Pillars of Salt: An Anthology of Early American Criminal Narratives

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.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Illustrations Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Acknowledgments Chapter 4 Introduction Chapter 5 Cotton Mather: Pillars of Salt Chapter 6 Esther Rodgers: The Declaration and Confession of Esther Rodgers Chapter 7 William Fly: The Vial Poured out upon the Sea Chapter 8 Patience Boston: The Faithful Narrative of the Wicked Life and Remarkable Conversion of Patience Boston Chapter 9 Owen Syllavan: A Short Account of the Life of John ******** Alias Owen Syllavan Chapter 10 Isaac Frasier: A Brief Account of the Life and Abominable Thefts of the Notorious Isaac Frasier Chapter 11 John Jubeart: The Confession and Dying Words of John Jubeart Chapter 12 Herman Rosencrantz: The Life and Confession of Herman Rosencrantz Chapter 13 Levi Ames: The Life, Last Words, and Dying Speech of Levi Ames Chapter 14 Francis Burdett Personel: An Authentic and Particular Account of the Life of Francis Burdett Personel Chapter 15 Joseph-Bill Packer: A Journal of the Life and Travels of Joseph-Bill Packer Chapter 16 James Buchanan, Ezra Ross, and William Brooks: The Dying Declaration of James Buchanan, Ezra Ross, and William Brooks Chapter 17 Richard Barrick, John Sullivan, and Alexander White: The American Bloody Register Chapter 18 Johnson Green: The Life and Confession of Johnson Green Chapter 19 Elizabeth Wilson: A Faithful Narrative of Elizabeth Wilson Chapter 20 Rachel Wall: Life, Last Words, and Dyinig Confession of Rachel Wall Chapter 21 Joseph Mountain: Sketches of the Life of Joseph Mountain, a Negro Chapter 22 Thomas Mount: The Confession, &c. of Thomas Mount Chapter 23 Samuel Frost: The Confession and Dying Words of Samuel Frost Chapter 24 Thomas Powers: The Narrative and Confession of Thomas Powers, a Negro Chapter 25 Works Cited Chapter 26 Index

About the Author :
Daniel E. Williams is a professor of English at the University of Mississippi where he lectures on early American literature. He has written over thirty articles-many of them on the rogue narrative in American literature. Currently, Professor Williams is president of the Society of Eighteenth Century American Studies.

Review :
In Pillars of Salt, Daniel E. Williams provides two-score of the most significant American criminal narratives from the colonial and early national periods, examples of a genre that hitherto has received little attention from literary and cultural historians. Deeply informed by reading in the relevant critical theory and the voluminous secondary literature on early New England, his lengthy introduction offers the most detailed analyses we have of the cultural work of these narratives. All students of early American history and culture, of the history of the book in America, and of the sociology of literature generally should find this collection provocative. -- Philip F. Gura, editor of Early American Literature It is wonderful to have these in print! These narratives are a superb source for understanding the social history of the colonial period. The author's introduction does an excellent job of placing them in their context. These are the kinds of material that will appeal to scholars and students as well as to the general public. I am delighted. -- David Rothman, author of Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic Pillars of Salt brings together texts that embody the interplay of high culture and low, order and disorder, the sacred and the secular. In doing so these texts are unusually revealing of the complexities of culture in early America. Daniel Williams' introduction and careful editing add greatly to the value of this collection. -- David Hall, author of Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England