From Discipline and Punish Class WIki
Alicia's final draft
The Role of Gender in Selected Narratives from Pillars of Salt'
Gender is one reoccurring theme throughout the narratives found in Daniel E. Williams's anthology, Pillars of Salt, An History of Some Criminals Executed in this Land for Capital Crimes with some of Their Dying Speeches. The following selection of narratives portray an idea that may very well be overlooked when discussing crime in relation to gender, particularly in terms of the female gender. They present exemplified relationships between the intimacy of crime and the woman living in the 18th century. Furthermore, through this relationship, the reader becomes aware of the woman’s weak and submissive place in society. However, as the narratives progress throughout the century, it becomes evident how these women broke from this mold, and by the beginning of the 19th century, had created a bold, confident, smart character for themselves; almost equal status with that of the criminal male gender.
The following are two excerpts taken from the narrative and confession of Mary Martin, as told by Cotton Mather in 1699. The crimes exhibited in this short narrative are very specific, not only is Martin guilty of fornication, but also infanticide:
Such was her weakness and folly, that she yielded unto the temptations of that miserable man; but yet with such horrible regret of mind, that begging of God, for deliverance from her temptations, her plea was that if ever she were overtaken again, she would leave herself unto his justice, to be made a publick example (Mather 65).
The narrative uses the specific word “weakness” as a direct adjective describing Martin’s character. The use of this word really speaks of an acknowledgement of power and subordination between Martin and the man with whom she was guilty of fornication. The way in which Mather presents this narrative, specifically, by choosing this short quote from Martin, also puts into perspective how he was conscious of the male gender’s supremacy over women, showing that the idea was conceptualized throughout society. It presents Martin as being inferior, fighting to become an equal with someone who she views, as well as Mather, as being more powerful than she. Martin was so overcome by an exerted power, perhaps both physical and emotional, that she succumbed to these crimes that ultimately resulted in her death.
Esther Rodgers is another woman who, in the Declaration and Confession of Esther Rodgers, 1701, represents these same ideas of weakness and inferior power. However, her narrative sheds a new light on these ideas and brings into mind a different sort of power struggle than that described of Martin:
And there I fell into the like horrible pit (as before) . . .of carnal pollution with the Negro man belonging to that house. And being with child again, I was in as great concern to know of how to hid this as the former. Yet did not so soon resolve the murdering of it, but was continually hurried in my thoughts, and undetermined till the last hour . . . I covered it over with dirt and snow, and speedily returned home again (Esther Rodgers, 97).
This was the second time in which Rodgers found herself in this compromising position; compromising in the sense that she had a choice to submit her physical body to the same sexual defilement that she had in the past. However, this narrative presents race in relation to the crime as well. In 1701, relations with a person of African decent were ill received. Not only was there a regarding structure of power between female and male, Rodgers also began toying with a power structure between race. Seeing as how Africans were looked at as inferior to those of the white race, Rodgers crime became that much more heinous. Not only was she submissive to a male, but also to a black male showing that much less respect for her role as a female within society. But also, taking into consideration her use of “pit” and “concern” in relation to her crime perhaps speaks of the larger socialized image of women of which Rodgers was aware. She knew where she stood in the view of society already by being a female. This idea was, perhaps, quite obviously, a catalyst in driving her to hide the “polluted” child and kill it. This was a manifest way of Rodgers literally hiding her actions, covering them from the public eye.
Elizabeth Wilson, 1786, represents another woman directly related to the murder of her two children. However, her narrative, A Faithful Narrative of Elizabeth Wilson, takes on a different voice than that of the other two. Rather than convicting this criminal on not only the basis of her crime but also her gender, the narrative has a tone of pity, of regret for this woman: “But here we must drop a tear! What heart so hard, as not to melt as human woe. . .Thus ended the life of Elizabeth Wilson, in the 27th year of her age; innocent, we believe, of the crime for which she suffered . . .” (Elizabeth Wilson, 276). Based on this last excerpt, one begins to see Wilson as an innocent person, not a judged woman. Her role as a woman in society is put second to the thought innocence. She is not a murderous woman, but a misjudged human being.
Once again, in 1738, the public is made aware, through A Faithful Narrative of the Wicked Life and Remarkable Conversion of Patience Boston, of another sinful woman. Much like the other women presented earlier, Boston is convicted of killing an innocent child. However, the narrative frames her in a different light than those previously discussed. She is represented as a converted woman. Unlike the other women, Boston is presented as a strong woman, a woman able to overcome her problems. After her conviction and death sentence, her personal strength becomes even more pronounced. Through her conversion, the difference in power between females and males is almost forgotten, and the focus is transitioned to the strength Boston acquired through her desire to be Godly. Her narrative doesn’t speak of her weakness as a woman who yearns for the acceptance of the male gender, but displays her strengths as a realized murderer who only yearns for the acceptance of the greatest power, that of God. She realizes that it is not the woman who is weak, but the human. The only true strength is through God: “Then I saw what a poor weak creature I was, and how impossible it was for me to perform any duty, except the Lord was with me, enabling me by his Grace” (Patience Boston, 129).
Up until this point, the woman’s portrayal as the weaker gender was also emphasized through the nature of the crimes that they committed. Crimes like fornication and infanticide are very specific, personal, intimate crimes unlike the crimes being committed by men at this time and documented in criminal anthologies like Pillars of Salt. In about the same period, only about 18 years after Patience Boston’s murderous crime was committed and only 30 years previous to Wilson’s, in 1756, Owen Syllavan is charged with several accounts of counterfeiting. Only a few years later, another man, Levi Ames became a notorious thief. Stealing from anyone whose path he crossed and stealing anything that he found along the way. A huge difference can be drawn between an act of fornication and infanticide that many women were being convicted of in the 18th century and an act of theft or counterfeiting that were two of the main crimes for which men were being charged, or at least are focused on in criminal anthologies. The mean difference is the level of intimacy involved in these crimes. These women’s crimes involved the giving of their physical bodies and the taking of others unlike the crimes committed by men which had a more mental emphasis; an act of “beating the system”. The character of the females’ crimes causes the woman to appear less strong and weaker than the men; they devalue their bodies for acceptance and comfort. Diction such as “yielded” as seen in Martin’s narrative, “. . .that she yielded to the temptations of that miserable man . . .” (Cotton Mather, 65) is completely suggestive of this characteristic of emotional and even psychological weakness that was a driving factor in their submitting to crimes of fornication.
Boston’s narrative begins to present a woman’s role in society as a more powerful one, a strong one, able to overcome weakness rather than just submit to it. This shift is even more stressed when in 1778, another woman, Mrs. Spooner is presented in The Dying Declaration of James Buchanan, Ezra Ross, and William Brooks. In the case of Buchanan, Ross, and Brooks, the most powerful figure in their narrative and also in their murderous crime is not one of these three men, but indirectly, a woman. Mrs. Spooner is a supreme power, downgrading the power of the three men. It is suggested that Mrs. Spooner realizes that as a woman, she possesses a power that men do not. A power of seduction: “Accordingly we stayed, and were never in better quarters, little thinking of the bait the seducer of souls was laying for us. . .having no fear of God before our eyes, and being entirely forsaken of him” (Buchanan, Ross, and Brooks, 220). Although it is not clearly stated here or in any other part of the narrative that there were any sort of sexual acts committed while the three men were staying at her house, it can only be assertively assumed. Mrs. Spooner put herself in such a position of power that she was able to convince three men of killing her husband. As Molly Terziotti stated in a blog-post reflecting this narrative:
She is in a position of power previously unseen in women in these narratives. This position implies that she is cunning. In most of these narratives, the women are weak and easily drawn astray by men while Mrs. Spooner draws men astray. The word “seducer” in one sense implies that she is playing the role of a man, but it also has the connotations of . . .feminine sexuality” (Molly Terziotti, Seducer of Souls Post).
Intimacy turned into her tool by which she became even more powerful. Perhaps this shift in power from one gender to the other suggests why Spooner isn’t the central aspect of this narrative. The idea of a woman overpowering a man was not only uncommon in these narratives and in society at this time but unheard of. It almost seems that the narrator felt the need to keep Mrs. Spooner in the background of his writing for lack of not knowing how to respond to this shift in power between the male and female genders.
Crime amongst the female gender continues on this trajectory of power shifts and loss of intimacy until, in 1789, Rachel Wall is presented in her narrative, Life, Last Words, and Dying Confession of Rachel Wall, and completely undermines the whole notion of the woman as the subordinate gender and purges the suggestion of intimacy being the defining difference between a crime committed by a man or a woman. The boundaries become much less rigid between genders in relationship to their crimes and brings forth almost an equilibrium, if only momentarily, between men and women:
I hunted about for plunder, and discovered, under the Captain’s head, a black silk handkerchief containing upwards of thirty pounds, in gold, crowns, and small change, on which I immediately seized the booty and decamped therewith as quick as possible; which money I spent freely. . .” (Rachel Wall, 284-285).
Wall is not a fornicator and she is not a woman murdering her children; she is a robber. Her crimes are like those of Ames, dishonest, quick, compulsive—not personal or intimate. She represents to the public eye what the woman is not: a woman who is not overcome by the overpowering force of a man; a woman who is not submissive and tempted to or by a man; a woman who is not fearful and shameful of herself. Rather, Wall’s narrative suggests an almost equality, a complete transition between what women were in 1701, Esther Rodgers, to what they had become, in terms of crime, in only one century.
The few narratives found within the bindings of Williams’s Pillars of Salt, An History of Some Criminals Executed in this Land for Capital Crimes with some of Their Dying Speeches certainly serve to conceptualize the shift that took place between the female gender and the character of their crimes throughout the course of one century. Through this conceptualization, the reader becomes aware of how the woman, at the beginning of the 18th century, was rendered as weak, needy, and inferior to the male gender and how these characteristics and stereotypes were so socialized that they became manifest in crimes like Martin and Rodgers. However, the narratives also do a sufficient job in portraying the transformation of the woman and the equilibrium in social power that was ultimately reached between the two genders toward the end of the century. These two ideas became apparent through the changing nature of the woman’s criminal acts over the course of one hundred years. By way of these narratives, we no longer see the meek, timid, docile woman committing intimate crimes for the sake of fulfillment like we did in 1701, rather, we are introduced to a new kind of woman criminal by 1789: a woman seducer rather than a seduced woman, a cunning criminal, a criminal mastermind, an emerging male-equal.
The Role of Gender in Selected Narratives from Pillars of Salt
Gender is one reoccurring theme throughout the narratives found in Daniel E. Williams's anthology of Early American criminal narratives Pillars of Salt. The following selection of narratives portray an idea that may very well be overlooked when discussing crime in relation to gender, particularly in terms of the female gender. It presents an idea focused on the idea of intimacy of crime in regards to the particular gender and also brings into perspective the role of power structure amongst females and males in regards to the characteristic of the crime committed by a female.
Such was her weakness and folly, that she yielded unto the temptations of that miserable man; but yet with such horrible regret of mind, that begging of God, for deliverance from her temptations, her plea was that if ever she were overtaken again, she would leave herself unto his justice, to be made a publick example. (Mather 65)
Also,
She murdered the harmless and helpless Infant; hiding it in a chest, from the eyes of all, but the jealous God. (Mather 65)
These are two excerpts taken from the narrative and confession of Mary Martin as told by Cotton Mather. The crimes exhibited in this short narrative are very specific, not only is Martin guilty of fornication, but also infanticide. The narrative uses the specific word “weakness” as a direct adjective describing Martin’s character. The use of this word really speaks of a power structure between Martin and the man with whom she was guilty of fornication. The way in which Mather presents this narrative, specifically, by choosing this short quote from Martin also puts into perspective how he is conscious of this power structure as well. It presents Martin as being inferior, fighting to become an equal with someone who she views, as well as Mather, as being more powerful than she. Martin was so overcome by an exerted power, perhaps both physical and emotional, that she succumbed to these crimes that ultimately resulted in her death.
Esther Rodgers is another woman who represents these same ideas of weakness and inferior power. However, her narrative sheds a new light on these ideas and brings into mind a different sort of power struggle than that described of Martin:
And there I fell into the like horrible pit (as before) . . .of carnal pollution with the Negro man belonging to that house. And being with child again, I was in as great concern to know of how to hid this as the former. Yet did not so soon resolve the murdering of it, but was continually hurried in my thoughts, and undetermined till the last hour . . . I covered it over with dirt and snow, and speedily returned home again. (Esther Rodgers 97)
This was the second time in which Rodgers found herself in this compromising position; compromising in the sense that she had a choice to submit her physical body to the same sexual defilement that she had in the past. However, this narrative presents race in relation to the crime as well. In 1701, relations with a person of African decent were ill-received. Not only was there a regarding structure of power between female and male, Rodgers also began toying with a power structure between race. Seeing as how Africans were looked at as inferior to those of the white race, Rodgers crime became that much more heinous. Not only was she submissive to a male, but also to a black male showing that much less respect for her role as a female within society. But also, taking into consideration her use of “pit” and “concern” in relation to her crime perhaps speaks of the larger socialized image of women of which Rodgers was aware. She knew where she stood in the view of society already by being a female. This idea was, perhaps, quite obviously, a catalyst in driving her to hide the “polluted” child and kill it. This was a manifest way of Rodgers literally hiding her actions, covering them from the public eye:
Was found by a person with a dog, crossing the fields, in a piece of woods a little distance from the road leading from Brandywine to the Turk’s head, two dead infants. Upon inquiry, and from concurring c circumstances, there was reason to conclude, they were Elizabeth Wilson’s. (Elizabeth Wilson 271)
Again, Wilson represents another woman directly related to the murder of her two children. However, the narrative takes on a different voice than that of the other two. Rather than convicting this criminal on not only the basis of her crime but also her gender, the narrative has a tone of pity, of regret for this woman: “But here we must drop a tear! What heart so hard, as not to melt as human woe. . .Thus ended the life of Elizabeth Wilson, in the 27th year of her age; innocent, we believe, of the crime for which she suffered . . .” (Elizabeth Wilson, 276). Based on this last excerpt, one begins to see Wilson as an innocent person, not a judged woman. Her role as a woman in society is put second to the thought innocence. She is not a murderous woman, but a misjudged human being.
Once again, in 1738, the public is made aware of another sinful woman, Patience Boston. Much like the other women presented earlier, Boston is convicted of killing an innocent child. However, the narrative frames her in a different light than those previously discussed. She is represented as a converted woman. Unlike the other women, Boston is presented as a strong woman, a woman able to overcome her problems. After her conviction and death sentence, her personal strength becomes even more pronounced. Through her conversion, the difference in power between females and males is almost forgotten, and the focus is transitioned to the strength Boston acquired through her desire to be Godly. Her narrative doesn’t speak of her weakness as a woman who yearns for the acceptance of the male gender, but displays her strengths as a realized murderer who only yearns for the acceptance of the greatest power, that of God. She realizes that it is not the woman who is weak, but the human. The only true strength is through God:
Then I saw what a poor weak creature I was, and how impossible it was for me to perform any duty, except the Lord was with me, enabling me by his Grace. (Patience Boston, 129)
Up until this point, the woman’s portrayal as the weaker gender was also emphasized through the nature of the crimes that they committed. Crimes like fornication and infanticide are very specific, personal, intimate crimes unlike the crimes being committed by men at this time and documented in criminal anthologies like Pillars of Salt. In about the same period, only about 18 years after Patience Boston’s murderous crime was committed and only 30 years previous to Wilson’s, in 1756, Owen Syllavan is charged with several accounts of counterfeiting. Only a few years later, another man, Levi Ames became a notorious thief. Stealing from anyone whose path he crossed and stealing anything that he found along the way. A huge difference can be drawn between an act of fornication and infanticide that many women were being convicted of in the 18th century and an act of theft or counterfeiting that were two of the main crimes for which men were being charged, or at least are focused on in criminal anthologies. The mean difference is the level of intimacy involved in these crimes. These women’s crimes involved the giving of their physical bodies and the taking of others unlike the crimes committed by men which had a more mental emphasis; an act of “beating the system”. The character of the females’ crimes causes the woman to appear weaker than the men; they devalue their bodies for acceptance and comfort. Diction such as “yielded” as seen in Martin’s narrative, “. . .that she yielded to the temptations of that miserable man . . .” (Cotton Mather, 65) is completely suggestive of this characteristic of emotional and even psychological weakness that was a driving factor in their submitting to crimes of fornication.
Boston’s narrative begins to present a woman’s role in society as a more powerful one, a strong one, able to overcome weakness rather than just submit to it. This shift is even more apparent in 1778 through another narrative centered around another woman - Mrs. Spooner. In the case of James Buchanan, Ezra Ross, and William Brooks, the most powerful figure in their narrative and also in their murderous crime is not one of these three men, but indirectly, a woman. Mrs. Spooner is a supreme power, downgrading the power of the three men. It is suggested that Mrs. Spooner realizes that as a woman, she possesses a power that men do not. A power of seduction: “Accordingly we stayed, and were never in better quarters, little thinking of the bait the seducer of souls was laying for us. . .having no fear of God before our eyes, and being entirely forsaken of him” (Buchanan, Ross, and Brooks, 220). Although it is not clearly stated here or in any other part of the narrative that there were any sort of sexual acts committed while the three men were staying at her house, it can only be assertively assumed. Mrs. Spooner put herself in such a position of power that she was able to convince three men of killing her husband. Intimacy turned into her tool by which she became even more powerful. Perhaps this shift in power from one gender to the other suggests why Spooner isn’t the central aspect of this narrative. The idea of a woman overpowering a man was not only uncommon in these narratives and in society at this time but unheard of. It almost seems that the narrator felt the need to keep Mrs. Spooner in the background of his writing for lack of not knowing how to respond to this shift in power.
Crime amongst the female gender continues on this trajectory of power shifts and loss of intimacy until, in 1789, Rachel Wall is presented and completely undermines the whole notion of the woman as the subordinate gender and purges the suggestion of intimacy being the defining difference between a crime committed by a man or a woman. The boundaries become much less rigid between genders in relationship to their crimes and brings forth almost an equilibrium, if only momentarily, between men and women:
I hunted about for plunder, and discovered, under the Captain’s head, a black silk handkerchief containing upwards of thirty pounds, in gold, crowns, and small change, on which I immediately seized the booty and decamped therewith as quick as possible; which money I spent freely. . .” (Rachel Wall, 284-285).
Wall is not a fornicator and she is not a woman murdering her children; she is a robber. Her crimes are like those of Ames, dishonest, quick, compulsive—not personal or intimate. She represents to the public eye what the woman is not: a woman who is not overcome by the overpowering force of a man; a woman who is not submissive and tempted to or by a man; a woman who is not fearful and shameful of herself. Rather, Wall’s narrative suggests an almost equality, a complete transition between what women were in 1701, Esther Rodgers, to what they had become, in terms of crime, in only one century.
O God! shalt bring them down into the pit of destrtuction; bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee. (Elizabeth Wilson, 278).
