Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America

Name: Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America
Price: 8.01 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780674017603

ISBN-10: 0674017609

ISBN-13: 9780674017603

Edition: 2003

Authors: Irene Quenzler Brown, Richard D. Brown

List price: $32.00

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Description:

In 1806 an anxious crowd of thousands descended upon Lenox, Massachusetts, for the public hanging of Ephraim Wheeler, condemned for the rape of his thirteen-year-old daughter, Betsy. Not all witnesses believed justice had triumphed. The death penalty had become controversial; no one had been executed for rape in Massachusetts in more than a quarter century. Wheeler maintained his innocence. Over one hundred local citizens petitioned for his pardon--including, most remarkably, Betsy and her mother. Impoverished, illiterate, a failed farmer who married into a mixed-race family and clashed routinely with his wife, Wheeler existed on the margins of society. Using the trial report to…

Book details

List price: $32.00
Copyright year: 2003
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 4/30/2005
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 408
Size: 5.13" wide x 7.94" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 0.946
Language: English

Irene Quenzler Brown, a historian, is Associate Professor of Family Studies, University of Connecticut.

Richard D. Brown is professor of history at the University of Connecticut. His books include Knowledge Is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700-1865.



List of Illustrations


Map: The Wheelers' and Odels' Massachusetts, ca. 1800


Introduction: The Ride to the Gallows



The Setting



The Trial



The Daughter



The Wife and Mother



The Condemned Man



The Final Judgment



The Execution


Aftermath: People and Memory


Notes


Acknowledgments


Index