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1
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32244443975
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Introduction: The crime of history
-
Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, eds., (Baltimore, Md.)
-
Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, "Introduction: The Crime of History," in Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero, eds., History from Crime (Baltimore, Md., 1994), vii;
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(1994)
History from Crime
-
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Muir, E.1
Ruggiero, G.2
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3
-
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0004204669
-
-
Chapel Hill, N.C.
-
For just a selection of similar statements see Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1995), 4;
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(1995)
Women before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789
, pp. 4
-
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Dayton, C.H.1
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5
-
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0008454359
-
Love and death in gay Paris: Homosexuality and criminality in the 1870s
-
Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant Ragan, eds. (New York)
-
William Peniston, "Love and Death in Gay Paris: Homosexuality and Criminality in the 1870s," in Jeffrey Merrick and Bryant Ragan, eds., Homosexuality in Modern France (New York, 1996), 129;
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(1996)
Homosexuality in Modern France
, pp. 129
-
-
Peniston, W.1
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9
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0345602959
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'Horrible temptations': Sex, men and working-class male youth in Urban Ontario, 1890-1935
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Steven Maynard, "'Horrible Temptations': Sex, Men and Working-Class Male Youth in Urban Ontario, 1890-1935," Canadian Historical Review 78, no. 2 (1997): 197;
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(1997)
Canadian Historical Review
, vol.78
, Issue.2
, pp. 197
-
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Maynard, S.1
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10
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32244440410
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Dayton, 4
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Dayton, 4;
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12
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32244433689
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Dubinsky, 4
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Dubinsky, 4;
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-
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14
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0346116552
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Introduction
-
Franca lacovetta and Wendy Mitchinson, eds. (Toronto)
-
Franca Iacovetta and Wendy Mitchinson, "Introduction," in Franca lacovetta and Wendy Mitchinson, eds., On the Case: Explorations in Social History (Toronto, 1998), 6.
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(1998)
On the Case: Explorations in Social History
, pp. 6
-
-
Iacovetta, F.1
Mitchinson, W.2
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18
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32244444055
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Dubinsky, 114
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Dubinsky, 114;
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-
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19
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32244432081
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Hodes, 11, 216 n. 21
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Hodes, 11, 216 n. 21;
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21
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32244444839
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Rocke, 8-9
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Rocke, 8-9.
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-
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23
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0039638564
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Stanford, Calif.
-
Natalie Davis associates this method with the effort of historians to be "scientific," although her metaphor for the approach is that of "peel[ing] away the fictive elements in our documents so that we could get at the real facts" (Fiction in the Archives [Stanford, Calif., 1987], 3).
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(1987)
Fiction in the Archives
, pp. 3
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-
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24
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84933458744
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Theorizing deviant historiography
-
quote on 58
-
Jennifer Terry, "Theorizing Deviant Historiography," differences 3, no. 2 (1991): 57-59, quote on 58.
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(1991)
Differences
, vol.3
, Issue.2
, pp. 57-59
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Terry, J.1
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27
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32244445246
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Bray, 41-42
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Bray, 41-42;
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28
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32244435774
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Trumbach, 13
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Trumbach, 13;
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-
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29
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32244435599
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Stone cited in Hodes, 11
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Stone cited in Hodes, 11.
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-
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30
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32244432687
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New York
-
Graham Robb, Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 2003), 17. That comment is part of a long, trenchant attack on the excessive reliance on legal records by historians of sexuality, a largely misdirected critique in that Robb's target is a quantitative analysis rather than the qualitative approach employed by most historians of sexuality.
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(2003)
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century
, pp. 17
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Robb, G.1
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31
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32244438446
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note
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This discussion does not offer a comprehensive survey of the use of legal records by historians or even by historians of sexuality. I had ambitions to offer such a review, but the literature proved just too large, the legal records and institutions too diverse in nature.
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-
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32
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32244439463
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note
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In addition, on the outside of the file envelope were the file number, the defendant's name and address, as well as annotations and, later, stamps recording the disposition of the case.
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33
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32244439745
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note
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Although such items appeared only rarely, they disrupted the sense of distance from the event that I often felt in the face of the layers of text and procedure produced by the legal process. It was profoundly unsettling to turn a page and find myself staring into the face of an accused rapist or to pull from a crumpled brown paper bag a pill container and rubber tube and suddenly realize I was holding the tools that a woman had been accused of using to perform an abortion.
-
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34
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32344442757
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On trial for sodomy in early modern Germany
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Tom Betteridge, ed., (Manchester)
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Maria Boes, "On Trial for Sodomy in Early Modern Germany," in Tom Betteridge, ed., Sodomy in Early Modern Europe (Manchester, 2000), 27.
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(2000)
Sodomy in Early Modern Europe
, pp. 27
-
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Boes, M.1
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36
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32244439460
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Husband(ry): Narratives of rape in the seventeenth century
-
Miranda Chaytor, "Husband(ry): Narratives of Rape in the Seventeenth Century," Gender and History 7, no. 3 (1995): 380.
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(1995)
Gender and History
, vol.7
, Issue.3
, pp. 380
-
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Chaytor, M.1
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38
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32244435992
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Dubinsky, 45
-
Dubinsky, 45. In the following paragraph Dubinsky provides the additional details that the case was only reported because Mary's mother discovered her stained chemise the next day and that Hubert told police that Mary was "willing enough" and changed her story when caught by her parents.
-
-
-
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39
-
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32244447676
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-
Ibid., 6-7
-
Ibid., 6-7. Elsewhere in her book Dubinsky does allude to details drawn from trial testimony and cross-examination.
-
-
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40
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32244437083
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New York
-
The idea that historians repress any self-consciousness about their sources comes from Cynthia Herrup, A House in Gross Disorder: Sex, Law and the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven (New York, 1999), 8. This is true of perhaps the most influential social history analysis of case file evidence, Linda Gordon's study of family violence in the twentieth-century United States. Gordon claims to have told "whole stories rather than excerpts from stories" in order, in part, "to maximize the reader's opportunity to 'see' my interpretation and to argue with it." However, those whole stories prove to be narratives constructed, in an act of interpretation that she does not show the reader, out of the caseworker's notes, interagency memoranda, and notes from clients that make up social agency case files.
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(1999)
A House in Gross Disorder: Sex, Law and the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven
, pp. 8
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Herrup, C.1
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42
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32244432374
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New York
-
John Brewer, A Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 2004), 292-93. My concern about reading against the grain is somewhat different from the poststructuralist critique. That position argues that reading against the grain assumes, as Maynard puts it, that "once gender, class and race biases of the legal system and its records are accounted for, their subject will be there in the sources, already constituted, waiting to be revealed" (198), that, for example, evidence of the homosexual experience will become visible. Critics, most notably Joan Scott, have argued that there are no "fixed identities visible to us as social or natural facts," no individuals who have experience, only subjects who are constituted through experience. Case files, they argue, thus reveal not already constituted individuals but the process of identity production.
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(2004)
A Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the Eighteenth Century
, pp. 292-293
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Brewer, J.1
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43
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0000652861
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The evidence of experience
-
Summer
-
See Joan Scott, "The Evidence of Experience," Critical Inquiry 17 (Summer 1991): 773-97. That argument is theoretical; my critique is methodological.
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(1991)
Critical Inquiry
, vol.17
, pp. 773-797
-
-
Scott, J.1
-
45
-
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32244438069
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Herrup, 6
-
Herrup, 6. Prefacing such narratives with an account of the institution that produced the records from which they are derived and how that institution worked does not effectively remove that barrier to analysis. That approach does reveal more about the nature of documents that underpin narratives but nothing about the interpretative choices made in the extraction of facts or the construction of narratives from those documents.
-
-
-
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46
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32244446046
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-
Ibid., 8
-
Ibid., 8.
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-
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47
-
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32244440212
-
-
Ibid., 7
-
Ibid., 7.
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-
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49
-
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32244438821
-
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Baton Rouge
-
Winthrop Jordan, Tumult and Silence at Second Creek: An Inquiry into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy (Baton Rouge, 1993), 96-98, 139-43. At another point Jordan uses a passage in which a phrase was crossed out as evidence of the jumbled collection of thoughts and feelings that the slaves' testimony provoked in the white audience (169-70). Thanks to Shane White for this reference. The influence of white reactions to the testimony of slaves accused of insurrection on how that testimony was recorded and presented is also at the heart of Michael Johnson's revisionist interpretation of the trial of Denmark Vesey.
-
(1993)
Tumult and Silence at Second Creek: An Inquiry into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy
, pp. 96-98
-
-
Jordan, W.1
-
50
-
-
0141714115
-
Denmark vesey and his co-conspirators
-
October
-
See Michael Johnson, "Denmark Vesey and His Co-Conspirators," William and Mary Quarterly 58, no. 4 (October 2001): 915-76. Thanks to Frances Clarke for this reference.
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(2001)
William and Mary Quarterly
, vol.58
, Issue.4
, pp. 915-976
-
-
Johnson, M.1
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53
-
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32244434218
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Gordon, 14, 24
-
Gordon, 14, 24.
-
-
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54
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32244432688
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Ullman, 29
-
Ullman, 29.
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-
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55
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32244433777
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Ibid., 34-35
-
Ibid., 34-35.
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-
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56
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60950010885
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Microhistory and the post-modern challenge
-
Spring
-
This point applies also to microhistory, an approach that re-creates an event in great detail, crafting the evidence into a story, complete with portraits of the individuals involved, that explains the broader culture. The explanatory power of that approach comes from grounding an event in "thorough, multi-dimensional contextualization" (Richard Brown, "Microhistory and the Post-Modern Challenge," Journal of the Early Republic 23, no. 1 [Spring 2003]: 18).
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(2003)
Journal of the Early Republic
, vol.23
, Issue.1
, pp. 18
-
-
Brown, R.1
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57
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32244446143
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New York
-
Two excellent recent examples of histories of sexuality that take such an approach are John Pagan's study of the case of Anne Orthwood, which explores the litigation resulting from an illegitimate birth, and Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard Brown's examination of the case involving Ephraim Wheeler, which looks at an incest case in early-nineteenth-century Massachusetts (John Pagan, Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia [New York, 2003]
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(2003)
Anne Orthwood's Bastard: Sex and Law in Early Virginia
-
-
Pagan, J.1
-
58
-
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32244447949
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Cambridge, Mass.
-
and Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard Brown, The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler [Cambridge, Mass., 2003]). As fine as these studies are, their concern to construct a compelling story leaves little room for explicit reflection on how that narrative was created, for self-consciousness about sources.
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(2003)
The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler
-
-
Brown, I.Q.1
Brown, R.2
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59
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32244445460
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-
note
-
Here I borrow Cynthia Herrup's formulation of this issue (153).
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-
-
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60
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32244434397
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Brewer, 293
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Brewer, 293.
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-
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61
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32244449382
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Dubinsky, 6
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Dubinsky, 6.
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-
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63
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32244435889
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Dubinsky, 7, 10
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Dubinsky, 7, 10.
-
-
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64
-
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32244435773
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chap. 325
-
Laws of New York, 1892, chap. 325, 681.
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(1892)
Laws of New York
, pp. 681
-
-
-
65
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0036334276
-
Age of consent law and the making of modern childhood in New York City, 1886-1921
-
Summer
-
This paragraph summarizes the argument of my "Age of Consent Law and the Making of Modern Childhood in New York City, 1886-1921," Journal of Social History 35, no. 4 (Summer 2002): 781-98.
-
(2002)
Journal of Social History
, vol.35
, Issue.4
, pp. 781-798
-
-
-
66
-
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0031609994
-
Signs, marks and private parts: Doctors, legal discourses and evidence of rape in the United States, 1823-1930
-
January
-
My research on the role of medical evidence in early-twentieth-century rape prosecutions offers an example of what can be revealed by looking to both trial and appellate courts. See my "Signs, Marks and Private Parts: Doctors, Legal Discourses and Evidence of Rape in the United States, 1823-1930," Journal of the History of Sexuality 8, no. 3 (January 1998): 372-86.
-
(1998)
Journal of the History of Sexuality
, vol.8
, Issue.3
, pp. 372-386
-
-
-
67
-
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32244433396
-
-
Chapel Hill, N.C., 18
-
Lisa Lindquist Dorr, White Women, Rape, and the Power of Race in Virginia, 1900-1960 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2004), 252-53 nn. 16, 18.
-
(2004)
White Women, Rape, and the Power of Race in Virginia, 1900-1960
, Issue.16
, pp. 252-253
-
-
Dorr, L.L.1
-
68
-
-
32244436711
-
-
Lisa Lindquist Dorr, White Women, Rape, and the Power of Race in Virginia, 1900-1960 Ibid., 5, 28, 114. Dorr, however, offers no analysis of either the institution of the gubernatorial pardon or the nature of the records, discussing only what the decisions reveal about relationships. She simply notes that petitions contained "descriptions and interpretations of actions that resulted in black men's arrests and convictions and often included legal officials' re-evaluation of the seriousness of those actions" and also "frequently included the defendant's own account of events, and statements by judges and state officials regarding the meaning of a jury's verdict" (54).
-
White Women, Rape, and the Power of Race in Virginia, 1900-1960
, pp. 5
-
-
Dorr, L.L.1
-
71
-
-
0346478770
-
The legal ways of seduction
-
April
-
For the civil action in the U.S. context see Lea VanderVelde, "The Legal Ways of Seduction," Stanford Law Review 48 (April 1996): 871-901;
-
(1996)
Stanford Law Review
, vol.48
, pp. 871-901
-
-
VanderVelde, L.1
-
72
-
-
85010126513
-
'Women understand so little, they call my good nature "deceit"': A feminist rethinking of seduction
-
Jane Larson, "'Women Understand So Little, They Call My Good Nature "Deceit"': A Feminist Rethinking of Seduction," Columbia Law Review 93 (1993): 374-472.
-
(1993)
Columbia Law Review
, vol.93
, pp. 374-472
-
-
Larson, J.1
-
73
-
-
32244437339
-
-
Dubinsky, 71-81
-
Dubinsky, 71-81.
-
-
-
-
74
-
-
32244445355
-
Seduction, sexual violence and marriage in New York city, 1886-1955
-
forthcoming, Summer
-
See my "Seduction, Sexual Violence and Marriage in New York City, 1886-1955," Law and History Review 24, no. 2 (forthcoming, Summer 2006).
-
(2006)
Law and History Review
, vol.24
, Issue.2
-
-
-
79
-
-
32244447566
-
-
Chaytor, esp. 380-81
-
Chaytor, esp. 380-81.
-
-
-
-
80
-
-
11544249832
-
Rereading rape and sexual violence in early modern England
-
April
-
For a further elaboration of how the specific legal context of early modern England shaped the depositions discussed by Chaytor see Garthine Walker, "Rereading Rape and Sexual Violence in Early Modern England," Gender and History 10, no. 1 (April 1998): 1-25.
-
(1998)
Gender and History
, vol.10
, Issue.1
, pp. 1-25
-
-
Walker, G.1
-
81
-
-
32244434948
-
-
note
-
Natalie Davis made a similar point about criminal depositions: witnesses were supposed to confine themselves to what they had seen or heard of a crime, and their stories often lacked a beginning and an end (5-6).
-
-
-
-
83
-
-
32244433687
-
-
This example is drawn from my "Age of Consent Law," 781-82.
-
Age of Consent Law
, pp. 781-782
-
-
-
84
-
-
32244433313
-
-
Herrup, 6
-
Herrup, 6.
-
-
-
-
86
-
-
32244441432
-
-
Gaskill, 24
-
Gaskill, 24.
-
-
-
-
87
-
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84858547351
-
Bringing rapes to court
-
April
-
Sharon Block, "Bringing Rapes to Court," Common-Place 3, no. 3 (April 2003), http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-03/block.
-
(2003)
Common-place
, vol.3
, Issue.3
-
-
Block, S.1
-
88
-
-
84858547351
-
Bringing rapes to court
-
Sharon Block, "Bringing Rapes to Court," Common-Place 3, no. 3 (2003), http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-03/block. Ibid.
-
(2003)
Common-place
, vol.3
, Issue.3
-
-
Block, S.1
-
89
-
-
85012506989
-
Making right a girl's ruin: Working-class legal cultures and forced marriage in New York city, 1890-1950
-
See my "Making Right a Girl's Ruin: Working-Class Legal Cultures and Forced Marriage in New York City, 1890-1950," Journal of American Studies 36, no. 2 (2002): 199-230. Odem, by contrast, although recognizing parents' attempts to use the law, emphasized the failure of those efforts and parents' loss of control once a case entered the legal system.
-
(2002)
Journal of American Studies
, vol.36
, Issue.2
, pp. 199-230
-
-
-
90
-
-
32244439461
-
-
Herrup, xiv
-
Herrup, xiv.
-
-
-
-
93
-
-
32244449116
-
Afterword
-
Christopher Tomlins and Bruce Mann, eds., (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
-
On this focus see Bruce Mann, "Afterword," in Christopher Tomlins and Bruce Mann, eds., The Many Legalities of Early America (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2001 ), 442-47;
-
(2001)
The Many Legalities of Early America
, pp. 442-447
-
-
Mann, B.1
-
94
-
-
0041329897
-
Beyond the enforcement principle: Sodomy laws, social norms, and social panoplies
-
May
-
Ryan Goodman, "Beyond the Enforcement Principle: Sodomy Laws, Social Norms, and Social Panoplies," California Law Review 89 (May 2001): 666-67, and Novak's brief skewering of some scholars' tendency to too readily assume that such a gap between the law on the books and the law in practice exists (274 n. 46).
-
(2001)
California Law Review
, vol.89
, pp. 666-667
-
-
Goodman, R.1
-
98
-
-
84904449717
-
Subordination, authority, law: Subjects in labor history
-
Christopher Tomlins, "Subordination, Authority, Law: Subjects in Labor History," International Labor and Working-Class History 47 (1995): 66-67.
-
(1995)
International Labor and Working-Class History
, vol.47
, pp. 66-67
-
-
Tomlins, C.1
-
100
-
-
79956967166
-
The legal past of early New England: Notes for the study of law, legal culture, and intellectual history
-
For critiques of this concept see Mann and Richard Ross, "The Legal Past of Early New England: Notes for the Study of Law, Legal Culture, and Intellectual History," William and Mary Quarterly 50, no. 1 (1993): 32-39.
-
(1993)
William and Mary Quarterly
, vol.50
, Issue.1
, pp. 32-39
-
-
Mann1
Ross, R.2
-
107
-
-
79959458499
-
Redirecting legal scholarship in law schools
-
Austin Sarat, "Redirecting Legal Scholarship in Law Schools," Tale Journal of Law and the Humanities 12 (2000): 134-37.
-
(2000)
Tale Journal of Law and the Humanities
, vol.12
, pp. 134-137
-
-
Sarat, A.1
-
108
-
-
32244433231
-
-
Goodman, 658
-
Goodman, 658, discussing the work of Jeb Rubenfeld.
-
-
-
-
109
-
-
32244433687
-
-
This example is drawn from my "Age of Consent Law," 793-94.
-
Age of Consent Law
, pp. 793-794
-
-
-
110
-
-
32244439276
-
-
Goodman, 650
-
Goodman, 650.
-
-
-
-
111
-
-
32244443686
-
-
Ibid., 684-711
-
Ibid., 684-711.
-
-
-
-
112
-
-
84858548897
-
-
Lawrence et al. v. Texas, No. 02-102, argued 26 March 2003, decided 26 June
-
Lawrence et al. v. Texas, No. 02-102, argued 26 March 2003, decided 26 June 2003, Opinion of the Court (delivered by Justice Kennedy) at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-102.pdf, 14;
-
(2003)
-
-
-
113
-
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84858548149
-
-
Brief of Professors of History at http://www.lambdalegal.org/binary-data/ LAMBDA_PDF/pdf/185.pdf.
-
-
-
-
115
-
-
52849114801
-
-
Opinion of the Court Ibid., 9. The only other evidence provided in the historians' brief, reflecting the state of the literature, is limited quantitative evidence of prosecution of offenses other than sodomy and evidence of political persecution in the twentieth century.
-
Opinion of the Court
, pp. 9
-
-
-
117
-
-
84858550101
-
-
Lawrence et al. v. Texas
-
Lawrence et al. v. Texas, Dissent (delivered by Justice Scalia) at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-102.pdf, 12-13.
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