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The sewing girl's tale a story of crime and consequences in Revolutionary America

Summer, 1793. A crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel-- the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindicat...

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Main Author: Sweet, John Wood, 1966- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2022.
Edition: First edition.
Subjects:
Bedlow, Henry, > 1767-1838 > Trials, litigation, etc.
Sawyer, Lanah, > approximately 1776-
Trials (Rape) > New York (State) > New York > History > 18th century.
Rape > Social aspects > New York (State) > New York > History > 18th century.
True crime stories.
Summary: Summer, 1793. A crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel-- the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both Lanah's and her assailant's lives. The trial exposed a predatory sexual underworld, sparked riots in the streets, and ignited a vigorous debate about class privilege and sexual double standards. Sweet takes us from a chance encounter in the street, and shows that if our laws and our culture were changed by a persistent young woman and the power of words two hundred years ago, they can be changed again. - adapted from jacket
Physical Description: 365 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 25 cm.
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-347) and index.
ISBN: 9781250761965
1250761964
Author Notes: John Wood Sweet is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the former director of UNC's Program in Sexuality Studies. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at UNC, and the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, among others. His first book, Bodies Politic: Negotiating Race in the American North, 1730-1830 , was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Prize. He was named a Top Young Historian by the History News Network and has served as an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer. He lives in Chapel Hill with his husband, son, and daughter.

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