Dangerous to Know: Women, Crime, and Notoriety in the Early Republic

Susan Branson

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2008

Dangerous to Know

Women, Crime, and Notoriety in the Early Republic

Susan Branson

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812201420

Overview
Contents

About this book

This tale of kidnapping, betrayal, and murder follows the lives of two women on the margins of early nineteenth-century society, showing how they manipulated conventions to further their own ends while redefining what was possible for women in early American public life.

Author / Editor information

Susan Branson is Associate Professor of American Studies at Syracuse University and the author of These Fiery Frenchified Dames: Women and Political Culture in Early National Philadelphia, also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Reviews

"Branson brings us an account of sex and violence in an era marked by political unrest, social instability, and economic uncertainty . . . [and] urges us to rethink simplistic ideas about gender dynamics and the relative power (and powerlessness) of women at the time."—Journal of the Early Republic

"A rich, detailed account of an illustrative set of crimes and of the fine grain of the emergence of the penny press out of sentimental culture. Branson is to be commended for her scholarly rigor and sophisticated narrative technique."—Journal of American History

"A fascinating story that sheds light on gender roles in post-Revolutionary America. Most studies of women in this period almost necessarily focus on the elite. Dangerous to Know goes a few steps lower on the social ladder, allowing us to glimpse the lives of women who, while their values were 'middle class,' had suffered significant downward mobility. As Branson so engagingly shows, these were women who deliberately violated gender conventions even as they strove to retain a veneer of respectability."—Sheila Skemp, University of Mississippi

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
1. TWO WORKING WOMEN Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. MARRIAGE, MANHOOD, AND MURDER Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
3. THE "ENRAGED TYGRESS" Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
4. COURTING NOTORIETY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
5. AN UNSUITABLE JOB FORA WOMAN Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
6. BETRAYAL AND REVENGE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
AFTERWORD Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 200
Illustrations
- Other: 8 illus.
Keywords: American History; Women's Studies; Gender Studies; American Studies; Gender Studies

eBook

Published: March 26, 2013
ISBN: 9780812201420