Pillars of Salt: An Anthology of Early American Criminal Narratives

by Daniel E. Williams (Editor)

Designed first to terrify readers with examples of divine retribution against lives gone wrong, and later to excite prurient imaginations, criminal narratives comprise a significant but forgotten genre of American literature. The representation of crime and the characterization of criminals in these narratives, according to Williams, offer an accurate index of more widespread social transformations, such as the secularization of society and the growth of capitalism. Recorded first by Puritan clergy as morality plays, these narratives depict the ritual drama of execution, in which the condemned criminals were given specific roles to fulfill, roles that not only marked the boundaries of acceptable behavior but also made crime understandable. For New Englanders of later generations, however, the scaffold was a stage for a more secular drama, and the popular narratives it produced served a very different purpose. Profit replaced passion as a motive for crime, and condemned criminals were used to demonstrate the pathetic consequences of ungoverned greed. By collecting and presenting thirty-two examples of crime stories ranging from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth centuries, Williams explores the public ritual of capital punishment and the changing aspects of the genre it produced. These tales are as fascinating today as they were two and a half centuries ago, and they offer a glimpse of how popular literature functioned in early American society.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1994

Reviews

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Late 17th-late 18th

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Pillars of salt / Cotton Mather -- 1699
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N0...
The declaration & confession of Esther Rodgers -- 1701
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N0...
The vial poured out upon the sea / William Fly -- 1726
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/n0...
The faithful narrative of the wicked life and remarkable conversion of Patience Boston -- 1738
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N0...
A short account of the life of John *** alias Owen Syllavan --
A brief account of the life and abominable thefts of the notorious Isaac Frasier --
The confession and dying words of John Jubeart --
The life and confession of Herman Rosencrantz --
The life, last words, and dying speech of Levi Ames --
An authentic and particular account of the life of Francis Burdett Personel --
A journal of the life and travels of Joseph-Bill Packer --
The dying declarations of James Buchanan, Ezra Ross, and William Brooks --
The American bloody register / Richard Barrick, John Sullivan & Alexander White --
The life and confession of Johnson Green --
A faithful narrative of Elizabeth Wilson -- 1786
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N1...
Life, last words, and dying confession of Rachel Wall --
Sketches of the life of Joseph Mountain, a Negro --
The confession, &c. of Thomas Mount --
The confession and dying words of Samuel Frost --
The narrative and confession of Thomas Powers, a Negro.