Murder in the Shenandoah

Jessica K. Lowe tells the story of Commonwealth v. Crane, exposing deep rifts in post-Revolutionary Virginia and using it to unearth Revolutionary America's gripping debates over justice, criminal punishment, and equality before the law. She shows how post-Revolutionary Virginia was gripped by the question of what it means to make law 'sovereign'.

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On July 4, 1791, the fifteenth anniversary of American Independence, John Crane, a descendant of prominent Virginian families, killed his neighbor's harvest worker. Murder in the Shenandoah traces the story of this early murder case as it entangled powerful Virginians and addressed the question that everyone in the state was heatedly debating: what would it mean to have equality before the law - and a world where 'law is king'? By retelling the story of the case, called Commonwealth v. Crane, through the eyes of its witnesses, families, fighters, victims, judges, and juries, Jessica K. Lowe reveals how revolutionary debates about justice gripped the new nation, transforming ideas about law, punishment, and popular government.