Eighteenth-century Pennsylvanians killed and abused each other at a pace that outstripped most of their English and American contemporaries and rivaled some of the worst crime rates in the following 200 years. They victimized their kin and neighbors as well as their enemies and rivals, and the powerful as well as the weak. And yet the land they populated was captioned the "Holy Experiment," renowned as the "best poor man's country on earth," and memorialized as the "Peaceable Kingdom." Troubled Experiment chronicles the extravagant crime in this unlikely place and explains how the disparity between reputation and reality arose. 
This work attaches numbers and faces to the criminals and their victims and to the magistrates, judges, and others seeking to maintain a civil society in the face of violence and licentiousness. To provide such detail, the authors assembled an impressive array of archival materials, including all the extant public court records. No previous history has looked so closely at the volume and variety of crime in the Quaker province, the identity of the perpetrators of crime, their victims, and their prosecutors. The authors also examine the historical record of women, children, African Americans, and ethnic groups in their behavior as criminals, victims, and other actors in the criminal justice system.
Pennsylvanians exalted the freedom and toleration of their province, but Troubled Experiment explains that they confronted abuses of freedom that made them reexamine their tolerance and rethink their idealism. It lends a new perspective to the conventional characterization of Pennsylvania by adding the momentous dimensions of crime and punishment. The authors conclude by depicting Pennsylvania—vaunted as an enlightened, free society—as a community suffering from the problems of crime that plague America today.

Troubled Experiment: Crime and Justice in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800 (Early American Studies)

History

Marietta, Jack D.

Rowe, G. S.

Americas

University of Pennsylvania Press

This work is the first intensive, scholarly study of the early Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Moreover, it is the first investigation of an early American court from the perspective of broad developments within early society. As such it provides the first serious look at a judicial institution shaping the community within which it functioned and being shaped in turn by forces and developments within that society. The book traces the evolution of the personnel, proceedings, and language of the Pennsylvania high court from its founding in May 1684 to its restructuring under the judicial reforms of 1809.Rowe thoroughly demonstrates an important change in the court's institutional focus during the American Revolution when the court exhibited both an enhanced interest in the outcome of government prosecutions and a greater concern for the rights of individuals facing criminal charges. The growth of the court's powers are traced as are its accomplishments over time, especially after 1778. Also demonstrated is the process by which the court challenged the executive and legislative branches for authority within the state. Accordingly, the work describes the court's move toward the exercise of judicial review prior to Marshall's landmark Marbury v. Madison (1803) ruling and the course by which the high bench came to be viewed by many as an aristocratic forum, a menace and a barrier to the growth of democracy in Pennsylvania. Rowe examines the steps taken by popular forces in the early nineteenth century to diminish the court's impact and influence, as well as the attempts to remove or intimidate the court's judges.The importance of this work lies in its evaluation of the court's impact on early Pennsylvanians, white and nonwhite, free and unfree, male and female, young and old, rich and poor. Also documented are the changing role of the court in politics and the evolution of the court's personnel toward greater professionalism. Finally, this book carefully traces the mounting conflict centering on the court as its values and practices increasingly came into conflict with the democratic forces, aspirations, and developments within the state.

Embattled Bench: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Forging of a Democratic Society, 1684-1809

UNKNO

The year is 1897. The place: Boston, Mass. Star short stop Herman Long has just been beaten and left for dead, alone and in the locker room of the Boston Beaneaters National League base ball team. But, whodunit and why? It’s up to ne’er-do-well Will Beaman, who stumbles across Long while trying desperately to secure a front office position with the ball club, to solve the case. Filled with romance, numerous red herrings, exciting game reportage, and shady characters, Best Bet in Beantown dives deeply into the sordid world of 19th century base ball.

Best Bet in Beantown (A Will Beaman Baseball Mystery)

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Pocol Press

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