Behind the Scenes of American History: Women and Crime

 WC Blogpost by: Tabitha Thompson

The first two weeks of “Women and Crime In the Evolution of American History” have been absolutely eye-opening in terms of what women have been remembered, why the women committed the crimes that they did, and how the flaws in the justice system contributed to women committing crimes. All of these things are so important in understanding women and the crimes that they commit today.

The most intriguing article that we have covered in class so far in my opinion has been “Mad Enough to Kill: Enslaved Women, Murder, and Southern Courts” by scholar Wilma King. It covers the stories of several female slaves that committed murders in Missouri in the 1800s but, the most notable were the stories of two teens, Nelly and Celia. I found this article so interesting because it touched on all three major themes that I mentioned before. Nelly was a 14-year-old girl who murdered her own child. Her master’s wife had already birthed 10 children, and so to avoid the risk of her getting pregnant again, Nelly’s master forced Nelly to satisfy his sexual needs. Nelly had already been impregnated by her master, but the second time around took a major psychological toll on her. She admitted that “she was ashamed of… becoming pregnant in such a way”, and that combined with her age was enough for her to plead insanity. The community rallied behind Nelly and over 200 people petitioned that she be pardoned.

Celia on the other hand murdered her master when she was 19. He consistently engaged in unwanted sexual contact with her and she couldn’t take it anymore. He said he was going to come visit her that night. Celia warned him and said that if he came to her cabin she would hurt him. He ignored the warning so Celia beat him to death with a stick, burned his body, and hid his bones underneath her cabin. Celia’s neighbor admitted to interrogating Celia and convincing her that if she told her kids would not be taken from her. He also told her that if she did not confess to murdering her he would personally provide the rope that she’d be hung with. Her attorney also brought up that homicide was deemed justifiable when committed by someone who is trying to resist a felony that is going to be done to them, which includes sexual assault. However, since Celia was technically her master’s property, it was determined that he was well within his right to sleep with Celia, and the jury did not seem to care too much that Celia was coerced into confessing. If the justice system had not failed Celia and recognized her as a person and not property, she could have gotten the help she needed and lived out the rest of her life with her children. However, Celia was not met with nearly as much support as Nelly was. Her few supporters managed to remove her from jail for a week but ultimately she was hung.

While I find both of these cases fascinating, what I find truly interesting is why Celia’s case is still well known and Nelly’s is not, as well as why Nelly was set free and Celia was put to death. 

At first glance it may not seem like it, the verdicts were determined based on how it would impact the families the slaves were owned by and the community. In Missouri, if a slave was convicted of a crime, the family received no compensation and it ended up costing them money. Nelly’s master had recently passed so the family was already in a tough financial spot. The baby Nelly killed was black and not worth anything in terms of being sold, so the baby’s life was seen as unimportant and had no value. Convicting Nelly was not worth it financially for the family she belonged to so she was set free. Celia on the other hand killed her master, a white man, whose life was seen as very valuable. If Celia had murdered another slave the court probably would not have batted an eye or she would have received a lesser punishment like lashings, but letting her go after she murdered her master could be the start of an uprising on surrounding plantations. The only way to keep that from happening was to put her to death. At the end of the day, both cases boiled down to the simple fact that a white life was valuable and a black one was dispensable. Even though Celia was put to death, her case remains an important one to this day because it challenged societal norms and was out of the ordinary. Those are always the cases that stick with us. Even though Celia’s case did not incite a revolt, it showed that slaves did not need to accept what they were being forced to deal with, and that deviation from the norm and empowerment is what makes Celia’s case still relevant today but not necessarily Nelly’s.

The other article that really caught my attention was “The American Revolution, Wife Beating, and the Emergent Value of Privacy” by Ruth H. Block. The article really highlighted how women were seen as property of the men of their households, specifically husbands. Before the American Revolution, women did not have many rights when it came to being beaten. If their husband abused them they were allowed to file a breach of peace. The husband then had to put up a bond and be monitored by his peers for a certain amount of time to ensure good behavior, but no charges were pressed. However, before the wife could file a breach of peace, it had to be established that she was trustworthy and credible before it would even be considered. The only time the husband would be put on trial is if he permanently injured or murdered his wife. Everything else was just seen as the husband keeping his wife in line and reprimanding her which was well within his right as the head of the household. Unless the abuse disrupted the community or affected the king, it was just seen as a misdemeanor and women often did not get the justice they deserved.

After the American Revolution, things for women got so much worse. The government began to recognize privacy which made it hard for women to get justice. Assaults that occurred in the home could not be penalized because that was seen as a breach of privacy. The law also recognized that any unwanted physical contact between men was assault, but this did not apply to women. A justice in 1852 said, “We know that a slap on the cheek, let it be as light as it may, indeed any touching of the person of another in a rude or angry manner–is in law an assault and battery. In the nature of things it cannot apply to persons in the marriage state”. Women also lost the ability to sue their husbands under a breach of peace and abuse was no longer a good enough reason to file for divorce. Men were gaining more rights in terms of assault, while the only choice abused women had was to strike out on their own with no emotional or financial support which was almost impossible, so most women were forced to endure the abuse with no real way out. This just goes to show just how horribly the justice system failed women. Society was so quick to shame women who killed their husbands or abusers, but what choice did they really have? There was no one to help them and they had no legal system to depend on. A man slapping another man on the cheek was grounds for jail time, but women could be beaten to the brink of death and their husbands would face no consequences because it happened in their home. That would be enough to drive anyone to murder, but no one talks about that. They only talk about how horrible the woman is.

A lot of the issues that women in the past faced are still faced by women today, and I feel like taking a look into the past is truly important to understanding women and crime today. It is important to take a step back and look at these cases and understand which groups were marginalized and how the legal system failed them. Obviously, this is not always the case, but from what I have learned in the past two weeks, women often commit crimes because they feel it is their only way out of a bad situation, and the same is still true. Women try to speak up about the abuse they face at home and they get put on the back burner. They try to address the inequality and sexism they face in society and they are ignored. If the legal system learned from cases and flawed laws like the ones mentioned above, and started adjusting the laws related to how women are treated, I truly believe there would be a significant decrease in the amount of crimes women commit. Women just want to be treated as equals and as people, and that really is not too much to ask from society or our legal system

Overall, I am extremely thankful for “Women and Crime In the Evolution of American History”. I have learned more about the history of women in the past two weeks than I have in my 13 years of education. It is nice to finally be in a class that talks about important but uncomfortable issues that no one wants to address. I feel that as a woman it is my job to know the issues that women face and to work to be a part of the solution, and this class is helping me do exactly that. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester and continuing to analyze how the past affects women and crime today!