Books to Borrow Williamsburg Public Library Recommends

TROUBLESOME WOMEN

Gender, Crime and Punishment in

Antebellum, Pennsylvania

By Erica Rhodes Hayden

Books that are given in memory or in honor of someone is a great way to help the library, by giving a gift that keeps on giving.

"Troublesome Women" was given in memory of a feisty woman, who loved history and talking about the feisty women in her family tree.

The author, Erica Rhodes Hayden, did undergrad work at Juniata College in Huntingdon, so here is a book with local connections. (spoiler alert: there is at least one local case discussed).

"Troublesome Women" traces the experiences of women lawbreakers in Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1860. Following these women from the perpetration of their crimes through the state's efforts to punish and reform them, the author places them at the center of their own stories.

Women constituted a small percentage of those tried in courtrooms and sentenced to prison terms, yet their experiences offer valuable insight into the era's criminal justice system. Hayden shows how criminal punishment and reform intersected with larger social issues of the time, including questions of race, class, gender and immigration status.

The author separates the crimes committed into three classifications: economic need, women's status inequities and political dissent.

Women who were in "lower classes" because of race, ethnicity and poverty were engaged in crimes of theft, larceny, prostitution and homelessness. Women in abusive or hopeless marriages sometimes resorted to murder, as divorce was nearly impossible to accomplish. Women were engaged in political dissent and riots to help bring about better wages and conditions for themselves and their spouses.

Because there were few women in the early prison system, how to house, correct and reform them was difficult to bring about. As the decades passed, several organizations, both religious and those instituted by women, began programs to specifically address the needs of incarcerated women.

"Troublesome Women" advances understanding of female crime and punishment in the early Republic and challenges preconceived notions of 19th century womanhood.