Nineteenth-Century Female Poisoners

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.

Autorentext
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.

Inhalt
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