Description
Book SynopsisA master storyteller presents a riveting drama of America''s first crime of the century--from murder investigation to a church sex scandal to celebrity trial--and its aftermath.In December 1832 a farmer found the body of a young, pregnant woman hanging near a haystack outside a New England mill town. When news spread that Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery was accused of murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, a factory worker, the case gave the public everything they found irresistible: sexually charged violence, adultery, the hypocrisy of a church leader, secrecy and mystery, and suspicions of insanity. Murder in a Mill Town tells the story of how a local crime quickly turned into a national scandal that became America''s first trial of the century.After her death--after she became the country''s most notorious factory girl--Cornell''s choices about work, survival, and personal freedom became enmeshed in stories that Americans told themselves about their new world of industry and women''s labor
Trade ReviewMurder in a Mill Town is a murder mystery, a sex scandal, a legal thriller, and a crystal-clear primer on how the rise of capitalism transformed the most intimate aspects of American life—all rolled into one. It is an essential read for anyone interested in true-crime tales and their hold on American culture. * Debby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher *
A young mill girl. A married minister. An inconvenient pregnancy. A suspicious death. A sensational murder trial. Bruce Dorsey's deeply researched account shows that the case captured the attention of antebellum America not just because of its lurid combination of sex and violence, but also because of the ways it played out contemporary conflicts over the changing roles of women—and men. Two centuries ago, an illicit affair could threaten a man's status and a woman's life. Now, after the overthrow of Roe v. Wade, the tragedy of Sarah Maria Cornell remains urgent, illuminating, and haunting. * John Wood Sweet, author of The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America *
This true crime history set in a New England mill town may seem familiar at first. But gradually peeling the onion, Bruce Dorsey reveals the exceeding strangeness of the times, reminding us that the past is a foreign country. * John Mack Faragher, Yale University *
This is a story of ordinary people living in exceptional times, who find themselves caught up in a rapidly changing world—a story that involves not only the two central protagonists, but hundreds of trial witnesses whose testimony illuminates their historical experience in striking detail, and dozens of journalists and popular writers who search for broader meanings in this episode of personal violence. In strikingly accessible prose, Bruce Dorsey brings his characters to life on the page. * Karen Halttunen, author of Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination *
Murder in a Mill Town highlights how little we've learned or changed since the 1830s. It almost reads as an indictment about America's petty fears about sex, women, and undermining religion- "almost an indictment" because, in his precise writing and masterful contextualizing, Dorsey doesn't offer an opinion. He lets the horror of our culture speak for itself. * Tony Russo, New York Journal of Books *
Table of ContentsPreface: Before the Curtain Rises Act I Murder 1. The Haystack 2. The Manufacturer 3. A Troubled Marriage 4. Native Sons 5. "Useful in this World" 6. "Factory Girl" 7. "Crazy Dow" 8. A Methodist Family 9. Moving Planet 10. Circuit Rider 11. Slanderer 12. Moral Police 13. Examination 14. Manhunt 15. "If I am missing" Act II Trial 16. Courtroom Tales 17. Physicians, Bodies, and Women 18. Doctor Visits 19. Sex Talk 20. Bad Stories 21. Passions and Self-Murder 22. "This most extraordinary of all cases" Act III Scandal 23. Mobs and More Murders 24. Conspiracies 25. Vindication 26. Camp Meetings 27. Seduction 28. Fake News 29. Stage and Song Coda Notes Index
