mark Lee Dickson, and many others Written for a Diverse Audience: While particularly useful for Christians who want to understand the history of abortion and its impact on American politics and culture, the book speaks to anyone who cares about abortion

Dangerous to Know

Dangerous to Know PDF Author: Susan Branson
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812201426
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
In 1823, the History of the Celebrated Mrs. Ann Carson rattled Philadelphia society and became one of the most scandalous, and eagerly read, memoirs of the age. This tale of a woman who tried to rescue her lover from the gallows and attempted to kidnap the governor of Pennsylvania tantalized its audience with illicit love, betrayal, and murder. Carson's ghostwriter, Mary Clarke, was no less daring. Clarke pursued dangerous associations and wrote scandalous exposés based on her own and others' experiences. She immersed herself in the world of criminals and disreputable actors, using her acquaintance with this demimonde to shape a career as a sensationalist writer. In Dangerous to Know, Susan Branson follows the fascinating lives of Ann Carson and Mary Clarke, offering an engaging study of gender and class in the early nineteenth century. According to Branson, episodes in both women's lives illustrate their struggles within a society that constrained women's activities and ambitions. She argues that both women simultaneously tried to conform to and manipulate the dominant sexual, economic, and social ideologies of the time. In their own lives and through their writing, the pair challenged conventions prescribed by these ideologies to further their own ends and redefine what was possible for women in early American public life.

Killed Strangely

Killed Strangely PDF Author: Elaine Forman Crane
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801471443
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
"It was Rebecca's son, Thomas, who first realized the victim's identity. His eyes were drawn to the victim's head, and aided by the flickering light of a candle, he 'clapt his hands and cryed out, Oh Lord, it is my mother.' James Moills, a servant of Cornell... described Rebecca 'lying on the floore, with fire about Her, from her Lower parts neare to the Armepits.' He recognized her only 'by her shoes.'"—from Killed Strangely On a winter's evening in 1673, tragedy descended on the respectable Rhode Island household of Thomas Cornell. His 73-year-old mother, Rebecca, was found close to her bedroom's large fireplace, dead and badly burned. The legal owner of the Cornells' hundred acres along Narragansett Bay, Rebecca shared her home with Thomas and his family, a servant, and a lodger. A coroner's panel initially declared her death "an Unhappie Accident," but before summer arrived, a dark web of events—rumors of domestic abuse, allusions to witchcraft, even the testimony of Rebecca's ghost through her brother—resulted in Thomas's trial for matricide. Such were the ambiguities of the case that others would be tried for the murder as well. Rebecca is a direct ancestor of Cornell University's founder, Ezra Cornell. Elaine Forman Crane tells the compelling story of Rebecca's death and its aftermath, vividly depicting the world in which she lived. That world included a legal system where jurors were expected to be familiar with the defendant and case before the trial even began. Rebecca's strange death was an event of cataclysmic proportions, affecting not only her own community, but neighboring towns as well. The documents from Thomas's trial provide a rare glimpse into seventeenth-century life. Crane writes, "Instead of the harmony and respect that sermon literature, laws, and a hierarchical/patriarchal society attempted to impose, evidence illustrates filial insolence, generational conflict, disrespect toward the elderly, power plays between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, [and] adult dependence on (and resentment of) aging parents who clung to purse strings." Yet even at a distance of more than three hundred years, Rebecca Cornell's story is poignantly familiar. Her complaints of domestic abuse, Crane says, went largely unheeded by friends and neighbors until, at last, their complacency was shattered by her terrible death.

Mortal Remains

Mortal Remains PDF Author: Nancy Isenberg
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812208064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Mortal Remains introduces new methods of analyzing death and its crucial meanings over a 240-year period, from 1620 to 1860, untangling its influence on other forms of cultural expression, from religion and politics to race relations and the nature of war. In this volume historians and literary scholars join forces to explore how, in a medically primitive and politically evolving environment, mortality became an issue that was inseparable from national self-definition. Attempting to make sense of their suffering and loss while imagining a future of cultural permanence and spiritual value, early Americans crafted metaphors of death in particular ways that have shaped the national mythology. As the authors show, the American fascination with murder, dismembered bodies, and scenes of death, the allure of angel sightings, the rural cemetery movement, and the enshrinement of George Washington as a saintly father, constituted a distinct sensibility. Moreover, by exploring the idea of the vanishing Indian and the brutality of slavery, the authors demonstrate how a culture of violence and death had an early effect on the American collective consciousness. Mortal Remains draws on a range of primary sources—from personal diaries and public addresses, satire and accounts of sensational crime—and makes a needed contribution to neglected aspects of cultural history. It illustrates the profound ways in which experiences with death and the imagery associated with it became enmeshed in American society, politics, and culture.

Popular Culture in American History

Popular Culture in American History PDF Author: Jim Cullen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470673656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
The second edition of Popular Culture in American History updates the text for a contemporary readership and explores academic developments in this area of study over the last decade. Fully revised second edition with over 50 percent new material Compact and classroom-friendly format Includes the best writing on popular culture from the 1970s onwards Essays examine pivotal moments, issues, and genres in American popular culture, from the ‘penny press’ to the Internet

Working Women, Literary Ladies

Working Women, Literary Ladies PDF Author: Sylvia J. Cook
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190296275
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Working Women, Literary Ladies explores the simultaneous entry of working-class women in the United States into wage-earning factory labor and into opportunities for mental and literary development. It is the first book to examine the fascinating exchange between the work and literary spheres for laboring women in the rapidly industrializing America of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As women entered the public sphere as workers, their opportunities for intellectual growth expanded, even as those same opportunities were often tightly circumscribed by the factory owners who were providing them. These developments, both institutional and personal, opened up a range of new possibilities for working-class women that profoundly affected women of all classes and the larger social fabric. Cook examines the extraordinary and diverse literary productions of these working women, ranging from their first New England magazine of belles lettres, The Lowell Offering, to Emma Goldman's periodical, Mother Earth; from Lucy Larcom's epic poem of female factory life, An Idyl of Work, to Theresa Malkiel's fictional account of sweatshop workers in New York, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. This vital new book traces the hopes and tensions generated by the expectations of working-class women as they created a wholly new way of being alive in the world.

Bard of the Bethel

Bard of the Bethel PDF Author: Wendy Knickerbocker
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443862320
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
The Rev Edward T. Taylor (1793–1871), better known as Father Taylor, was a former sailor who became a Methodist itinerant preacher in southeastern New England, and then the acclaimed pastor of Boston’s Seamen’s Bethel. Known for his colorful sermons and temperance speeches, Father Taylor was one of the best-known and most popular preachers in Boston during the 1830s–1850s. A proud Methodist, Father Taylor was active within the New England Annual Conference for over fifty years, and there was no corner of New England where he was unknown. His career mirrored the growth of Methodism and the involvement of New England Methodists in the social issues of the time. In Boston, the Seamen’s Bethel was nondenominational, and Unitarians were its primary supporters. Father Taylor was loyal to his benefactors at a time when Unitarianism was controversial. In turn, he was respected and admired by many Unitarians, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Father Taylor was a sailors’ missionary and reformer, a lively and eloquent preacher, a temperance advocate, an urban minister-at-large, and a champion of religious tolerance. His story is the portrayal of a unique and forceful American character, set against the backdrop of Boston in the age of revival and reform.