Narrating Infanticide: Constructing the Modern Gendered State in Nineteenth-Century America by Felicity Turner Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Laura Edwards, Supervisor ___________________________ Holly Brewer ___________________________ Sarah Deutsch ___________________________ Pete Sigal ___________________________ Priscilla Wald Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 i v ABSTRACT Narrating Infanticide: Constructing the Modern Gendered State in Nineteenth-Century America by Felicity Turner Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Laura Edwards, Supervisor ___________________________ Holly Brewer ___________________________ Sarah Deutsch ___________________________ Pete Sigal ___________________________ Priscilla Wald An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 Copyright by Felicity Turner 2010 Abstract “Narrating Infanticide: Constructing the Modern Gendered State in Nineteenth- Century America” traces how modern ideas about gender and race became embedded in the institutions of law and government between the Revolution and the end of Reconstruction. Contemporary understandings of gender and race actually consolidated only in the aftermath of the Civil War, as communities embraced beliefs that women and African Americans constituted distinctive groups with shared, innate characteristics related solely to the fact that they were female or racially different. People then applied these ideas about gender and race to all arenas of life, including the law. Yet understanding the roles of women and African Americans through universalizing legal conceptions of gender and/or race—conceptions that crystallized in law only in the wake of the Civil War—elides the complexity of the ways in which antebellum communities responded to the interactions of women, the enslaved, and free blacks with the legal system. My study’s focus on infanticide, a crime that could only be perpetrated by females, reveals how women—and men—of all races involved themselves in the day-to-day legal processes that shaped the daily lives of Americans during the early republic and antebellum periods. Communities responded to cases of infant death informed by understandings of motherhood and child mortality specific to that particular case and individual, rather than shaping outcomes—as they began to do so after the Civil War—based on broad assumptions about the race or gender of the offender. My conclusions are drawn from almost one hundred cases of infanticide and infant death iv between 1789 and 1877 gleaned primarily from court records and newspapers in Connecticut, Illinois, and North Carolina. In addition, the study draws on reports of other instances from around the nation, as narrated in sources such as diaries, periodicals, newspapers, crime pamphlets, and medical journals. v Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements..............................................................................................viii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................ xii Introduction............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One Testifying to the Blood and Groans of Birth: Investigations into Infant Deaths in Post-Revolutionary America ....................... 20 Chapter Two The Importance of Local Knowledge and Reputation: Community Responses to Murderous Mothers..................................................... 48 Chapter Three Seduction, Sentimentality, and Civilization: Representations of Motherhood in the Early Republic and Antebellum Period... 81 Chapter Four Slavery, Abolition, and Murdering Mothers....................................................... 106 Chapter Five The Medicalization of Infanticide in Postemancipation America ...................... 133 vi Chapter Six The Meanings of Gender and Race in Postemancipation America .................... 154 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 183 Appendix A……………………………..………………………………………190 Bibliography………………………………………………...………………….191 Primary Sources...................................................................................................... 191 Manuscripts............................................................................................................. 191 Newspapers and Periodicals ................................................................................... 192 Published Primary Sources ..................................................................................... 194 Secondary Sources.................................................................................................. 198 Biography............................................................................................................ 217 vii Acknowledgements Writing is a solitary, at times extraordinarily lonely, endeavor. Completing a dissertation is, therefore, impossible to achieve without a veritable cheer squad of supporters, including family, friends, mentors, and colleagues. In my case, it has not mattered if they are located States side in Durham, North Carolina, or oceans away, in Melbourne, Australia. I have relied upon them all. Without these people, I know I could not have completed this dissertation. First and foremost, my greatest thanks are to my adviser, Laura Edwards. Laura has always known when to push me intellectually—and there are definitely times when I needed a decent kick. Unless Laura had prodded me into applying to Duke University seven odd years ago (decent kick number one), I’d be a lot less self-disciplined than I like to think I am these days. Laura’s ambitious commitment to writing books that people want to read, to crafting the absolutely perfect turn of phrase in every sentence that she writes, has served as an ongoing inspiration to me in my own work. Working with her has reminded me why I always wanted to be an historian. That’s quite an achievement. My parents were wondering when I was finally going to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. My committee members, Holly Brewer, Sarah Deutsch, Pete Sigal, and Priscilla Wald have provided me with the intellectually demanding and stimulating environment in which I needed to explore the parameters of this project. They have left me alone to viii do my work, but stepped in when I needed their feedback, support, and advice. I have enjoyed working with and learning from each and every one of them. Over the years, I have benefited from the feedback of numerous colleagues and friends at Duke, within the Triangle, and beyond. Particular thanks go to members of the Triangle Legal History Working Group, especially Jonathon Bird, Fahad Bishara, Mitch Fraas, John Hart, and Roman Hoyos who provided much-needed feedback on a very early draft of chapters one and two; Margaret Humpreys who shared with me her knowledge of medical history in the nineteenth-century United States, especially the history of abortion; Ed Balliesen who has provided valuable feedback on chapters one, two, and four of my dissertation in various iterations; Nina Dayton for comments she provided on an early version of chapter four at the American Society of Legal History conference in 2008 and the members of the audience at that same conference; Jim Schmidt for his ongoing interest in my work; and Cheryl Hicks for her comments on chapter six at the Race, Labor, and Citizenship Conference held in Charleston, South Carolina in March 2010 and members of the audience at that same conference. I also thank members of the Duke University Department of History with whom I have discussed and/or shared my work at various points in time: Eric Brandom, Katharine French-Fuller, Heidi Guisto, Cynthia Greenlee-Donnell, Treva Lindsey, Jacob Remes, Orion Teal, and Eric Weber. Finally, I offer special thanks to Kelly Kennington, who has been generous beyond compare with her own work, her time, and in her support as a colleague and mentor. ix This dissertation could not have been completed without the financial support I received from various funding bodies including the Duke University Graduate School; the Duke University Department of History; the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Endowment; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation; the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency; and the Illinois State Historical Society. One of the reasons I became an historian of America was because of a cadre of Duke-trained PhD graduates in Australia. For better or worse they were responsible for almost everything I knew of American history before I landed on American shores in August 2004. Antony (Tony) Wood did not live to see me finish my PhD. I hope that if he had, he would have been proud. He was, as I have told many people, a terrible lecturer, always sprinting towards the end of his notes as the clock struck eleven and we all began noisily closing our books, and shuffling out towards the next class.