The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Stor

Sweet, John Wood

ISBN 10: 1250761964 / ISBN 13: 9781250761965

Published by Henry Holt and Co., 2022

Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00103079956

Synopsis:

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 before: 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.

About the Author: 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. 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.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Stor
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: 2022
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good