The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America

by Irene Quenzler Brown, Richard D. Brown

In 1806 an anxious crowd of thousands descended upon Lenox, Massachusetts, for the public hanging of Ephraim Wheeler, condemned for the rape of his thirteen-year-old daughter, Betsy. Not all witnesses believed justice had triumphed. The death penalty had become controversial; no one had been executed for rape in Massachusetts in more than a quarter century. Wheeler maintained his innocence. Over one hundred local citizens petitioned for his pardon--including, most remarkably, Betsy and her mother.

Impoverished, illiterate, a failed farmer who married into a mixed-race family and clashed routinely with his wife, Wheeler existed on the margins of society. Using the trial report to reconstruct the tragic crime and drawing on Wheeler's jailhouse autobiography to unravel his troubled family history, Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard D. Brown illuminate a rarely seen slice of early America. They imaginatively and sensitively explore issues of family violence, poverty, gender, race and class, religion, and capital punishment, revealing similarities between death penalty politics in America today and two hundred years ago.

Beautifully crafted, engagingly written, this unforgettable story probes deeply held beliefs about morality and about the nature of justice.

Genres: True Crime, History, 19th Century, Nonfiction, American History

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are more theories in this book than I care for

[Nancy DeValve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently done some family tree research, I discovered that there are two Ephraim Wheeler's in the family tree (a senior and a junior). So the title of this book intrigued me. This Ephraim (who doesn't seem to be related to our family!) raped his daughter and was hanged for his crime. The remarkable thing is how his daughter had the courage to report her dad and to testify in court.

The research done to write this book is incredible and hats off to the authors who did all this hard work. That said, the book was very repetitive and not terribly intriguing.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of details. Good social history. Morbid subject.

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title suggests, Brown & Brown give a narrative account and try to understand the case of Ephraim Wheeler charged with raping his daughter in 1805, convicted of the crime, and hanged for it in 1806. It is a typical micro-history that takes this event as a way to examine the social, economic, and political climate of a specific time and place, Western Massachusetts and New England at the turn of the nineteenth century.

It is certainly a readable narrative that one could use in all levels of college courses--and one that would start some good (and probably heated) class discussions. However, the book is awful repetitive, both between chapters and within (sometimes the exact same explanations/facts are repeated on subsequent pages), and it makes for too long of a read sometimes. Partly this is explainable because Brown & Brown are working with a paucity of sources, none of the characters in the event beyond the judges, attorneys, or minister left much of a historical trail (in fact, the authors have been unable to trace the other members of Ephraim Wheeler's family after the trial). Thus, I laud the authors for their extensive and imaginative research to find what they did, but I think they also could have questioned some of their sources more (they tend to treat newspapers as completely truthful, for example).

Perhaps the best part of the work is its inclusion of changes in ideas on punishment and justice in the nation. This also means that there is less about historicizing the definition of rape and incest -- but the work also points to the need for more work on sexual crime in this era, especially because it feels like it happened more than we know because most historians look just to the highest (and most easily accessible) court records.

[Eggemeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read for those interested in the everyday dramas of lives not recorded in the text books. Decently, though not masterfully, written. Its success is firstly in the choice of a compelling subject, and secondly in the authors' approach, which is to take small fragments of evidence regarding an obscure event and fill in the missing pieces to construct a convincing whole, as an archaeologist would a piece of pottery. In this sense it succeeds as a crime drama, despite stumbling into the halting pace of a historical text at many points, and briefly crossing the line into romantic speculation at others. The area that generally impressed me was the artful way in which empathic feeling was generated for all of its "characters," retracing the steps of a political battle to its humanistic origins. Unfortunately, in the last couple of pages the authors give in to the temptation to reveal their personal opinion, which comes across as ultimately irrelevant and indulgent, particularly when tacked onto a book that succeeded largely on its ability to balance humanism and objectivity. My decision to recommend it would depend on one's affinity for histories in general.

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

where did “true crime” begin? While certainly not ground zero of the genre in America the tale of The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America by Irene Quenzler Brown, Richard D. Brown does provide an invaluable introduction to the topic as it played out in one 19th century New England crime. Informative and well researched.