""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 protege, 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.
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