Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-222) and index
Haunted by the gallows: Antebellum American literature and capital punishment -- The politics of poetry: The democratic review and anti-gallows verse in 1840s America -- The American Newgate novel: Antebellum crime fiction and anti- gallows sympathy -- Walt Whitman’s anti-gallows writing: The appeal to Christian sympathy -- Women’s anti-gallows writing: The sentimental strategy of E. D. E. N. Southworth -- Herman Melville’s Billy Budd: The legacy of antebellum anti-gallows literature.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest, 2015. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest affiliated libraries