FALL RIVER OUTRAGE Life, Murder, and Justice in Early Industrial New England

Softcover. 4th printing. A book recounting one of the most sensational and widely reported murder cases. When, in 1832 Sarah Cornell, a pregnant mill worker, was found hung, the investigation implicated a prominent Methodist minister, Ephram Kingsbury Avery. 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 favourable verdict. The author provides an insight in American social, legal, and labour history and in women's studies. This is one of the earliest attempts by American lawyers to prove their client innocent by assassinating the moral character of the female victim. The biographies of the two central characters also present an unusual opportunity to read life histories of average people participating in the creation of Jacksonian society. Illus., Conclusion, Bibliog. and Index. 280pp. trade size p/back. F. with no creasing to covers.