The Sewing Girl’s Tale

New York Times EditorsΓÇÖ Choice Winner of the Bancroft Prize Winner of the Gotham Book Prize Winner of the New York Society Library’s New York City Book Award Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year Winner of the David J. Langum,Sr. Prize in American Legal History A riveting Revolutionary Era drama of the first published rape trial in American history and its longshattering aftermathrevealing how much has changed over two centuriesΓÇöand how much has not On a moonless night in the summer of 1793 a crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothelΓÇöthe kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret. Insteadseventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer did what virtually no one in US history had done before: she charged a gentleman with rape. Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both LanahΓÇÖs and her assailantΓÇÖs lives. The trial exposed a predatory sexual underworldsparked riots in the streetsand ignited a vigorous debate about class privilege and sexual double standards. The ongoing conflict attracted the nationΓÇÖs top lawyersincluding Alexander Hamiltonand shaped the development of American law. The crime and its consequences became a kind of parable about the power of seduction and the limits of justice. EventuallyLanah Sawyer did succeed in holding her assailant accountableΓÇöbut at a terrible cost to herself. Based on rigorous historical detective workthis book takes us from a chance encounter in the street into the sanctuaries of the cityΓÇÖs elitethe shadows of its brothelsand the despair of its debtorsΓÇÖ prison. The Sewing Girl’s Tale shows that if our laws and our culture were changed by a persistent young woman and the power of words two hundred years agothey can be changed again. Includes photographs