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Citation |
Watson KD. Fam. Community Hist. 2008; 11(2): 116-133. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2008, Family and Community Historical Research Society, Publisher Maney Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
The existing literature on the history of infanticide has typically considered the crime as a reaction to a specific set of difficult individual circumstances, but has not attempted to place the infanticidal mother within a longer personal timeframe. Nor has the role of her religious belief been much examined. This article investigates three key elements in the case of Rebecca Smith (1807-1849), the last woman executed in England for the murder of her own infant: her bad marriage; her poverty; and her Baptist religion. These factors provide context for her socio-economic and psychological development, and thus for her status as England's best documented serial infant killer. The article suggests that, as a married woman, Smith's choices were influenced by conditions both wider and deeper than the more immediate issues which have tended to be associated with infanticide by unmarried women. |