Populist Literary Responses to American Capital Cases
Focuses on the central role of populist, often ephemeral literary forms in shaping attitudes toward capital punishment. This work shows that at times of social unrest, many Americans feeling excluded by the political and legal processes, turned instead to inexpensive literary forms of expression in an attempt to change the course of history.
Uncovers the ways that race influences capital punishment, and attempts to situate the linkage between race and the death penalty in the history of America, in particular the history of lynching. This book looks at how the death penalty gives meaning to race, as well as why the racialization of the death penalty is uniquely American.
Uncovers the ways that race influences capital punishment, and attempts to situate the linkage between race and the death penalty in the history of America, in particular the history of lynching. This book looks at how the death penalty gives meaning to race, as well as why the racialization of the death penalty is uniquely American.
Whether conveyed through newspapers, photographs, or Billie Holliday's haunting song "Strange Fruit," lynching has immediate and graphic connotations for all who hear the word. Images of lynching are generally unambiguous: black victims hanging from trees, often surrounded by gawking white mobs. While this picture of lynching tells a distressingly ......
During the Civil War, over 30,000 Southern prisoners passed through the gates of Fort Delaware over the course of three years. As with all Civil War prison camps, Fort Delaware gained a reputation for wretched living conditions, and is still called the 'Andersonville of the North' by some historians.
The story of how first-generation Americans coupled their legacy of liberty with a penal philosophy that promoted patriarchy, especially for marginal Americans. How did classical liberalism aid in the development of such expansive penal practices in the wake of the War of Independence?
How is it possible for an innocent man to come within nine days of execution? This title answers that question through an analysis of the case of Earl Washington Jr, a mentally retarded, black farm hand who was convicted of the 1983 rape and murder of a 19-year-old mother of three in Culpeper, Virginia.