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The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America
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About This Book
A riveting Revolutionary Era drama of the first published rape trial in American history and its long, shattering aftermath, revealing how much has changed over two centuries―and how much has not On a moonless night in the summer of 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 did what virtually no one in US history had done: she 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. The ongoing conflict attracted the nation's top lawyers, including Alexander Hamilton, and shaped the development of American law. The crime and its consequences became a kind of parable about the power of seduction and the limits of justice. Eventually, Lanah Sawyer did succeed in holding her assailant accountable―but at a terrible cost to herself. Based on rigorous historical detective work, this book takes us from a chance encounter in the street into the sanctuaries of the city's elite, the shadows of its brothels, and the despair of its debtors' prison. The Sewing Girl's Tale 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. New York Times Editors' Choice Winner of the Bancroft Prize Winner of the Gotham Book Prize Winner of the New York Society Library's New York City Book Award Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year Winner of the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History
Reviews
"Embellishing the thin historical record with lengthy discussions about Revolutionary era politics, contemporaneous romance novels, the development of Manhattan, Alexander Hamilton's alleged affair with Maria Reynolds, and other matters, Sweet paints an evocative portrait of 18th-century New York."
"The history of Manhattan, Revolutionary-era politics, class differences, and the social history of sex, marriage, and assault in the times bolster the tale, creating an incredibly immersive, highly readable exploration of an important moment in American history, perfect for readers of true crime, history, women's history, and narrative nonfiction alike."
"What we see is in some respects lurid and shocking, but it also delivers a vividly intimate portrait of American life as the nation was coming into being."
"[an] excellent and absorbing work of social and cultural history ..."
"It also includes numerous illustrations, maps, an extensive bibliography, and an index ..."
"The result is a masterful and sweeping account of life in 1790s America, where the tensions between classes, the role of the men who enslaved people in determining justice and the enforcement of patriarchal gender roles would each play a part in Sawyer and Bedlow's fates."
"Sweet skids a little too far for my taste into speculations and marginal discussions (the landholdings of distant relatives and so on) before pulling back to the main story — Sawyer's survival."
"This carefully researched book will appeal to historians, feminist scholars, and anyone with an interest in narratives that chronicle female erasure in a social system created by and for the benefit of (White) men ..."
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