The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America.

The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler: A Story of Rape, Incest, and Justice in Early America. By Irene Quenzler Brown and Richard D. Brown (Cambridge: Belknap, 2003. 388 pp., index, 16 pictures).

The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler provides a vibrant recreation of the life and death of one convicted felon in an early nineteenth-century New England town. Irene and Richard Brown's thoroughly readable and engaging microhistory is its own case study for the success of the genre. The Browns take as their subject Ephraim Wheeler's trial and execution for the rape of his daughter in Massachusetts in 1806. Seven topical chapters of accessible narrative explore various aspects of the trial, the participants, the community's involvement, and Wheeler's life reaction to the accusation and conviction in an accessible narrative style. After beginning with a vibrant description of Wheeler's execution, the chapter topics turn to the early Massachusetts world in which it took place; to the trial, and to the members of Wheeler's family before returning to a sustained consideration of the conviction and execution. Though one of the Browns' main sources is obviously the published transcript of Wheeler's trial, their research into multiple aspects of New England life lead to a rich picture of one case of capital justice.

First and foremost, this is a compelling story that brings a criminal case to life, and provides significant insights into how capital punishment cases were adjudicated and how communities and families weighed in on the ultimate sentencing of convicted felons. Scholars and students of legal history will benefit greatly from the book's realistic re-enactment of the roles played by lawyers, judges, and other legal and community officials in such capital cases. There are also many hidden gems that make this book more than worth reading: the chapter on "The Setting" draws one of the best pictures of turn-of-the-century New England life that I've seen. Social historians will be impressed by the Browns' reconstructions of the lives of the Wheelers, who were a family on the racial and economic margins of New England society. The acknowledgments reveal that this was a project from which their students benefited as well; the Browns encouraged their undergraduate and graduate students to take part in the hunt for details related to Ephraim Wheeler's life.

Some who are not fans of microhistory might be uncomfortable with the "must haves," "might haves" and "could haves" that necessarily pepper the text. But the Browns generally have convincing research to back up their conjectures, and they tell a story whose vibrancy more than counteracts any historians' discomfort with such surmising. Perhaps the weakest point of the book is the Brown's lack of attention to the meaning of rape in early American society. This is a book that takes the institutional reaction to a rape as its central story line, and in so doing, risks marginalizing an analysis of the meaning of rape and sexuality outside the courtroom. For instance, their brief nods to how Betsy might have understood her father's rape read as stiff recitations when compared to the rest of the book's vibrant recreations of motives, relationships and courtroom happenings (ie: pp. 124-125). Further, part of the Browns' wonderful story-telling means that some analytic points (the gender dynamics of this case; the role of race in the community's and court's views of rape) are somewhat underdeveloped.

Thus, despite its subtitle that suggests a book focused on rape and incest, The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler is at its strongest when describing life and justice in this New England town. Without doubt, however, this book is a readable and informative model of how a single incident can be used to illuminate a much broader slice of American life and history. I heartily recommend it to both academic and general readers who have any interests in criminal justice, American history, family history, or a hankering for a well-told historical tale.

Sharon Block

University of California, Irvine