Nineteenth-Century Female Poisoners

Three English Women Who Used Arsenic to Kill
2015. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-349-47148-5
Verlag: Palgrave MacMillan UK

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 308 g

Nineteenth-Century Female Poisoners investigates the Essex poisoning trials of 1846 to 1851 where three women were charged with using arsenic to kill children, their husbands and brothers. Using newspapers, archival sources (including petitions and witness depositions), and records from parliamentary debates, the focus is not on whether the women were guilty or innocent, but rather on what English society during this period made of their trials and what stereotypes and stock-stories were used to describe women who used arsenic to kill. All three women were initially presented as 'bad' women but as the book illustrates there was no clear consensus on what exactly constituted bad womanhood.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nagy, V.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologische Disziplinen Kriminalpsychologie, Forensische Psychologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; Gender and Change in Mid-Nineteenth Century England 1. Crime in Nineteenth-Century England: Decline, Causes and Concerns 2. Broadening the Scope: Moving Beyond Simple Sources 3. Poisoning Crimes in the United Kingdom: 1839-1851 4. The Archetypical Poisoning Woman: Sarah Chesham's Cases 5. Death Clubs, Secret Poisonings and an Execution: The Case of Mary May 6. Fallen Woman or Bad Witnesses? The Case of Hannah Southgate Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Victoria M. Nagy received her PhD from the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, Monash University, Australia. Prior to this she was lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.