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JBSPANOS Dissertation.pdf (3.82 MB)

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Redeeming Susanna Cox: A Pennsylvania German Infanticide in Community Tradition

Spanos, Joanna Beth
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376916983

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Comparative Studies.
In 1809, Susanna Cox, a twenty-four year old servant living in Oley, Pennsylvania, was accused, convicted, and executed following the death of her newborn son. Throughout the next two hundred years, Susanna’s story would be transmitted through oral histories and printed and performed broadside ballads. Perhaps the most widely diffused version of the story began in the early 1960s at the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival (now called the Kutztown Folk Festival) when the festival organizers revived her story in the public imagination. Over 50 years later, Cox’s story is still retold at the Kutztown Folk Festival, three times a day for nine days, with the visual addition of a hanging reenactment. This dissertation explores the interplay between history, social memory, and oral tradition as it occurs surrounding the ongoing use of Susanna Cox’s story. I explore the exposition of her story between the discovery of her son’s death and her execution, as well as the legal impact – real or perceived –of the case in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The broadside ballad also maintained currency as it was translated and reprinted in various North American locations throughout the nineteenth century. I go on to discuss the ways that the story has been transmitted and reinterpreted into the 21st century, examining the recorded, published, performed and electronically-disseminated versions and audience responses to them. This project combines textual interpretation, archival research, oral history interviewing, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2009 and 2013I explore why various communities – ethnic, gendered, religious, or geographic – chose to claim Cox and redeem her soul, reputation, or memory. Susanna Cox was a woman whose actions went against the legal and moral standards of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In her own time, she provided a focus for public debate over the death penalty and the role of secular and religious education in equipping individuals for appropriate participation within the new Republic. Her story would continue to be raised both as a warning against inappropriate behavior and as an example of the misuses of the legal system. Later generations would repurpose Cox’s story to meet their own needs, interpreting it through contemporary lenses or simply presenting her as an icon of a previous time. Coupled with her tie to the place, the dearth of evidence detailing her life, actions, and motivations renders Susanna Cox available as a cultural touchstone: a familiar case that inhabitants of the region can call upon as a touchstone in assessing shifting attitudes towards gender, crime, and responsibility.
Dorothy Noyes (Advisor)
Richard Green (Committee Member)
Margaret Mills (Committee Member)
Randolph Roth (Committee Member)
328 p.
American Studies; Folklore; History; Legal Studies; Womens Studies
Maternal Infanticide, Pennsylvania German, Heritage Festival, Broadside Ballad, Early Republic Legal History, Capital Punishment

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Spanos, J. B. (2013). Redeeming Susanna Cox: A Pennsylvania German Infanticide in Community Tradition [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376916983

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Spanos, Joanna. Redeeming Susanna Cox: A Pennsylvania German Infanticide in Community Tradition. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376916983.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Spanos, Joanna. "Redeeming Susanna Cox: A Pennsylvania German Infanticide in Community Tradition." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1376916983

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1376916983
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.