Death of an Overseer: Reopening a Murder Investigation from the Plantation South
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Author Description
In May of 1857, the body of Duncan Skinner was found in a strip of woods along the edge of the plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as an overseer. Although a coroner's jury initially ruled his death to be accidental, an investigation organized by planters from the community concluded that he had been murdered by three slaves acting under instructions from John McCallin, an Irish carpenter.Now, almost a century and a half later, Michael Wayne has reopened the case to ask whether the men involved in the investigation arrived at the right verdict. Part essay on the art of historical detection, part seminar on the history of slavery and the Old South, Death of an Overseer is, above all, a murder mystery--a murder mystery that allows readers to sift through the surviving evidence themselves and come to their own conclusions about who killed Duncan Skinner and why.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
Did the 1857 investigation into the death of overseer Duncan Skinner reach a correct verdict, or was it a miscarriage of justice influenced by the social hierarchies of the antebellum South? Michael Wayne, a historian specializing in the American South, utilizes primary source documents and legal records to re-examine the murder of an overseer near Natchez, Mississippi. By presenting the evidence as a historical cold case, the author challenges the reader to evaluate the reliability of the original findings within the context of the plantation system and the racial dynamics of the era.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A detailed examination of the 1857 murder investigation of Duncan Skinner.
- Analysis of the social and legal structures governing the antebellum plantation South.
- Primary source evidence including coroner's jury reports and community testimony.
- A methodological framework for historical detection and critical source analysis.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Historians and legal scholars frequently cite this work as a model for how to engage readers in the complexities of archival research and historical interpretation. Experts highlight the text as a sophisticated study that balances the narrative tension of a murder mystery with the rigorous demands of academic historical inquiry.
Page Count:
265
Publication Date:
2001-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0199923787
ISBN-13:
9780199923786
True Crime
History
Legal History
American South
Slavery
American History
