PUBLIC DISCOURSE

 The 19th century "cult of domesticity" colored the way in which most Americans approached the subject of femicide. In essence, cult of domesticity prized the qualities of piety, chastity, and submission to one's husband and the bourgeois family. The tacit implication of this normative view of gender was that women who transgressed these norms were complicit in whatever tragedy befell them. As a journalist commenting on the case remarks, "The danger invited by the independence of the self-reliant American girl (…) many a young women over whose dead body a verdict of murder or suicide has been passed has owed her destruction to chance acquaintances formed unknown to her parents at times when, obeying the unwritten law of the country, she has been off by herself. Probably no-one will deny that, if the social customs of England had been enforced in this country Jennie Cramer would yet be alive." [1] The so-called social customs of England refer to this notion of femininity. Perhaps no other phenomenon poses such a danger to the Victorian notion of womanhood than modernization and urbanization. The commonly held view was that modernity's questioning of these traditional social mores leads to vice which in turn breeds crime. As a Montana newspaper writes, "A murder is more certain to be followed by the punishment of the perpetrator in Montana than in the old and populous state of Connecticut, the boasted “land of steady habits." [2] If anything, the journalist comments reveal a notion that the rapidly industrializing eastern seaboard was quickly slipping into degradation and vice, as contrasted with the uncontaminated countryside, in  which these social customs still held sway.

           

Another thread that appears in the media's discourse over the murder is the incompetence of the Connecticut Police. This is indelibly demonstrated by the mockery that the press hurled on the Connecticut police; even going as far as writing elaborate jokes and sketches , such as this shown in this comical sketch titled "Proved His Identity" (ref to the identity of the murder) [3]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, perhaps the most egregious indictment of the Connecticut constabulary comes from the Wheeling Register, which states,"There are suspected persons in the Rose Ambler case just as there were in the earlier cases, but no clue or pet theory fastens the dark crime on any one. That the woman was murdered is beyond question, and yet the murderer walks the soil of Connecticut as free as her most innocent citizen. The detective art is not able to cope with the art of criminals in Connecticut." [4]  And the final theme is, of course, that ubiquitous hallmark of American society: racism. To quote the Indianapolis journal, "When Rose Ambler's body was discovered each villager , of course, transformed himself into a detective and proceeded to hunt for the murder. A negro man was pounced on and attacked for no other reason than that he was black, and other black men had committed murders." [5] This demonstrates that most Americans still viewed blacks as a racialized "other," and therefore, the default suspect of any crime. 

         

 In summation, what the press' discourse around the murder of Rose Ambler reveals is that Americans perceived femicide through the distorting lens of Victorian moralism, with all its connotations of clearly defined and immutable gender roles, as well as ideas of race and its association with "otherness"; perhaps no citation best captures this moralistic ethic than the lamenting remarks offered by the Yorkville Enqirer: ”Details of a tragedy are always of thrilling interest, for the loss of human life is a subject upon which the rich and the poor, the high and the low, reflect with kindred emotions. To this interest is added an element of deep regret and pain, when the victim is a young and promising woman, whose life has been such as to warrant her right and title to a peaceful end.”[6] 

 

Citations

[1] The Daily Enterprise. (Livingston, Mont.), 28 April 1884. In Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

[2] Helena weekly herald. (Helena, Mont.), 11 Oct. 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress, pg.4

[3] The Salt Lake herald.  (Salt Lake City [Utah]), 11 Oct. 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. pg.4

[4] Wheeling register.  (Wheeling, West Va.), 01 Oct. 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.

[5] The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]), 15 Sept. 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. pg.3

[6] Yorkville enquirer (Yorkville, S.C.), 27 Sept. 1883. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.