280 pages

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Cry of Murder on Broadway , livre ebook

Cornell University Press - Julie Miller

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280 pages

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In Cry of Murder on Broadway, Julie Miller shows how a woman's desperate attempt at murder came to momentarily embody the anger and anxiety felt by many people at a time of economic and social upheaval and expanding expectations for equal rights.On the evening of November 1, 1843, a young household servant named Amelia Norman attacked Henry Ballard, a prosperous merchant, on the steps of the new and luxurious Astor House Hotel. Agitated and distraught, Norman had followed Ballard down Broadway before confronting him at the door to the hotel. Taking out a folding knife, she stabbed him, just missing his heart. Ballard survived the attack, and the trial that followed created a sensation. Newspapers in New York and beyond followed the case eagerly, and crowds filled the courtroom every day. The prominent author and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child championed Norman and later included her story in her fiction and her writing on women's rights. The would-be murderer also attracted the support of politicians, journalists, and legal and moral reformers who saw her story as a vehicle to change the law as it related to "seduction" and to advocate for the rights of workers. Cry of Murder on Broadway describes how New Yorkers, besotted with the drama of the courtroom and the lurid stories of the penny press, followed the trial for entertainment. Throughout all this, Norman gained the sympathy of New Yorkers, in particular the jury, which acquitted her in less than ten minutes. Miller deftly weaves together Norman's story to show how, in one violent moment, she expressed all the anger that the women of the emerging movement for women's rights would soon express in words.

Sujets

Histoire

USA

True crime

History of the Americas

États-Unis

Informations

Publié par	Cornell University Press
Date de parution	15 octobre 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781501751509
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	8 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,7500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cry of Murder on Broadway

A Woman’s Ruin and Revenge in Old New York

Julie Miller

Three Hills an imprint of Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Miller, Julie, 1959– author. Title: Cry of murder on Broadway : a woman’s ruin and revenge in old New York / Julie Miller. Description: Ithaca [New York] : Three Hills, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiﬁers: LCCN 2020012520 (print) | LCCN 2020012521 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501751486 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501751509 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501751493 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Norman, Amelia, approximately 1818– | Child, Lydia Maria, 1802–1880—Friends and associates. | Seduction—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century. | Attempted murder— New York (State)—New York—History—19th century. | Female offenders—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century. | Women—Legal status, laws, etc.—New York (State)—History—19th century. | New York (N.Y.)—Moral conditions—19th century. | New York (N.Y.)—Social conditions—19th century. Classiﬁcation: LCC HV6587.N4 M55 2020 (print) | LCC HV6587.N4 (ebook) | DDC 364.152/3092—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012520 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012521

Cover images: Amelia Norman during her trial, as depicted in theNew York Heraldon January 18, 1844. Background type scanned from the same issue of theNew York Herald. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Serial and Government Publications Division.

In memory of Minnie Singer Miller and Mollie Meyerowitz Silver, my grandmothers, who began their American lives as immigrant girls in New York

List of Illustrations

Contents

Prologue: Defending Amelia Norman

1. I Am Murdered

2. Jersey Maid and Damn Yankee

3. Go and Get Your Living

4. An Awful Place

5. A Great Heart

6. The Trial Begins

7. Verdict

8. The Law of Seduction

Epilogue: Harlot’s Fate

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Lydia Maria Child’s “Letter from NewYork No. V”

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130

147

165

167

vi i i

Contents

Abbreviations

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

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247

257

Illustrations

1.1 Warren Street, from Broadway to Church Street 1.2 Broadway, looking downtown, and Astor House 1.3 City Hall Park 2.1 Map of Sussex County, New Jersey, showing Peter Norman’s farm near Vulcan’s Head 2.2 Washington Street near the Ballard family businesses 2.3 The Tremont House 2.4 Map of the business district ﬁre 2.5 James Gordon Bennett, editor of theNew York Herald2.6 Broadway, looking uptown, and Astor House 2.7 The Astor House reading room 3.1 Map of Amelia Norman’s New York 4.1 The Tombs 4.2 George Wilkes, author ofMysteries of the Tombs4.3 Mike Walsh, editor of theSubterranean5.1 Lydia Maria Child, author, abolitionist, and Amelia Norman’s principal defender 5.2 Margaret Fuller, author ofWoman in the Nineteenth Century

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