woman – Discipline & Punish http://blogs.elsweb.org/disciplinepunish Early American Crime Narratives Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:05:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 elizabeth wilson http://blogs.elsweb.org/disciplinepunish/elizabeth-wilson-3/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:05:08 +0000 http://blogs.elsweb.org/disciplinepunish/2007/06/11/elizabeth-wilson-3/ Continue reading →]]> woman – In these time women were not received well and their testimony wasn’t worth much in court.  Even after Wilson attesting that her children were killed by her lover who did not have the strength to man up and accept his responisbility no one would take her word for it without hard evidence.  Instead they considered her the guilty party before going into trial and were determined to not be convinced otherwise.

trial – Now in our times every man is supposed to receive a fair and speedy trial.  This law wasn’t practiced back in the days when Wilson lived.  Often times many people went into trial already knowing based on their gender, status, and race what the verdict and sentence would be.  This proves to be the case of Wilson.

repentance – Repentance exists in Wilson’s narrative but its not direct.  It comes from a sorrow from a mother who has lost her children and can’t get them back.  Her pain is taken as regret by those who view it from outside of the cell bars while she serves out her prison sentence, and thus to them it seems as if she is guilty and only telling a different story to get out of her punishment.

]]> elizabeth wilson http://blogs.elsweb.org/disciplinepunish/elizabeth-wilson/ Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:22:06 +0000 http://blogs.elsweb.org/disciplinepunish/2007/06/05/elizabeth-wilson/ Continue reading →]]>
  • ignorant– not knowing of the fervently preached saving power of God’s mercy seems an almost shocking realization for someone in this time period. “during her confinement she was visited by serious people of different religious demonstrations, and appeared amazingly ignorant…” This is also a very important factor to consider when thinking about the pursuit of these ministers to try and reach out to these people while imprisoned before being executed. However, it is also an interesting concept to consider when thinking in terms of God’s grace as opposed to mercy. Regardless of whether this person, for instance, Wilson, is aware of any spiritual or religious teachings, nothing is really to say that she will not go to heaven after her execution despite her unawareness and lack of sufficient knowledge in respect to what was being taught in the different denominations.
  • dungeon– this was an interesting word choice for prison I believe. When considering what we know about dungeons as seen in history and entertainment, we can really catch a glimpse of what prison was like for the people being confined there. Also, we thinking about what all a dungeon entails, darkness, dampness, hollowness, hardness, perhaps we can also see into the minds and hearts of the prisoners that would offer some insight into why Wilson chose such a word to describe where she was being held. Furthermore, the fact that Wilson chose such a word in the context in which she used it, “the dungeon was the happiest place she ever was in her life,” suggests the reader with even more understanding of, perhaps, how bleak her life must have been before even being imprisoned.
  • woman– although a general term, it is very relevant not only to this text but others, like Patience Boston and Esther Rodgers. Gender is something always poking the back of the mind when reading these narratives and comparing crimes with crimes. There seem to be specific crimes in which the men we are reading about seem to partake and a separate type of crime in which the woman criminal participates. In all of the narratives, including this one about Wilson, the woman is guilty of fornication, a very specific, personal, intimate crime unlike theft, counterfeiting, and thievery that can be seen as crimes committed in different degrees. In a way, this causes the woman to appear less strong, even weak. The fact that her crime would be of an intimate manner may also suggest what many may view as a submissive behavior.
    • ]]>