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The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler : A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America
The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler A Story of Rape Incest and Justice in Early America Author:Irene Quenzler Brown, Richard D. Brown In 1806 a 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. No one had been executed for rape in Massachusetts in more than a quarter century. Over one hundred local citizens petitioned for Wheeler's pardon—includin... more »g, most remarkably, Betsy and her mother. "The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler is at once a stark human drama superbly well told and a work of exceptional scholarship. The setting is that of Ethan Frome, and the book casts something of the same haunting spell, except that here the story is true in every detail. My admiration for the skillful and consistently fair-minded way Irene and Richard Brown have rendered the story could not be greater." —David McCullough, author of John Adams "As the Browns sensitively piece together this meticulously researched history, we see how the marginal life stories of the Wheelers clashed with the mainstream ambitions of government officials, lawyers and clergymen." —Lester P. Lee, Jr., Times Literary Supplement« less