A Homicidal Minister: Controversies in the North American Press Related to the Case of Jacob S. Harden (1860)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20420/Phil.Can.2024.680

Keywords:

capital punishment, Methodism, criminal psychology, reform movements, journalism

Abstract

This study examines the case of Jacob S. Harden, a young Methodist preacher who in 1860 was tried, convicted, and executed in a rural town in the state of New Jersey, United States, for the murder of his wife. The study focuses on the controversies raised in the North American press regarding the case, and how these controversies reflected some evolving ideas in the United States at the time: ideas regarding criminal psychology, the causes of criminality, the possibility of prison rehabilitation, the relationship between the clergy and radical movements of reform and social experimentation, and the relative value of public executions as a form of moral admonition for the masses.

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Author Biography

Frederick Luciani, Colgate University

Luciani holds a Ph.D. in Spanish and Hispanic American Literature from Yale University (1982) and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Colgate University (Hamilton, New York, USA). A specialist in the Baroque and Romanticism in Spanish America, he is the author of Literary Self-Fashioning in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Presses, 2004) and José María Heredia in New York (1823-1825): An Exiled Cuban Poet in the Age of Revolution. Selected Letters and Verse (Albany: SUNY Press, 2020). Luciani is a member of the editorial staff of several scholarly journals.

References

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The death penalty: execution of Rev. Jacob S. Harden, the wife poisoner. (1860, 7 de julio). The New York Herald, 7.

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HICKS, P. [Simón Camacho Clemente] (1860, 27 de julio). Crímenes célebres: Ejecución del Reverendo Jacob S. Harden por envenamiento [sic] de su esposa. El Diario de la Marina, 2.

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MASUR, L. P. (1989). Rites of execution: Capital punishment and the transformation of American culture, 1776-1865. Oxford University.

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Mr. Harden’s politics. (1860, 30 de abril, 1860). The New York Daily Tribune, 7,

OSTROWSKI, C. (2016). Literature and criminal justice in antebellum America. University of Massachusetts.

Politics in the prisoner’s dock: The Rev. Mr. Harden’s position on the question of the day. (1860, 2 de mayo). The New York Herald, 4.

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STAFFORD, J. R. (s. f.). Jacob S. Harden: Poor boy, moral monster, malignant soul. Squeaking Pips Books.

THOMPSON, C. E. (2019). A propensity to murder: Phrenology in antebellum medico-legal theory and practice. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 74(4), 416-39. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrz055.

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The trial of Rev. Jacob S. Harden for the murder of his wife. (1860b, 9 de mayo). The Lambertville Press, 1-2.

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Published

2024-06-22

How to Cite

Luciani, F. (2024). A Homicidal Minister: Controversies in the North American Press Related to the Case of Jacob S. Harden (1860) . Philologica Canariensia, 30, 337–352. https://doi.org/10.20420/Phil.Can.2024.680

Issue

Vol. 30 (2024)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Frederick Luciani

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