Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy

Cover
U of Nebraska Press, 01.01.2004 - 462 Seiten
The brutal axe murder and dismemberment of a Negro slave, committed in 1811 by two brothers, Lilburne and Isham Lewis, whose mother was Thomas Jefferson?s sister and whose father was his first cousin, form the core of this historical detective story and account of frontier life in western Kentucky in the first decades of the nineteenth century.

On the night of December 15, 1811, drunk and enraged over the breaking of a pitcher, Lilburne bound his seventeen-year-old slave, George, and, in front of the assembled household?s other slaves, cut off his head. The brothers were indicted for murder, released on bail, and attempted suicide.

Boynton Merrill Jr. explores the tragic combination of circumstances and social forces that culminated in this ghastly event: the lawlessness of the frontier settlements, the dehumanizing effects of chattel slavery, and the Lewis family?s history of mental instability and their ever-declining fortunes.

 

Inhalt

Colonial Days
3
The Fight for Freedom
12
A Colonel in the Militia
20
Prosperity
29
The Virginia Planter
38
The Shipwreck of the Fortunes
44
Craven Peyton Thomas Jefferson and the Hendersons
55
Jefferson and the Lewises
71
Slavery in Livingston
234
Tremors in the Dynasty
240
Annus Mirabilis
248
The Murder
256
After the Murder
266
The First Grand Jury
274
The True Bill
285
The Graveyard
293

The Plan to Emigrate
84
The Trip to Kentucky
97
The Land and Towns
111
Houses and Crops
123
The Smithland Neighbors
134
Issues in West Kentucky 1808
143
The County Court
151
The Year of Trouble 1809
163
Lilburne Enters Public Life
175
The Church in West Kentucky
189
The Presbyterian Lewises
203
Insecurity
215
Community Affairs 1810
226
The Orphans
303
During the War
312
The Aftereffects
322
The Epilogue
329
Notes on Lewis Genealogy
339
The Colle Sale
348
Lilburne Lewiss Estate
359
NOTES
371
BIBLIOGRAPHY
425
INDEX
441
FIGURES
451
Reverend William Dickey 206
457
Urheberrecht

Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen

Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Autoren-Profil (2004)

Boynton Merrill Jr. lives in Henderson, Kentucky. He acquired part of the original Lewis plantation in 1965 and spent more than ten years researching and assembling the pieces of this classic case study.

Bibliografische Informationen