This edited collection offers multi-disciplinary reflections and analysis on a variety of themes centred on nineteenth century executions in the UK, many specifically related to the fundamental change in capital punishment culture as the execution moved from the public arena to behind the prison wall. By examining a period of dramatic change in punishment practice, this collection of essays provides a fresh historical perspective on nineteenth century execution culture, with a focus on Scotland, Wales and the regions of England.
From Public Spectacle to Hidden Ritual has two parts. Part 1 addresses the criminal body and the witnessing of executions in the nineteenth century, including studies of the execution crowd and executioners' memoirs, as well as reflections on the experience of narratives around capital punishment in museums in the present day. Part 2 explores the treatment of the execution experience in the print media, from the nineteenth and into the twentieth century.
The collection draws together contributions from the fields of Heritage and Museum Studies, History, Law, Legal History and Literary Studies, to shed new light on execution culture in nineteenth century Britain. This volume will be of interest to students and academics in the fields of criminology, heritage and museum studies, history, law, legal history, medical humanities and socio-legal studies.
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Yes, you can access Execution Culture in Nineteenth Century Britain by Patrick Low,Helen Rutherford,Clare Sandford-Couch in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Storia & Storia sociale. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
1 â[T]he broken stave at the top of the ladder of Englandâs civilisationâ1 Representing the ending of public execution in 1868
James Gregory
Introduction
In 1868, the British state removed capital punishment from the public gaze through an âAct to provide for carrying out of Capital Punishment within Prisonsâ (The Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 (31 and 32 Vict. c. 24)), a measure long anticipated, from letters in the press by Charles Dickens to parliamentary debate, House of Lords select committee in 1856, Law Amendment Society report, and Royal Commission from 1864 to 1866.2 The scene had already been partially obscured by the âshort black curtain which has of late years been placed round the shabby old gallowsâ.3 The Fenian Michael Barrett was the last man to be publicly executed in Britain, outside the debtorâs gate at Newgate prison on 26 May 1868.4 Three days later when the bill, first introduced in March 1866, was enacted, judgment of death was âcarried into effect within the walls of the prison in which the offender is confined at the time of executionâ.5 This chapter analyses press treatment of the last public execution and first private executions; considers how the shift in 1868 was explained thereafter in Britain; studies what evidence for public attitudes towards this transformation in penal practice exist; and situates it in the broader perspective of the British empire and commentary from outside Britain.6
âIn the present day things have somehow come aboutâ, The Jurist commented in August 1868, âwhich nobody now living expected ever to seeâ. What had hitherto been generally treated as âan honest, straightforward proceeding ⊠a durable British institution ⊠an open and legitimate triumph of good government over its irreclaimable foesâ, was abolished.7 Why this most fatal of penal practices was altered, The Jurist suggested, was down to public opinion sapping and mining âin all directions the most venerable traditionsâ. An opponent of capital punishment, published in The Examiner a month before, described the change as the consequence of âgood societyâ and enlightened legislature, âsuddenly and shamefacedlyâ confessing no longer to believe in the gallowsâ public lesson.8 For the barrister Francis Rowsell, writing a history of capital punishment in 1876, the growth of a humane popular opinion had triggered the Royal Commission in 1864.9 For the more cynical there was the factor of trade disruption caused by the crowd, although in an age of âcompensation for all improvementsâ, The Times wondered whether those out of pocket for loss of tenants to view the executions, should make claims.10 The alteration was certainly not out of mercy for gallowsâ victims â although advocates for continued capital punishment, like John Stuart Mill, claimed intramural execution was more merciful than life imprisonment. Newspaper commentary suggested quiet spiritual preparation for execution without the shrieks of the crowd, was more merciful.11
In the Commons, debating the measure, opponents of abolition envisioned a more awful performance to render it âsolemn and momentousâ.12 In line with this, V.A.C. Gatrell argued forcefully for the absence of humanitarian motives from the minds of the architects of this legislation. While contemporaries might identify intramural execution as the march of progressive feeling, and abolitionists hope indeed that this outrage on British sensibilities towards âsecret assassinationâ would bring about abolition, the truth was that it was seen as shoring up the death penalty, and perhaps even permitting its extension where the execution of women in public had been reduced.13
The last public hanging and the first two private hangings in Britain
The âend daysâ of public hanging were in the spring of 1868. There were several contenders for the last public executions as newspapers anticipated legislative change â Timothy Faherty and Miles Weatherill at the New Bailey in Salford in mid-April for instance.14 âI suppose,â wrote one newspaper on 10 April, âthe Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment is still in existence, though it makes no sign. If so, its members will have hard work now in effecting their objects.â15 The newspaper accounts of Barrettâs hanging, as the only man executed for the Clerkenwell explosion of 1867 when an attempt was made to free OâSullivan Burke and Joseph Casey from prison (killing twelve and injuring many more) implied a wide âdisenchantmentâ with public infliction. Yet the circumstances of the Clerkenwell outrage, and security around the execution (the authorities feared Fenian retaliation) meant this concluding performance of the public gallows was hardly normal.
The Chelsea News and General Advertiser stated that the âlast public execution has given rise to an immense amount of writing and talk anent the custom, the criminal, and the executionerâ.16 For the Morning Post, the day after, the execution âseemed to excite but little interestâ and despite knowledge that it would probably be the last public execution in England the crowd was âvery much smaller than usual on such occasions. The persons present also conducted themselves in a most decorous manner.â17 Other newspapers echoed the representation of the crowdâs silence: âalmost less noise and less confusion than at almost any previous execution,â suggested âthe most complete apathy on the part of the London populace.â18 For The Times, given its historic status, this execution âdeserved more than usual notice,â and in its report suggested that âwith all its exceptional quietness,â there was a âthankful feeling that this was to be the last public execution in Englandâ. Yet the reporter described an immense crowd âswaying to and fro like waving cornâ.19 Unsurprisingly supporters of Irish republicanism recalled it differently. The London correspondent of the Waterford Citizen dwelt on the âruffianism of a London rabbleâ. The lengthy recollections of the American correspondent of New York World, reusing an engraving of the Newgate scene from Thomas Millerâs Picturesque Sketches of London, claimed the city seethed like a cauldron.20
The messages extracted by metropolitan and provincial newspapers depended on their views on capital punishment. Thus the abolitionist Norwich Mercury saw the execution as an event in social history âwhich will mark off the future mo...
Table of contents
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 â[T]he broken stave at the top of the ladder of Englandâs civilisationâ: representing the ending of public execution in 1868
Part I âGoing to see a man hangedâ
Part II âOne had better narrate the circumstances as they occurredâ