Shortly after a dismembered torso was discovered by a pond outside Philadelphia in 1887, investigators homed in on two suspects: Hannah Mary Tabbs, a married, working-class, black woman, and George Wilson, a former neighbor whom Tabbs implicated after her arrest. As details surrounding the shocking case emerged, both the crime and ensuing trial--which spanned several months--were featured in the national press. The trial brought otherwise taboo subjects such as illicit sex, adultery, and domestic violence in the black community to public attention. At the same time, the mixed race of the victim and one of his assailants exacerbated anxieties over the purity of whiteness in the post-Reconstruction era. In Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso, historian Kali Nicole Gross uses detectives' notes, trial and prison records, local newspapers, and other archival documents to reconstruct this ghastly whodunit crime in all its scandalous detail. In doing so, she gives the crime context by analyzing it against broader evidence of police treatment of black suspects and violence within the black community. A fascinating work of historical recreation, Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso is sure to captivate anyone interested in true crime, adulterous love triangles gone wrong, and the racially volatile world of post-Reconstruction Philadelphia.

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America

History

Gross, Kali Nicole

Americas

Oxford University Press

Product Description 
2021 NAACP Image Award Nominee: Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction\nHonorable Mention for the 2021 Organization of American Historians Darlene Clark Hine Award\nA vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country\nIn centering Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women’s unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today.\nA Black Women’s History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women’s lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women’s history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation. 
 Review 
“This book is a font of inspiration . . . A compact, exceptionally diverse introduction to the history of black women in America.” 
— 
Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review\n“A substantial addition to popular history. Will likely be well-received by black women seeking better historical representation and by allies looking to educate themselves about black history.” 
— 
Library Journal, Starred Review\n“A welcome addition to the library of any history enthusiast, 
A Black Women’s History of the United States is an absorbing read.” 
— 
Shelf Awareness, Starred Review\n“Captivating, highly readable . . . A timely and much-needed restoration.” 
— 
Booklist\n“This book is a gift to anyone interested in a more complete—a more truthful—story about the United States. By starting the history about Black women on this land with us as free people and as people agitating for our freedom, by prioritizing all Black women’s voices and coming up to the present day, Dr. Gross and Dr. Berry illuminate greater possibilities for our collective freedom dreams and struggles for collective liberation.” 
—Charlene A. Carruthers, author of 
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements\n“ 
A Black Women’s History of the United States is an extraordinary contribution to our collective understanding of the most profound injustices and equalities, as well as the most committed struggles to realize true justice and equality, that have shaped this nation since its birth. Through the courageous and complex voices of black women, and with deft attention to the lives that black women have led from the earliest moments of conquest and colonialism to the dawn of the twenty-first century, historians Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Gross have utterly upended traditional accounts of the American past in ways most desperately needed in our American present.” 
—Heather Ann Thompson, historian and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of 
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy\n“Remarkably comprehensive and accessible, introductory and sophisticated, two ground-breaking historians have come together to produce a ground-breaking new history of Black women in the United States. To know the story of the United States is to know this indispensable story.” 
—Ibram X. Kendi, author of 
Stamped from the Beginning and 
How to Be an Antiracist\n“A powerful and important book that charts the rich and dynamic history of Black women in the United States. It shows how these courageous women challenge

A Black Women's History of the United States (ReVisioning History)

Berry, Daina Ramey

Beacon Press

A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country In centering Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women’s unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today. A Black Women’s History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women’s lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women’s history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gross, Kali Nicole. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gross, Kali Nicole

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gross, Kali Nicole. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America

A Black Women's History of the United States (ReVisioning History)

A Black Women's History of the United States (ReVisioning History)