Overview

"A 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 and the power of religion in the early republic. Writers penned seduction tales, true-crime narratives, detective stories, political screeds, songs, poems, and melodramatic plays about the lurid scandal. As trial witnesses, ordinary people gave testimony that revealed rapidly changing times. As the controversy of Cornell's murder spread beyond the courtroom, the public eagerly devoured narratives of moral deviance, abortion, suicide, mobs, ""fake news,"" and conspiracy politics. Long after the jury's verdict, the nation refused to let the scandal go.A meticulously reconstructed historical whodunit, Murder in a Mill Town exposes the troublesome workings of criminal justice in the young democracy and the rise of a sensational popular culture."

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9780197633090

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Reviews

Murder 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 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 lifeDLall 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 womenDLand 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 worldDLa 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 *"

Murder 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 lifeDLall 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 womenDLand 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 worldDLa 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 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 * Sex, violence, and public spectacle invite storytelling, and the 1833 death of New England factory girl Sarah Cornell and the subsequent trial of her accused murderer, Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery, were no exception. Dorsey delves into this social drama... [and] introduces readers to 'band[s] of witnesses and storytellers,' who in their recounting of Cornell's life and death reveal the powerful forces reshaping 19th-century American society...Through a compelling story of normal people, Dorsey creates an approachable entry into a tumultuous period in American history. Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * Choice *"

Author Information

Bruce Dorsey is a Professor of History at Swarthmore College. He is the author of the award-winning Reforming Men and Women: Gender in the Antebellum City. He lives in New York City and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

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