Thanks, Dan, (and SDB and Eve for sponsoring) for that great review. The Sawyer case has interested me since I read Duel With the Devil, by Paul Collins, about Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton teaming up to defend accused murderer Levi Weeks. I had some issues with that book, not least of which was its handling of the Sawyer case, which came up as a sideline since Hamilton was also involved there, as mentioned. After describing the case, the trial, and its aftermath, Collins added that several years after the fact, Sawyer confessed to a newspaper that she had in fact consented to sex but then made the rape story up because she was afraid of her stepfather’s wrath. I found that idea pretty suspect myself, but Collins took this alleged confession (without quoting from it directly) as proof that the whole story was in fact a lie, and oh gee, turns out the jury had made the right decision after all.
If I remember correctly, Collins did provide the exact source of the confession in footnotes, and I tried to find it myself, but specific issues of eighteenth/early-nineteenth century newspapers are not really accessible to randos on the internet like me. I’m curious if Sweet’s book mentioned the alleged confession story at all.
Thanks, Dan, (and SDB and Eve for sponsoring) for that great review. The Sawyer case has interested me since I read Duel With the Devil, by Paul Collins, about Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton teaming up to defend accused murderer Levi Weeks. I had some issues with that book, not least of which was its handling of the Sawyer case, which came up as a sideline since Hamilton was also involved there, as mentioned. After describing the case, the trial, and its aftermath, Collins added that several years after the fact, Sawyer confessed to a newspaper that she had in fact consented to sex but then made the rape story up because she was afraid of her stepfather’s wrath. I found that idea pretty suspect myself, but Collins took this alleged confession (without quoting from it directly) as proof that the whole story was in fact a lie, and oh gee, turns out the jury had made the right decision after all.
If I remember correctly, Collins did provide the exact source of the confession in footnotes, and I tried to find it myself, but specific issues of eighteenth/early-nineteenth century newspapers are not really accessible to randos on the internet like me. I’m curious if Sweet’s book mentioned the alleged confession story at all.