Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Past Is Another Country

The Past Is Another Country

And you don't have to spend much time reading through books about early America to realize how different it was. I was reading James W. North, The History of Augusta, From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time… (Augusta, Me.: Clapp & North, 1870), and I found an account at pp. 493-5 of a Henry McCausland who became insane in 1793, with religious delusions. He became convinced that he needed to beg God's pardon with a burnt offering and a human sacrifice. So he burnt down a church, and stabbed a woman to death. He pleaded guilty at trial, but was found not guilty reason of insanity. He then the next thirty-six years in jail (until his death), where he became a tourist attraction. Thousands came to look at him, and hear him tell the tale of how he killed a “wicked woman” and burned down a church. Admission fees helped to cover his costs of confinement.

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