A Rape in the Early Republic: Gender and Legal Culture in an 1806 Virginia Trial, by Alexander Smyth. Edited by Randal L. Hall (review)

Randal L. Hall has given us a gem of a book. When Virginia put John Deskins, a middling farmer of Tazewell County, on trial in 1806 for the rape of Sidney Hanson, the wife of another middling farmer, prosecuting attorney Alexander Smyth gave the closing argument for the Commonwealth. The trial garnered much attention in the community, and some enterprising gentlemen asked Smyth to write a pamphlet detailing as much of it as he could remember, presumably in the hope of selling it commercially. Smyth obliged, but the pamphlet seems never to have been printed for public consumption. Instead, the ambitious lawyer included the account of Sidney Hanson's rape trial as part of a larger collection of his own political writings and speeches, which he published in 1811.

Randal L. Hall, the text's editor, realized the uniqueness of the document, and he and the University Press of Kentucky wisely saw fit to bring it to light in its entirety. This book is not a traditional scholarly tome, but rather it is a reprinting of a primary source with an editor's introduction and annotation of the text. Hall's introduction is brief but sufficient to give readers the necessary historical context in which it was produced. The annotations are minimal and clearly indicated so readers will not get confused as to whose words they are scanning. Hall's intent is for his colleagues not simply to use the document as a resource in their own scholarship but also as a teaching tool in the classroom. It is perfectly suited for that purpose, and Hall even poses questions for consideration in the classroom as well as a brief but sufficient list of suggested readings. He also includes two appendixes, one of which is a statement of the law under which Virginia prosecuted Deskins and the other a part of a book about Jason Fairbanks's killing of Elizabeth Fales, and the subsequent 1801 murder trial that Smyth referenced in his closing argument.

Hall breaks up the document into manageable segments. First, Smyth recounts that some local gentlemen asked him to produce a pamphlet of the trial for publication. Then Smyth iterates much of the testimony given at trial, which focused strongly on Sidney Hanson's account of the rape and witness statements as to her character and reputation in the neighborhood. Next is Smyth's closing argument to the jury, which attacked point by point the defense counsels' various efforts to discredit Hanson. Last is the jury's pronouncement of guilt and the judge's determination that Deskins would have to spend two years of the ten-year sentence in solitary confinement. Deskins served seven years in prison before Governor James Barbour granted him a pardon.

Hall correctly states that accounts of rape trials, especially ones as full and detailed as this one is, are rare for the era of the early republic. The story begins with an acquaintance slandering Sidney Hanson's good name and her wanting to take legal action to clear it. Hanson's husband, David, was away from home on business and John Deskins, a neighbor and the man David Hanson entrusted as his wife's protector in his absence, offered to escort her to the home of Hezekiah Whitt, the nearest Justice of the Peace. On the way to the Whitts' home, Deskins raped Sidney Hanson. Despite Deskins's threat to kill her if she told anyone of the assault, she reported it to Whitt at the first opportunity. The incident became a criminal matter after Sidney told her husband when he returned home and they brought a formal charge of rape against Deskins. There is intrigue in the tale, as alcohol was involved in the slander incident and likely in the rape as well...