Violent Times

VIOLENT TIMES DavtdRichard Kasserman. Fall River Outrage: Life, Murder,and Justice in Early Industrial New England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. x + 280pp. Illus. & maps. RogerLane. Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia /860-1900. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986. X + 213 pp. Peter Way Studies of violence and criminality are at their best when they move beyond the mererecitation of "deviant behaviour" (which at times smacks of pruriency) and seek to demonstrate social significance. In different ways and with varying success David Richard Kasserrnan's Fall River Outrage and Roger Lane's Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia attempt this larger task. Kasserman adopts a microscopic approach, examining a singular event- a sensational murder trial of 1833- as a means of recreating the world of early industrial New England. Unfortunately, as is the risk in such studies, he becomes bogged down in the telling of the story. His social analysis, tacked on at the beginning and end of the book, is perfunctory and never fully developed. Lane is more ambitious. He examines the development of a criminal subculture among Philadelphia's blacks in the late nineteenth century and attempts to trace its roots to the social and economic exclusion they experienced within the "urban industrial revolution." Lane draws a compelling picture which strikes a resonance with modern AfroAmerican culture. His effort, however, is vitiated by unclear conceptualization and a willingness to see black experience solely in terms of criminality. Kasserman' s book recounts the tragic story of Sarah Cornell, a Fall River textile worker found hanging from a hayrick in December 1832, an apparent suicide. Foul play was soon suspected when it was discovered that she was pregnant, though unmarried. Suspicious letters were discovered among her belongings which seemed to incriminate Ephraim Avery, a married Methodist 400 PeterWay preacher, as her lover. Kasserman argues that an examination of Avery's trialfor Sarah's murder illuminates New England society in this period, pointingto fundamental tensions within an industrializing environment where traditional social forms were breaking down and new arrangements emerging. The trial transcended considerations of Avery's guilt or innocence. What was on trialwere different ways of life: those of the cotton mill and of the Methodist church. Sarah Cornell was among the first generation of American women to gainthe social and economic independence offered by the New England mills. Herdeath and allegedly checkered past potentiallycontradicted industrial capitalists' claims that women were as safe, physically and morally, in the mill towns as at home with their families. Kasserman sees Sarah's defense as representing the emerging industrial order and the prosecution of her alleged murderer as an attemptto deflect criticism from that order. Conversely, Ephraim Avery is inescapably identified with Methodism. The church was already on the defensive. Its preaching of an emotional form of Christianity based on free salvationand conversion offended the established Calvinist Congregational church, whileits centralized episcopal form of government left the sect open to charges of being an anti-democratic organization like the Masons. The already-suspect Methodist church could not afford the scandal that would result from Avery's convictionfor murder. The book's true focus, however, is the events of Sarah Cornell's murderand Ephraim Avery's trial. Kasserman's reconstruction of Sarah's tragic life offers insight into the world of working women of the time, a world in which transiency and religion played a large role. He follows Sarah from place to place and millto mill. This peripatetic lifestyle was common among mill workers, but in Cornell's case was exaggerated by her own peculiar situation. From the time she firstwent out on her own, she began developing a reputation for dishonesty and loose morals. She was thus forced to move frequently, one step ahead of her bad reputation and in search of a newjob. Sarah temporarily found a refuge amongthe Methodists. She embraced religion hoping to erase her past conduct andbecause it offered a sense of community and, often, a job and place to live. Her behaviour would soon win her disfavour, however, and she would be on the move again,this time from congregation to congregation in search of the stamp of moral approval. Sarah's path eventually crossed Avery's...