Overview

In the middle of the seventeenth century, judges in the short-lived New Haven Colony presided over a remarkable series of trials ranging from murder and bestiality, to drunken sailors, frisky couples, faulty shoes, and shipwrecks. The cases were reported in an unusually vivid manner, allowing readers to witness the twists and turns of fortune as the participants battled with life and liberty at stake. When the records were eventually published in the 1850s, they were both difficult to read and heavily edited to delete sexual matters. Rendered here in modernized English and with insightful commentary by eminent Judge Jon C. Blue, the New Haven trials allow readers to immerse themselves in the exciting legal battles of America’s earliest days. The Case of the Piglet’s Paternity assembles thirty-three of the most significant and intriguing trials of the period. As a book that examines a distinctive judicial system from a modern legal perspective, it is sure to be of interest to readers in law and legal history. For less litigious readers, Blue offers a worm’s eye view of the full spectrum of early colonial society—political leaders and religious dissidents, farmhands and apprentices, women and children.

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9780819577405

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Reviews

Two interests animate the book. First, Blue seeks to render the trials readable and to restore cases that were excised from printed accounts. Second, he offers commentary on the trials from the perspective of a seasoned lawyer and judge. The enjoyable and instructive manner in which he accomplishes both tasks makes the book worth reading by professional scholars and amateur New England historians. --Mary Sarah Bilder, The Journal of American History

Author Information

JON C. BLUE is a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court. He has written hundreds of judicial opinions and has given annual lectures on the United States Supreme Court to the Connecticut Judicial Institute since 1999. Prior to his judicial appointment, he practiced tax, civil rights, and criminal law. He lives in Hamden, Connecticut.

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