Women and Crime in Herstory

 WC Blogpost by:  Amilia Lancaster,  Zara St. Clair, and Laura Cason  Think back to when you were 12-years-old. Did your parents or guardian make you do chores? Were you super happy to do them? Probably not.  Now imagine your parents are making you do chores at some other family’s home. Not only do you have to clean up after this other family all day but you have to take care of their baby. Most children would be upset about this being their day-to-day; however, most children wouldn’t take their neglect as far as Axey Cherry did.   After being tasked with taking care of the infant child of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Axey pouted around the house, often neglecting her duties, and was once overheard muttering to herself that she “wasn’t going to bother with that baby much more”. Her bitterness came to a head on a hot July day in 1887, when Axey Cherry got rid of her problem for good. While using lye to clean the floors, the baby’s mother needed to leave the room f...

 WC Blogpost By:  FemaleCrimeHistorian  &  WriterOfHerstory 4. Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Surratt Introduction For many Americans, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 is known only by its victim, location, and primary perpetrator. President Lincoln and his wife were viewing a play at Washington, D.C.’s Ford Theatre on April 14 when “[d]uring the third act…a sharp report of a pistol was heard…a man rushed to the front of the President’s box, waving a long dagger in his right hand exclaiming, ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis,’ and immediately leaped from the box…making his escape…mounting a horse, fled.” 1   The assassin, later identified as an actor named John Wilkes Booth, targeted Lincoln out of anger for the Confederacy’s ultimate loss in the Civil War just a few days prior. 2 Booth, however, was not the only person to have been connected with the assassination plot. Nine other individuals were processed...

 WC Blogpost By: D. Rose & Elise Pennyfeather Laura Fair (Photo Credit: SFGate ) 1 The Beginnings:            In 1837, Laura Fair was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. 2 At the age of 16, she married her first husband, who was many years her senior. He died only one year after their marriage. Laura, known as a “notorious beauty,” had no trouble finding love again. 3 She married Thomas Gracien but soon got divorced as he was an alcoholic. Laura accused him of being physically cruel and regularly drunk. However, Gracien denied these allegations and believed that Laura behaved “improperly” with other men. 4 Laura also had a temper towards her husband and one time threatened to kill him. In search of a new life, she moved to San Francisco, where she met Colonel W. B. Fair, the Sheriff of Shasta County, CA. Fair was a prominent lawyer and politician in San Francisco. With Fair, Laura had their first child. In 1861, Colonel Fair died. It is unc...

 WC Blogpost by:  Celestine Mullin & CG1 Introduction:  Over the course of our class "Women and Crime", we have been focusing on and researching various instances of crime committed by women. Some of the factors we have talked about are the situations leading up to the crime, how identities affect the trial outcomes, and the harsh penal conditions for women. For this assignment, we were given a case from the 1800s to investigate. We were given the name of a woman who had committed and been tried for a crime. Our mission was to figure out what happened, who was convicted, and how society might have played a role in her trial and public image. We began by exploring newspaper archives and library resources to gain a better understanding of the woman and the crime. The woman’s name we were given was Lucy Parnell. Report of the Crime: Lucy Parnell was a Black woman who was executed for a crime in 1868. From an Iowa County Democrat article on March 11, 1868, Parnell was re...