When Women Do Wrong: Female Criminality Over the Years
WC Blogpost by: FemaleCrimeHistorian
In the age of smartphones and personal computers, the ability to access records pertaining to acts of crime, criminal trials, and the actual criminals has been greatly increased. Rather than waiting around for newspaper updates or needing to physically attend a trial to remain up to date on crime news, Americans can now easily scroll through news headlines and updates on their social media timelines or even queue up the latest episode of a true crime podcast to listen to during their daily commute. With all of this crime-related information only being as far away as the tap of a button, one may ask if there is even still a need to learn more about crime beyond the current news headlines, much less strive to learn more specifically about women’s historical connection to acts of crime. After being only a couple of weeks into taking Dr. Mustakeem’s "Women and Crime in the Evolution of American History class", I can safely say that learning about the relationship between women and crime is still a topic of great importance, even in the year 2023. The readings and discussions that have been conducted so far, while mostly centered around female crime in the age of the American colonies and slavery, still present themes that can be applied to the current culture surrounding women and crime. Additionally, proposed future themes yet to be discussed in Dr. Mustakeem’s course have already begun to pique my intellectual interest, such as learning about the relationship between female sexuality and crime, as well as specifically the connection between Missouri women and crime.
One area that has already begun to be explored in class is the act of policing the crime of enslaved women. Under this broad theme, one of the concepts that I was immediately interested in was the selective nature of how enslaved women were punished for acts of crime. In the course reading “‘Mad’ Enough to Kill: Enslaved Women, Murder, and Southern Courts,” author Wilma King primarily explores two different case studies of enslaved Missouri women criminals and the repercussions they did or did not face as a result of their acts; one case involved a young woman named Nelly murdering her infant child (possibly fathered by her deceased slave owner Henry Edwards), while the other involves a young enslaved woman named Celia murdering her sexually abusive slave owner Robert Newsom (King). In Nelly’s case, hundreds of people wrote in and successfully requested a pardon on her behalf (King 37, 46), whereas Celia received no pardon and was instead eventually executed (King 51-52). At face value, the stark differences in punishment received by Nelly and Celia may seem quite odd and confusing. After all, both women effectively committed the same crime: murder. However, by digging deeper into these crimes, King was able to determine an explanation for why the cases resulted in such different outcomes.
Most prominently, the victims of the two crimes belonged to starkly different racial and socioeconomic classes. Nelly murdered her own infant, who would have been considered a Black enslaved person under the eyes of American pre-Civil War laws (even if the child’s father was the white Henry Edwards as commonly thought). If the child had lived, they would have been considered as property by the heirs of Edwards’ estate, rather than as an equal descendent from their paternal side. Their status as an “enslaved neonate” was quite influential in the criminal system’s decision to pardon Nelly of any wrongdoing, as petitioners for her freedom believed that “‘no harm’”…would be done to the state or any individual…” if Nelly was not punished in the legal sense (King 50). Nelly’s victim held little power in terms of their position in society; therefore, the legal system (as well as the large number of petitioners on her behalf) were uninterested in undergoing the process to achieve justice for them.
Celia’s victim, on the other hand, held practically the complete opposite status in American society as compared to Nelly’s deceased infant. As a white man who owned slaves, Robert Newsom was certainly in a position of societal power. Therefore, once he was murdered by Celia, the state was very interested in exacting a full punishment. It was believed that, given Newsom’s white male status, offering any leniency to Celia (regardless of the constant sexual abuse she was subjected by Newsom) would be an act of “…undermining the master slave relationship…[as a] reprieve would destroy the community’s ostensible peace and security as well as deny that justice for African Americans was subordinate to that of Anglo-Americans” (King 50). If Celia were to have been pardoned like Nelly, it would have been perceived as the state prioritizing the life of an enslaved Black woman over her white owner (an unheard-of sentiment for pre-Civil War America).
Given that the issue of slavery does not exist in the modern-day United States, it may seem like learning about cases like Nelly and Celia is not relevant to our current world. On the contrary, the main themes of these cases are still prevalent in today’s perception of women and crime, as I have mulled over during my own intellectual pursuits inspired by course content thus far. The white patriarchal standards of the 1800s are still present in today’s society, with intersectionality still playing a significant role in how female perpetrators of crime (as well as their victims) are viewed and punished. Black female criminals are often still vilified in the same manner that Nelly and Celia were, with systemic racism and sexism further contributing to their extremely negative perception in relation to their white and/or male counterparts. Victims of female crime still receive scrutiny fairly similar to how Nelly and Celia’s victims were perceived by society at large, with crimes inflicted against influential white men still highly prioritized over victims of a different racial and gender class; a key difference, however, is that the murder of infants is now highly condemned regardless of the child’s race (though systemic differences related to race still apply to how seriously many cases are taken in a court of law). Thus, by taking the steps to learn more about women and crime, my classmates and I can better recognize how the same racial and gender issues that affected female crime in earlier centuries are still prevalent in today’s legal system.
The readings in "Women and Crime in the Evolution of American History" have not been restricted to understanding women as criminals. Some of our readings, such as Dr. Mustakeem’s own article “‘She Must Go Overboard & Shall Go Overboard’: Diseased Bodies and the Spectacle of Murder at Sea” describe the nature of women victims, with her article specifically covering the murder of a sick enslaved woman by casting her overboard on a slave trade ship. Ship Captain James D’Wolf, as a transporter of enslaved people, exacted the same control over Black women and men that slave owners like Robert Newsom were able to. The woman on the boat did not have her name recorded in official records, instead being “…referred to as a ‘Negro Wench’” (Mustakeem, 302). After noticing signs of advanced sickness, D’Wolf, only concerned Boyd 5 with losing any potential profits due to the potential for further spread of the disease among the boat, remarked that her staying would have resulted in him “los[ing] the biggest part of my Slaves” (Mustakeem, 305); his referral to the ship’s occupants as his slaves rather than as actual people shows how callous he felt about their existence as anything beyond their ability to make him money. As a result, he tied the woman to a chair, covered her face, and lowered her into the water to her death, with D’Wolf only mourning the fact that he had to lose a chair that he liked (Mustakeem 307-308), further exhibit the extreme lack of sympathy given to his Black female victim.
Similar to the Nelly and Celia cases, further reflection has allowed me to put this instance of the murder of the enslaved Black woman by the captain of the ship she was on in a modern context of intersectional identity. Though Black female perpetrators of crime are often faced with much more scrutiny due to their racial and gender identity, Black female victims often receive much less attention than their white and/or male counterparts. Just as no one on D’Wolf’s ship found it “important enough” to recognize and record the infected enslaved woman’s name before heartlessly leaving her to drown in the ship’s wake, thousands upon thousands of Black female victims of crime today remain “nameless” in the sense of not garnering the same broader recognition and concern as their white counterparts who experience similar crimes. Studying women and crime, in particular historical crime, today allows students such as myself to recognize how longstanding many of the issues we face in that realm actually are. The world of crime is not immune to issues concerning intersectionality, so choosing not to engage in critical analysis about it will contribute to its further perpetuation.
Beyond the already discussed theme of enslaved women’s relationship to crime, (under the course unit I am looking forward to diving into the books Wicked Women of Missouri and The Missouri State Penitentiary, 170 Years Inside “The Walls” as part of the course’s unit on "The Evolution of Sex and Female Crime" over the years.
As someone who has lived in Missouri for their entire life, I have a special connection to wanting to learn more about the state’s history.
My education at a rural school system did not contain much Missouri history beyond the typical references to Mark Twain, much less anything that could be perceived as the “dark side” of the state’s history. Even as far as slavery is concerned, I did not really learn any specifics about Missouri’s history of slavery beyond its position as a border state before this class, so already having the chance to learn about specific enslaved female criminal acts that took place in Missouri (such as Nelly and Celia) is a significant improvement for me.
Thus, getting the chance to read and discuss Wicked Women of Missouri is a particularly appealing idea, as I wish to use the knowledge that I currently possess of different Missouri regions in today’s world and apply it to the circumstances surrounding the crimes committed by past female residents of the state. I am curious as to how the types of crimes committed in Missouri by women have evolved over the years, so I am very interested in researching further after reading the book to see if there are any similarities between the crimes committed by modern Missouri women to those of the past. Additionally, I’m very interested in doing the reading concerning the Missouri State Penitentiary, mostly because I am curious to see what perspective the author will be writing from. The longstanding institution that is the carceral system has largely been viewed with mixed feelings, so I am looking forward to seeing how the author tackles such a complex history (as well as whether I will need to supplement my reading with outside sources to ensure I am able to get a full picture).
Another theme that I am looking forward to exploring falls under the final unit covering more modern crimes, specifically pertaining to racialized female crimes. One of the future visuals assigned under this theme involves Susan Smith, a white woman who killed her children and initially blamed it on an imaginary Black man (Chuck). Even decades after this crime occurred, the issue of “white woman tears” being used to place false blame on minority groups is still as pressing of an issue. Numerous news stories over recent years have featured white women accusing Black men or other members of racial minority groups as the perpetrators of crimes against them, with examples ranging from kidnapping to assault. From this overall theme, I am very much interested in looking more into how women criminals sometimes attempt to weaponize victimhood in order to cover their true actions, often at the expense of a minority group that was completely uninvolved in the events that transpired. As such, I am very interested in conducting further research into the topic beyond the constraints of what we are able to cover in our brief class meeting times. Just as with the other intriguing themes that I have previously covered, I have been intellectually inspired to delve more into the history of women and crime, connecting it to other important issues such as intersectionality.
Overall, I have vastly enjoyed being a part of the “Women and Crime in the Evolution of American History” course thus far. I have already taken part in a few thought-provoking discussions with my peers concerning the reasoning behind historical acts of female crime (such as the Nelly and Celia example), and I am looking forward to hearing more from my peers and understanding their perspectives on upcoming course topics. Given that issues of intersectionality as related to crime are still as important as ever, learning about women and crime in today’s world gives students like me a better understanding of why today’s judicial system functions the way that it does; learning more about women and crime in the historical sense also has given me more background knowledge in how societal norms in terms of how female criminals and victims are perceived have both changed and stayed the same in certain aspects. Knowing that this is only the beginning, I look forward to the future of this course with much intellectual curiosity and personal interest.
Works Cited
Chuck, Elizabeth. “Susan Smith, Mother Who Killed Kids: ‘Something Went Very Wrong That Night.” NBC News, 23 July 2015,
King, Wilma. “‘Mad’ Enough to Kill: Enslaved Women, Murder, and Southern Courts.” The Journal of African American History, vol. 92, no. 1, 2007, pp. 37-56.
Mustakeem, Sowande’. “‘She Must Go Overboard & Shall Go Overboard’: Diseased Bodies and the Spectacle of Murder at Sea.” Atlantic Studies, vol. 8, no. 3, 2011, pp. 301-316.
Comments
Post a Comment