A Rape in the Early Republic: Gender and Legal Culture in an 1806 Virginia Trial by Alexander Smyth (review)

In 1806 John Deskins escorted Sidney Major Hanson to a justice of the peace (JP) while her husband was away on business. Hanson wanted to report a neighbor for insinuating that they had sexual relations before he could spread further rumors. Deskins raped Hanson just before they arrived at the JP's house, and Hanson relayed the details of her experiences first to the JP's wife and then to others in the community. In the coming months, Tazewell County, Virginia, successfully tried the case against Deskins and sentenced him to ten years in jail. After the trial, the prosecutor, Alexander Smyth, wrote a narrative of the events at the urging of community members to record the "enormity of the crime" (p. 29).

Randal L. Hall has created a lean volume, which includes a short introductory essay, Smyth's narrative, an appendix with relevant documents, and reading questions to guide classroom discussion. Hall's engaging work is excellent for classroom use. His introductory essay adeptly untangles the many individuals and events that were part of the trial and provides short summations of the changing legal and gender cultures in the early republic. A bibliographic essay at the end of the volume directs readers to further information, and its coverage of legal culture in the early republic is well informed.

Hall's essay is also particularly adept at contextualizing the major legal issues at stake. The trial and essay are fodder for lessons about the legal profession and the criminal justice system. Virginia legislation that reduced the penalty for rape to confinement fit in with larger national trends that altered punishments in the wake of the American Revolution. Deskins's attempted escape from confinement before trial, his attempt to bribe Hanson's husband to drop the case, and his confinement in a residence are rich areas for examination.

Hall pays heed to southern literature on sexual and gender relations, but devoting more attention to broader literature on sexuality and rape, such as works by Clare Lyons and Marybeth Hamilton Arnold, would have improved the work by showing the patriarchal underpinnings of the criminal justice system. Deskins admitted to having sex with Hanson, so the trial focused on "whether it was consensual" (p. ix). Sexual reputation, race, and marital status played outsized roles in rape trials and in the everyday lives of women in the early republic. As a married white woman, Hanson was an appropriate victim, and Smyth played with this to establish her innocence while also arguing that women's sexual reputation should not cloud the proceedings. Rape is a locus of power, and many competing influences were at play in the process and in the courtroom.

Hall's volume fulfills its promise of inspiring discussion of the events in their appropriate historical context. The trial will haunt readers and will be popular among students who will debate the many issues it brings to light, including whether the rape was a conspiracy planned by three men while Hanson's husband was away.