Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report

Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report

The present essay focuses on a case of matricide which happened in New Jersey in 1812. Mary and Cornelius Cole, a married couple, were charged with the murder of Mary’s mother, Agnes Thuers. While Cornelius denied any involvement in the actual killing, and only admitted to assisting his wife in conc...

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Main Author: Simona Porro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Università degli Studi di Milano 2016-05-01
Series:Altre Modernità
Online Access:https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/7172
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spelling doaj-3d70dcf0a63e41b9af6dce059ecd90f32020-11-25T02:59:46ZengUniversità degli Studi di MilanoAltre Modernità2035-76802016-05-01015243710.13130/2035-7680/71726281Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial ReportSimona Porro0Università degli Studi di TorinoThe present essay focuses on a case of matricide which happened in New Jersey in 1812. Mary and Cornelius Cole, a married couple, were charged with the murder of Mary’s mother, Agnes Thuers. While Cornelius denied any involvement in the actual killing, and only admitted to assisting his wife in concealing the crime and disposing of the body, Mary confessed but claimed that she had killed Thuers in self-defence. She was convicted and hanged for this crime whereas her husband was sentenced to two years in prison as an accessory. The case was swiftly turned into two criminal narratives: A Genuine Sketch of the Trial of Mary Cole for the Wilful Murder of her Mother, Agnes Thuers (1812) and The Confession of Mary Cole (1813). The essay demonstrates how the strategies and techniques employed to construct, fictionalize, and present the tormented mother-daughter relationship to the reading public, offer a privileged insight into the dominant familial and gender ideologies of the time.https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/7172
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Simona Porro
spellingShingle Simona Porro
Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report
Altre Modernità
author_facet Simona Porro
author_sort Simona Porro
title Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report
title_short Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report
title_full Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report
title_fullStr Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report
title_full_unstemmed Gender, Familial Ideologies, and Aspects of Genre in the Early-Republic Murder Trial Report
title_sort gender, familial ideologies, and aspects of genre in the early-republic murder trial report
publisher Università degli Studi di Milano
series Altre Modernità
issn 2035-7680
publishDate 2016-05-01
description The present essay focuses on a case of matricide which happened in New Jersey in 1812. Mary and Cornelius Cole, a married couple, were charged with the murder of Mary’s mother, Agnes Thuers. While Cornelius denied any involvement in the actual killing, and only admitted to assisting his wife in concealing the crime and disposing of the body, Mary confessed but claimed that she had killed Thuers in self-defence. She was convicted and hanged for this crime whereas her husband was sentenced to two years in prison as an accessory. The case was swiftly turned into two criminal narratives: A Genuine Sketch of the Trial of Mary Cole for the Wilful Murder of her Mother, Agnes Thuers (1812) and The Confession of Mary Cole (1813). The essay demonstrates how the strategies and techniques employed to construct, fictionalize, and present the tormented mother-daughter relationship to the reading public, offer a privileged insight into the dominant familial and gender ideologies of the time.
url https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/7172
work_keys_str_mv AT simonaporro genderfamilialideologiesandaspectsofgenreintheearlyrepublicmurdertrialreport
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