Death of an overseer : reopening a murder investigation from the Plantation South
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0195140036
ISBN 13
9780195140033
DDC
364.15
Category
American Law
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Publication Year
2001
Publisher
Pages
257 pages
Subject
Slavery and Civil Rights
Tags
Abstract
"In May of 1857, the body of Duncan Skinner was found in a strip of woods along the edge of the plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as an overseer. Although a coroner's jury initially ruled his death to be accidental, an investigation organized by planters from the community concluded that he had been murdered by three slaves acting under instructions from John McCallin, an Irish carpenter. Now, almost a century and a half later, Michael Wayne has reopened the case to ask whether the men involved in the investigation arrived at the right verdict. Part essay on the art of historical detection, part seminar on the history of slavery and the Old South, Death of an Overseer is, above all, a murder mystery-a murder mystery that allows readers to sift through the surviving evidence themselves and come to their own conclusions about who killed Duncan Skinner and why." - Voila, from ebook version
Description
Content:
On History as Common Sense 3 -- 1 Investigation and Verdict 9 -- 2 Evidence 39 -- 3 Evidence Reconsidered 61 -- 4 Slavery 79 -- 5 Question of a Frame-Up 113 -- 6 Black Images, White Minds 135 -- 7 Democracy and Justice 157 -- 8 In Search of John McCallin 179 -- An Epitaph for Duncan Skinner 193 -- Appendix I First Draft and Fragment of a Second Draft of the Letter from Alexander Farrar to Henry Drake 197 -- Appendix II Court Records from the Trial of Henderson, Reuben, and Anderson 207 -- Appendix III Additional Materials in the Newspapers Relating to the Trial and Execution of Henderson, Reuben, and Anderson 211.
On History as Common Sense 3 -- 1 Investigation and Verdict 9 -- 2 Evidence 39 -- 3 Evidence Reconsidered 61 -- 4 Slavery 79 -- 5 Question of a Frame-Up 113 -- 6 Black Images, White Minds 135 -- 7 Democracy and Justice 157 -- 8 In Search of John McCallin 179 -- An Epitaph for Duncan Skinner 193 -- Appendix I First Draft and Fragment of a Second Draft of the Letter from Alexander Farrar to Henry Drake 197 -- Appendix II Court Records from the Trial of Henderson, Reuben, and Anderson 207 -- Appendix III Additional Materials in the Newspapers Relating to the Trial and Execution of Henderson, Reuben, and Anderson 211.
Biblio Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-241) and index.
Contains illustrations.
Number of Copies
1
