By standards that Elijah Pierson would later adopt, the immutable inequality of this tight-knit patriarchy was a perfect model of injustice. That women, slaves, and propertyless men should stand subordinate to the likes of Benjamin Pierson—or any other mortal—would one day look to Elijah like the negation of Christ’s Word. But for those raised within it, Morristown’s regime held out the example of mutual care and obligation: under the rule of fathers, widows stayed warm in winter, deaf people took the best seats in church, and men like Usual Crane kept their dignity. For generations of
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