Author: Bruce ChadwickPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal investigation
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
I Am Murdered
Author: Bruce ChadwickPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal investigation
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
I Am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation
Author: Bruce ChadwickPublisher: Wiley
ISBN: 9781681621050
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
""A good story, well told, of a sliver of life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation's most influential state."" Publishers Weekly George Wythe clung to the mahogany banister as he inched down the staircase of his comfortable Richmond, Virginia, home. Doubled over in agony, he stumbled to the kitchen in search of help. There he found his maid, Lydia Broadnax, and his young protege, Michael Brown, who were also writhing in distress. Hours later, when help arrived, Wythe was quick to tell anyone who would listen, ""I am murdered."" Over the next two weeks, as Wythe suffered a long and painful death, insults would be added to his mortal injury. I Am Murdered tells the bizarre true story of Wythe's death and the subsequent trial of his grandnephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, for the crimeunquestionably the most sensational and talked-about court case of the era. Hinging on hit-and-miss forensics, the unreliability of medical autopsies, the prevalence of poisoning, race relations, slavery, and the law, Sweeney's trial serves as a window into early nineteenth- century America. Its particular focus is on Richmond, part elegant state capital and part chaotic boomtown riddled with vice, opportunism, and crime. As Wythe lay dying, his doctors insisted that he had not been poisoned, and Sweeney had the nerve to beg him for bail money. In I Am Murdered, this signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and ""Father of American Jurisprudence"" finally gets the justice he deserved."
Gleanings from Old Bennington
Author: William Justin MannPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bennington (Vt.)
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War
Author: Michael KranishPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199745900
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402
Book Description
When Thomas Jefferson wrote his epitaph, he listed as his accomplishments his authorship of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia statute of religious freedom, and his founding of the University of Virginia. He did not mention his presidency or that he was second governor of the state of Virginia, in the most trying hours of the Revolution. Dumas Malone, author of the epic six-volume biography, wrote that the events of this time explain Jefferson's "character as a man of action in a serious emergency." Joseph Ellis, author of American Sphinx, focuses on other parts of Jefferson's life but wrote that his actions as governor "toughened him on the inside." It is this period, when Jefferson was literally tested under fire, that Michael Kranish illuminates in Flight from Monticello. Filled with vivid, precisely observed scenes, this book is a sweeping narrative of clashing armies--of spies, intrigue, desperate moments, and harrowing battles. The story opens with the first murmurs of resistance to Britain, as the colonies struggled under an onerous tax burden and colonial leaders--including Jefferson--fomented opposition to British rule. Kranish captures the tumultuous outbreak of war, the local politics behind Jefferson's actions in the Continental Congress (and his famous Declaration), and his rise to the governorship. Jefferson's life-long belief in the corrupting influence of a powerful executive led him to advocate for a weak governorship, one that lacked the necessary powers to raise an army. Thus, Virginia was woefully unprepared for the invading British troops who sailed up the James under the direction of a recently turned Benedict Arnold. Facing rag-tag resistance, the British force took the colony with very little trouble. The legislature fled the capital, and Jefferson himself narrowly eluded capture twice. Kranish describes Jefferson's many stumbles as he struggled to respond to the invasion, and along the way, the author paints an intimate portrait of Jefferson, illuminating his quiet conversations, his family turmoil, and his private hours at Monticello. "Jefferson's record was both remarkable and unsatisfactory, filled with contradictions," writes Kranish. As a revolutionary leader who felt he was unqualified to conduct a war, Jefferson never resolved those contradictions--but, as Kranish shows, he did learn lessons during those dark hours that served him all his life.
On Democraty
Author: Thomas JeffersonGeorge Wythe of Williamsburg
Author: Joyce BlackburnPublisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Law teachers
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
Jefferson's Godfather, the Man Behind the Man
Author: Suzanne Harman MunsonPublisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781979649858
Category : Judges
Languages : en
Pages : 516
Book Description
"[Suzanne Munson's] biography details for the first time Wythe's thinking behind the achievements that Jefferson listed as his most important lifetime accomplishments."--Adapted from back cover.
The Life of George Washington
Author: Jared SparksI Am Murdered
Author: Bruce ChadwickPublisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1620458829
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
"A good story, well told, of a sliver of life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation's most influential state." —Publishers Weekly George Wythe clung to the mahogany banister as he inched down the staircase of his comfortable Richmond, Virginia, home. Doubled over in agony, he stumbled to the kitchen in search of help. There he found his maid, Lydia Broadnax, and his young protegé, Michael Brown, who were also writhing in distress. Hours later, when help arrived, Wythe was quick to tell anyone who would listen, "I am murdered." Over the next two weeks, as Wythe suffered a long and painful death, insults would be added to his mortal injury. I Am Murdered tells the bizarre true story of Wythe's death and the subsequent trial of his grandnephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, for the crime—unquestionably the most sensational and talked-about court case of the era. Hinging on hit-and-miss forensics, the unreliability of medical autopsies, the prevalence of poisoning, race relations, slavery, and the law, Sweeney's trial serves as a window into early nineteenth-century America. Its particular focus is on Richmond, part elegant state capital and part chaotic boomtown riddled with vice, opportunism, and crime. As Wythe lay dying, his doctors insisted that he had not been poisoned, and Sweeney had the nerve to beg him for bail money. In I Am Murdered, this signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and "Father of American Jurisprudence" finally gets the justice he deserved.
George Washington and the Birth of Our Nation
Author: Milton MeltzerPublisher: Franklin Watts
ISBN: 9780531102534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
A biography of our first President, from his growing-up years in Virginia to his death at Mount Vernon.