I Am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation

"A good story, well told, of a sliver of life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation's most influential state." —Publishers Weekly George Wythe clung to the mahogany banister as he inched down the staircase of his comfortable Richmond, Virginia, home. Doubled over in agony, he stumbled to the kitchen in search of help. There he found his maid, Lydia Broadnax, and his young protegé, Michael Brown, who were also writhing in distress. Hours later, when help arrived, Wythe was quick to tell anyone who would listen, "I am murdered." Over the next two weeks, as Wythe suffered a long and painful death, insults would be added to his mortal injury. I Am Murdered tells the bizarre true story of Wythe's death and the subsequent trial of his grandnephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, for the crime—unquestionably the most sensational and talked-about court case of the era. Hinging on hit-and-miss forensics, the unreliability of medical autopsies, the prevalence of poisoning, race relations, slavery, and the law, Sweeney's trial serves as a window into early nineteenth- century America. Its particular focus is on Richmond, part elegant state capital and part chaotic boomtown riddled with vice, opportunism, and crime. As Wythe lay dying, his doctors insisted that he had not been poisoned, and Sweeney had the nerve to beg him for bail money. In I Am Murdered, this signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and "Father of American Jurisprudence" finally gets the justice he deserved.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE. Chapter One: "I Am Murdered…". Chapter Two: The Funeral. Chapter Three: Homicide: Early Investigation. Chapter Four: Williamsburg: George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson. Chapter Five: Jefferson and Wythe Remake Virginia. Chapter Six: Richmond: Boomtown and the Decadent Night Life Of George Wythe Sweeney. Chapter Seven: The Dying George Wythe Changes His Will. Chapter Eight: Moving Day: A Second Life in Richmond and the Return of George Wythe. PART TWO. Chapter Nine: The Arrest. Chapter Ten: The Investigation II. Chapter Eleven: For The Defense: William Wirt. Chapter Twelve: For the Defense: Edmund Randolph. Chapter Thirteen: Mourning at the Executive Mansion. PART THREE. Chapter Fourteen: The Forensics Nightmare, Part One: Arsenic, the Poison of Choice. Chapter Fifteen: The Forensics Nightmare, Part Two: The Autopsy. Chapter Sixteen: Lydia Broadnax - the Eyewitness. Chapter Seventeen: The Black and White Legal Code. Chapter Eighteen: Washington: October, 1806. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

About the Author :
Bruce Chadwick is a historian of the American Revolution and colonial era whose books include George Washington's War, The General and Mrs. Washington, and The First American Army. He has also appeared on the History Channel.

Review :
This historical whodunit relates the tale of the 1806 murder of one of the early nation's most celebrated jurists and public figures. Virginia's George Wythe was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. He was also teacher and friend to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall and Henry Clay. Few were as beloved and admired; the advice of no other was so sought after. But one day in 1806, he and two of his servants were poisoned. Historian Chadwick (George Washington's War) takes readers through the circumstances of Wythe's murder and gradually reveals—no surprise to the attentive reader—the murder suspect. It's a good story, well told, of a sliver of life in Richmond, a small, elite-driven capital city in the young nation's most influential state. The walk-on figures include a good proportion of the early republic's leading men. If Chadwick pads the book with too much on, say, arsenic poisoning, as well as the contemporary practices of autopsies, it's all pertinent to the tale's outcome: the acquittal of the likely murderer. Illus. (Jan.) (Publishers Weekly, October 13th, 2008)