Elaine Forman Crane's Books

Killed Strangely

The Death of Rebecca Cornell

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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Killed Strangely

The Death of Rebecca Cornell

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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.

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253

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Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801471451

ISBN 13

9780801471452

Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Common Law and Common Folk in Early America

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Common Law and Common Folk in Early America

By: Elaine Forman Crane

The early American legal system permeated the lives of colonists and reflected their sense of what was right and wrong, honorable and dishonorable, moral and immoral. In a compelling book full of the extraordinary stories of ordinary people, Elaine Forman Crane reveals the ways in which early Americans clashed with or conformed to the social norms established by the law. As trials throughout the country reveal, alleged malefactors such as witches, wife beaters, and whores, as well as debtors, rapists, and fornicators, were as much a part of the social landscape as farmers, merchants, and ministers. Ordinary people "made" law by establishing and enforcing informal rules of conduct. Codified by a handshake or over a mug of ale, such agreements became custom and custom became "law." Furthermore, by submitting to formal laws initiated from above, common folk legitimized a government that depended on popular consent to rule with authority. In this book we meet Marretie Joris, a New Amsterdam entrepreneur who sues Gabriel de Haes for calling her a whore; peer cautiously at Christian Stevenson, a Bermudian witch as bad "as any in the world;" and learn that Hannah Dyre feared to be alone with her husband—and subsequently died after a beating. We travel with Comfort Taylor as she crosses Narragansett Bay with Cuff, an enslaved ferry captain, whom she accuses of attempted rape, and watch as Samuel Banister pulls the trigger of a gun that kills the sheriff's deputy who tried to evict Banister from his home. And finally, we consider the promiscuous Marylanders Thomas Harris and Ann Goldsborough, who parented four illegitimate children, ran afoul of inheritance laws, and resolved matters only with the assistance of a ghost. Through the six trials she skillfully reconstructs here, Crane offers a surprising new look at how early American society defined and punished aberrant behavior, even as it defined itself through its legal system.

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289

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Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801462746

ISBN 13

9780801462740

A Dependent People

Newport, Rhode Island in the Revolutionary Era

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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A Dependent People

Newport, Rhode Island in the Revolutionary Era

By: Elaine Forman Crane

This work tells a story about the sea, an American colonial town, and the British. It relates how Newport's dependence on the Atlantic Ocean dominated nearly every aspect of its existence. Newport learned early from its watery surroundings that its survival and prosperity were inextricably linked to commerce. Dependent on a thriving trade, Newporters were willing to explore and combination of routes which suggested a successful return in voyage and investment. Newport's single-minded commitment to commerce produced a society in which people were also dependent on each other. Merchant and dockworker, sailmaker and rope-walk owner developed symbiotic relationships as a result of their common efforts to ensure the success of each voyage. Dependency also extended to social networks where the affluent took responsibility for other members of the community. Because of their dependence on unobstructed trade, Newporters had evaded British customs for generations, using methods which cast some doubt on their commitment to the law. Thus, when it became clear in 1764 that Britain would go to great lengths to enforce new duties, the stage was set for confrontation. In the end, events outstripped the ability of Newport to chart its own course as the violence escalated. The Revolution prematurely ended Newport's golden age and destroyed the town both physically and spiritually. A dependent people had gained independence but at a cost only a few could foresee.

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196

Publisher

Fordham Univ Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0823211126

ISBN 13

9780823211128

Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Common Law and Common Folk in Early America

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Common Law and Common Folk in Early America

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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289

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Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801462746

ISBN 13

9780801462740

Ebb Tide in New England

Women, Seaports, and Social Change, 1630-1800

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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Ebb Tide in New England

Women, Seaports, and Social Change, 1630-1800

By: Elaine Forman Crane

The status of women in four New England seaports during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is thoroughly documented in this illuminating work.

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350

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UPNE

Published Date

ISBN 10

155553337X

ISBN 13

9781555533373

Killed Strangely

The Death of Rebecca Cornell

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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Killed Strangely

The Death of Rebecca Cornell

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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253

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Cornell University Press

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ISBN 10

0801471451

ISBN 13

9780801471452

The Poison Plot

A Tale of Adultery and Murder in Colonial Newport

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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The Poison Plot

A Tale of Adultery and Murder in Colonial Newport

By: Elaine Forman Crane

Explores in colonial Newport, Rhode Island, the tumultuous marriage of Benedict and Mary Arnold in the 1720s and 1730s. In and through their sordid and possibly criminal marital story, in which Mary is accused of poisoning Benedict, Crane sheds light on the liabilities and possibilities for women under couverture, the complex social and economic networks that bound together the elite and laboring classes of Newport, and the trans-oceanic cultures of trade, consumption, and sociability that came to shape expectations for marital satisfaction on both sides of the Atlantic"--

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272

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Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

150172133X

ISBN 13

9781501721335

Ebb Tide in New England

Women, Seaports, and Social Change, 1630-1800

By: Elaine Forman Crane

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Ebb Tide in New England

Women, Seaports, and Social Change, 1630-1800

By: Elaine Forman Crane

The status of women in four New England seaports during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is thoroughly documented in this illuminating work.

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Page Count

350

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UPNE

Published Date

ISBN 10

155553337X

ISBN 13

9781555533373

Book's by Elaine Forman Crane

Killed Strangely

Killed Strangely

Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

A Dependent People

A Dependent People

Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores

Ebb Tide in New England

Ebb Tide in New England

Killed Strangely

Killed Strangely

The Poison Plot

The Poison Plot

Ebb Tide in New England

Ebb Tide in New England

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