Book description
The “Kentucky Tragedy” was early America's best known true crime story.
In 1825, Jereboam O. Beauchamp assassinated Kentucky attorney general
Solomon P. Sharp. The murder, trial, conviction, and execution of the
killer, as well as the suicide of his wife, Anna Cooke
Beauchamp-fascinated Americans. The episode became the basis of dozens
of novels and plays composed by some of the country's most esteemed
literary talents, among them Edgar Allan Poe and William Gilmore Simms.
In Murder and Madness, Matthew G. Schoenbachler peels away two centuries
of myth to provide a more accurate account of the murder. Schoenbachler
also reveals how Jereboam and Anna Beauchamp shaped the meaning and
memory of the event by manipulating romantic ideals at the heart of
early American society. Concocting a story in which Solomon Sharp had
seduced and abandoned Anna, the couple transformed a sordid
murder-committed because the Beauchamps believed Sharp to be spreading a
rumor that Anna had had an affair with a family slave-into a maudlin
tale of feminine virtue assailed, honor asserted, and a young rebel's
revenge. Murder and Madness reveals the true story behind the murder and
demonstrates enduring influence of Romanticism in early America.
Matthew G. Schoenbachler, associate professor of history at the
University of North Alabama, has writings in numerous publications.
