The cultural rhetoric of capital punishment in Colonial America through the early Republic, 1641-1792

Once a worldwide leader in the movement to abolish the death penalty, the United States now stands virtually alone among leading nations in its use of the ultimate punishment. Focusing on the Colonial period through the Revolutionary era, this chapter examines the early history of capital punishment...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Barton, John Cyril 1971- (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Druck Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2024
In: The Elgar companion to capital punishment and society
Jahr: 2024, Seiten: 32-48
Online-Zugang: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Schlagwörter:
Capital Punishment
death penalty
Early US history
Gallows literature
Execution sermons
Race
Puritanism
Enlightenment
Cultural Studies
Legal studies
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Once a worldwide leader in the movement to abolish the death penalty, the United States now stands virtually alone among leading nations in its use of the ultimate punishment. Focusing on the Colonial period through the Revolutionary era, this chapter examines the early history of capital punishment in America in terms of law, culture, and literature. It gives particular attention to what the author calls the cultural rhetoric of capital punishment: that is, the prominent arguments, tropes, and narratives through which the death penalty has been legitimated and supported, challenged, and contested, during this formative-and transformative-period in the institution’s development. The essay emphasizes the peculiarities of capital punishment as practiced in America and concludes with a brief discussion of death-penalty abolitionism in post-Revolutionary period through the antebellum era.
Beschreibung:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 47-48
ISBN:9781803929149
DOI:10.4337/9781803929156.00009