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Killed Strangely : The Death of Rebecca Cornell /
"On a winter's evening in 1673, tragedy descended on the respectable Rhode Island household of Thomas Cornell. His 73-year-old mother, Rebecca, was found close to her her bedroom's large fireplace, dead and badly burned. The legal owner of the Cornells' hundred acres along Narrag...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | Inglés |
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Ithaca :
Cornell University Press,
2002.
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| Series: | Book collections on Project MUSE.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Texto completo |
| Summary: | "On a winter's evening in 1673, tragedy descended on the respectable Rhode Island household of Thomas Cornell. His 73-year-old mother, Rebecca, was found close to her her bedroom's large fireplace, dead and badly burned. The legal owner of the Cornells' hundred acres along Narragansett Bay, Rebecca shared her home with Thomas and his family, a servant, and a lodger. A coroner's panel initially declared her death "an Unhappie Accident," but before summer arrived, a dark web of events - rumors of domestic abuse; allusions to witchcraft; even the testimony of Rebecca's ghost, who visited her brother - resulted in Thomas's trial for matricide. Such were the ambiguities of the case that others would be tried for the murder as well." "Rebecca is a direct ancestor of Cornell University's founder, Ezra Cornell. Elaine Forman Crane tells the story of Rebecca's death and its aftermath, vividly depicting the world in which she lived. That world included a legal system where jurors were expected to be familiar with the defendant and case before the trial even began. Rebecca's death was an event of cataclysmic proportions, affecting not only her own community, but neighboring towns as well."--Jacket |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (256 pages): illustrations |
| ISBN: | 9780801471452 |