The Sewing Girl's Tale : A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America

New York Times Editors' ChoiceWinner of the Bancroft PrizeWinner of the Francis Parkman Prize Winner of the Gotham Book PrizeWinner of the New York Society Library's New York City Book AwardJournal of the American Revolution Book of the YearWinner of the David J.Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History A riveting Revolutionary Era drama of the first published rape trial in American history and its long, shattering aftermath, revealing how much has changed over two centuries-and how much has notOn a moonless night in the summer of 1793 a crime was committed in the back room of a New York brothel-the kind of crime that even victims usually kept secret.Instead, seventeen-year-old seamstress Lanah Sawyer did what virtually no one in US history had done before: she charged a gentleman with rape.Her accusation sparked a raw courtroom drama and a relentless struggle for vindication that threatened both Lanah's and her assailant's lives.The trial exposed a predatory sexual underworld, spark