Thou Savage Woman Hb: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain

Thou Savage Woman Hb: Female Killers in Early Modern Britain | Blessin Adams

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A look at female killers in the Early Modern period in Britain (16th to 18th centuries CE), where the plethora of ballads & pamphlets would have had us believe that female killers were fairly common. This book examines the evidence & argues that then, as now, most murders were committed by men & that those committed by women were sensationalised. (continued)

OutsmartYourShelf Violence was thought to be in the nature of men but against that of women so women who killed were therefore going against the natural order of things.

There are examples here of women who killed under different circumstances, from escaping domestic violence to being accused of being a witch. Women have killed for various reasons but they have always seemed to be deemed worse than male killers in the court of public opinion. 1mo

OutsmartYourShelf I thought this was an informative read about an intriguing subject. Coincidentally I read a book about Alice Arden earlier this year - before that I had never heard of her & she crops up in this book too. I didn't find it quite as good a read as the author's first book & there was some repetition in the chapters but it was interesting. 4🌟

My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, Williams Collins, for the opportunity to read an ARC. 1mo

OutsmartYourShelf Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7213671165
Read 12th-15th Feb 2025

#ReadAway2025 @Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES 1mo

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Butterfinger Wow, the ballad making when women kill must have carried over to US. I can think of two folk songs around western NC that became semi-famous. Frankie and Johnnie were lovers and Tom Dooley. Tom was executed for the crime, but everyone believes he was protecting a woman. That's really an interesting theory. It makes so much sense.

The Untold Story of Frankie Silver: Was She Unjustly Hanged?

1mo

Butterfinger I was wrong. Frankie Silver killed her husband in NC and there was a ballad about her, but the song "Frankie and Johnny" was from a murder in Oregon. Again, the killer was a woman and it was sensationalized. 1mo

OutsmartYourShelf @Butterfinger interesting. Was the Elvis film loosely based on that? I seem to remember a bit of the song. 1mo

Butterfinger I have no idea. My mother watched Elvis movies every time one was on TV, but I have only seen his western as an adult. 1mo

OutsmartYourShelf @Butterfinger I would have been a kid when I watched it some time in the 80s but I vaguely remember a song about Frankie & Johnny & a shooting. I‘ll have to look it up. 1mo

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