Kentucky Justice, Southern Honor, and American Manhood: Understanding the Life and Death of Richard Reid

Portada
LSU Press, 2003 - 197 páginas
On April 16, 1884, Kentucky Superior Court Judge Richard Reid visited attorney John Jay Cornelison's office to discuss a legal matter. When he arrived. Cornelison accused the unsuspecting Reid of having injured his honor and then struck him repeatedly with a large hickory cane. He pursued Reid onto the street, where he began to lash him with a cowhide whip. That seemingly minor event in the small town of Mount Sterling became front-page news. The press, both local and national, raised questions regarding Reid's response. Would he react as a Christian gentleman, a man of the law, and let the legal system take its course, or would he follow the manly dictates of the code of honor and kill his assailant? James C. Klotter crafts a detective story, using historical, medical, legal, and psychological clues to piece together answers to the tragedy that followed. This unfolding drama of an individual versus his surrounding culture reveals much about state, regional, and national temperaments in the late nineteenth century and shows the tensions between traditional southern mores and new secular and commercial forces. It also explores the conventions, values, and confusions of the archaic c

Dentro del libro

Contenido

A Perfect Life
14
A Superior Judge
31
A Living Death
57
A Seared Soul
75
A Madman
89
A Matter of Vengeance and Victims
103
A Failed Hero
123
Notes
143
Bibliography
171
Index
193
Derechos de autor

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2003)

James C. Klotter is the State Historian of Kentucky and a professor of history at Georgetown College.

Información bibliográfica