Reviewed by Thomas A. Foster | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 61.2

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Reviewed by Thomas A. Foster | Book Review | The William and Mary Quarterly, 61.2 | The History Cooperative

Reviews of Books

Spellbinding Masculinity: Microhistories of Violence, Gender, and Sexuality in the Early American Family

The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America. By Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard D. Brown. (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003. Pp. 388. $26.95.)
Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell. By Elaine Forman Crane. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi, 236. $24.95.)
Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia. By John Ruston Pagan. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. 222. $55.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.) Reviewed by Thomas A. Foster , University of Miami
"Enthralling," "engrossing," and a "page-turner" are expressions the general public reserves for the latest John Grisham or Steven King novel. Scholars, of course, might just as easily use these terms to describe the dry and dusty pages of a fourteenth-century manuscript or seventeenth-century inventory, but, as the professional historian's own version of the jeremiad has been telling us for years now, nonacademics mostly think otherwise. Although previous generations might have read history, we are warned, monographs are now reaching fewer and fewer reading souls. Whether this is true or not, microhistories have sought to address this perception.	1
With their focus on human sentiment and human dramas that are easy for modern readers to relate to, microhistories tell interesting stories while illustrating important political, economic, legal, social, and cultural contexts. The genre has mixed appeal among academics; some bemoan the general trend to sacrifice analysis for narrative. But, if ever there was a job for the microhistory, it is bringing early American history to an audience that probably yawns at the thought of Puritans in black clothes and squirms in confusion over founding fathers who proclaimed liberty for all but seemed to offer it to only a few.	2
Three recent microhistories focus on early America and, with brilliant writing and research, bring us closer to understanding what it was like to live in that period. These works remind us that conflict was central to family experience and that intersections of gender, sexuality, and violence were essential to both family and community in early America. All three also, through compelling narratives, set in motion what will be familiar bits and pieces to scholars of early America, including the development of a localized legal system—but do so in a refreshing and vivid manner.	3
Elaine Forman Crane's Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell brings to life the fascinating case that began in the winter of 1673 in Rhode Island when a seventy-three-year-old widow was found dead in her chamber, her body charred beyond recognition. Was it suicide? The result of an attack perpetrated by native Americans? Matricide? A horrible accident? Crane spends a chapter rummaging through some possible explanations, never tilting her hand to reveal her own underlying belief. The community was less fanciful in its consideration of the case, and for the crime they hanged Rebecca's son, Thomas—but not before an extraordinary chain of events unfolded.	. . .

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