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1. The Origins of Virginia Crime Sensationalism
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1 THE ORIGINS OF VIRGINIA CRIME SENSATIONALISM I THANK GOD, THERE ARE NO FREE SCHOOLS NOR PRINTING, AND I HOPE WE SHALL NOT HAVE THESE HUNDRED YEARS; FOR LEARNING HAS BROUGHT DISOBEDIENCE, AND HERESY, AND SECTS INTO THE WORLD, AND PRINTING HAS DIVULGED THEM, AND LIBELS AGAINST THE BEST GOVERNMENTS. GOD KEEP US FROM BOTH! Virginia Governor William Berkeley, 1671 14 O R I G I N S O F V I R G I N I A C R I M E S E N S A T I O N A L I S M On 18 July 1766, “Dikephilos” (lover of justice) wrote a “candid narration” to the Virginia Gazette, which he hoped would “open the eyes of some well meaning men” to the murder of Robert Routlidge by John Chiswell in a Prince Edward County tavern the month before. The letter described how the two erstwhile friends exchanged insults while their acquaintances tried to separate them. Chiswell ordered his servant to retrieve his sword, but Routlidge, failing to back down, responded to Chiswell’s taunts by dousing him with a glass of wine. Before friends could stop him, Chiswell ran Routlidge through, killing him instantly. This narrative was eye-opening because the first reports of the conflict were much more friendly to Chiswell, saying that Routlidge advanced on Chiswell, who could not retreat and whose arms were pinned. According to the first reports, Routlidge skewered himself on Chiswell’s sword.1 The local examiner’s court decided that Routlidge, a wealthy merchant, had died by Chiswell’s hand; the accused was refused bail and ordered to stand trial in the colony’s general court for murder. Chiswell also had been prosperous until significant setbacks during the past decade had led him into dramatic financial difficulties. Both men’s connections to the colony’s gentry lent the murder a substantial audience among the Gazette’s readership . As soon as local officials delivered the accused man to Williamsburg, three members of the general court—each of whom had business connections to Chiswell—allowed him bail. It was the suspicion that the ruling elites were allowing a murderer to go free that irked Dikephilos and others. A year after the contentious Stamp Act, theVirginia gentry were already in the midst of considerable turmoil and particularly sensitive to issues of justice , proportion, and favoritism. Bailing a prominent murderer appeared to be yet another affront to the body politic.2 Over the next three months, the Virginia Gazette published fifteen articles on the Chiswell case, some anonymous, others pseudonymous, still others penned above the names of some of the most prominent Virginians of the era, including the colony’s most influential lawyer, George Wythe, and a leading member of the House of Burgesses, John Blair. In October , this flurry of activity ended when John Chiswell died of “nervous fits, owing to a constant uneasiness of mind”—probably suicide—shortly before he was to go to trial.3 In all, the Virginia Gazette printed slightly more than six pages on this case over the course of four and one-half months, or about one-quarter of a page in each issue. In volume, the coverage was significant, particularly for this era; in tone, it was moderate, even tentative. In fact, the “reporting” of [54.163.62.42] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:40 GMT) 15 O R I G I N S O F V I R G I N I A C R I M E S E N S A T I O N A L I S M this case consisted almost entirely of reprinted letters from readers: “To the Printer” they were titled. Far from investigating this crime, the newspaper publisher distanced himself from it. In the two centuries from the founding of Virginia in 1607 to the end of the eighteenth century, this is the only case that could be called a crime sensation in Virginia’s print media, and even this one probably stretches that category unduly, being largely centered on the politics of bail rather than the crime itself. Virginia had its share of crimes, and many Virginians must have become overwrought by some of them. But if they spoke to each other about their fears and concerns, their printers did not publish on them. Newspapers were for elites, and the weekly news was rarely local; real news came from elsewhere. The Routlidge-Chiswell case is the lone exception in an early history of...