On this day in 1778. As the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities reminds us, Bathsheba Spooner, 32 years old and five months pregnant, was hanged in Brookfield. The baby was not her husband’s and Spooner was fearful of his reaction when her adultery was discovered. She convinced three men to kill him, then had them dump the body down her well. The crime was solved by authorities within 24 hours. The Foundation writes:
Bathsheba refused to confess but she did appeal for a stay of execution until she could deliver her baby. With Massachusetts government in disarray, a Patriot-appointed council heard her appeal. Bathsheba Spooner did not have a chance. Not only were she and her father known for their Loyalist sympathies, but the deputy secretary of the council was her murdered husband’s stepbrother. The appeal was denied. Bathsheba Spooner, five months pregnant, was hanged from the gallows along with her three co-conspirators.
As the Mass. tourism folks say, “History is a part of the Massachusetts cultural fabric and a big part of what makes visiting here a unique experience.”
Robert Phillips, one of the Brookfield town selectmen, suggested at their regular meeting that the new regional high school be named the Bathsheba Spooner High School. Reactions were mixed, ranging from “???” to “That’s an intriguing idea; however, not everyone would consider Ms. Spooner a good role model for students,” to “Who is Bathsheba Spooner?”
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It took about two days for folks to realize that the suggestion was make on April 1. The incident made the Telegram & Gazette.
That’s “MADE on April 1.”
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Time for more coffee.
We are such a progressive state.
Yet another reason to be progressive, not regressive. Onward.
was she good looking?
or, as they refer to it on Sesame Street, The Scarlet Letter A, is sitting on my coffee table as I prep for teaching it in September. Interesting fun fact: the word “adultery” does not appear anywhere in the text, but that’s one of those matters for another day. And how ’bout that Melville and Hawthorne thing, eh? At any rate, the whole thing will be fun (in my view, anyway).
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The cautionary tale of Bathsheba Spooner hardly resonates with young people today for the reasons her contemporaries would have preferred. I’m looking forward to exploring Letter next year with seniors who may be able to bring a slightly wider worldview to their reading. I suspect they will do better with Hawthorne’s contradictory text than underclassmen in the past.
You’re getting too close for your own good, back off! You don’t know who you are dealing with.
She was actually from Brookfield, and hanged not in Brookfield but in Worcester
She apparently solicited for murder. Like Pam Smart in New Hampshire.
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I’m not a fan of capital punishment, but it was not uncommon back then.
…it’s been reported that Shrub has just commuted Libby’s sentence. Not a pardon, but a commutation.
I would think.
They usually hanged people down here, but they subjected this lad to beheading. The only beheading in Plymouth Colony records.
Hangings are now out of style. We’ve become far more sophisticated. So instead there’s political, economic and social retribution.
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Religion poisons everything. To this day.