I am murdered : George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the killing that shocked a new nation / Bruce Chadwick.
Material type:
TextPublication details: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, c2009.Description: viii, 280 p. : ill. ; 25 cmISBN: - 0470185511 (cloth)
- 9780470185513 (cloth)
- Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 -- Friends and associates
- Wythe, George, 1726-1806 -- Death and burial
- Criminal investigation -- Virginia -- Richmond -- History -- 19th century -- Case studies
- Murder -- Virginia -- Richmond -- History -- 19th century -- Case studies
- Poisoning -- Virginia -- Richmond -- History -- 19th century -- Case studies
- Richmond (Va.) -- History -- 19th century
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 364.1523 C432 | Available | 33111005615980 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
""A good story, well told, of a sliver of life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation's most influential state.""
--Publishers Weekly
George Wythe clung to the mahogany banister as he inched down the staircase of his comfortable Richmond, Virginia, home. Doubled over in agony, he stumbled to the kitchen in search of help. There he found his maid, Lydia Broadnax, and his young protegé, Michael Brown, who were also writhing in distress. Hours later, when help arrived, Wythe was quick to tell anyone who would listen, ""I am murdered."" Over the next two weeks, as Wythe suffered a long and painful death, insults would be added to his mortal injury.
I Am Murdered tells the bizarre true story of Wythe's death and the subsequent trial of his grandnephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, for the crime--unquestionably the most sensational and talked-about court case of the era. Hinging on hit-and-miss forensics, the unreliability of medical autopsies, the prevalence of poisoning, race relations, slavery, and the law, Sweeney's trial serves as a window into early nineteenth- century America. Its particular focus is on Richmond, part elegant state capital and part chaotic boomtown riddled with vice, opportunism, and crime.
As Wythe lay dying, his doctors insisted that he had not been poisoned, and Sweeney had the nerve to beg him for bail money. In I Am Murdered, this signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and ""Father of American Jurisprudence"" finally gets the justice he deserved.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-272) and index.
"I am murdered"? -- The funeral -- Homicide: early investigation, part I -- Williamsburg: George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson -- Jefferson and Wythe remake Virginia -- Richmond: boomtown and the decadent night life of George Wythe Sweeney -- The dying George Wythe changes his will -- Moving day: a second life in Richmond and the return of George Wythe -- The arrest -- The investigation, part II -- For the defense: William Wirt -- For the defense: Edmund Randolph -- Mourning at the executive mansion -- The forensics nightmare, part I: arsenic, the poison of choice -- The forensics nightmare, part II: the autopsy -- Lydia Broadnax, the eyewitness -- The black and white legal codes -- Washington: October, 1806.
Wythe lived long enough to accuse his grandnephew of poisoning him and two other members of his household. Why did three prominent doctors insist that he hadn't been poisoned at all? Learn the grisly, fascinating, and often astounding tale of Wythe's murder and America's very first "trial of the century."