The Dreadful Word
Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts, 1690–1776

A fascinating study of how elite white men in eighteenth-century Massachusetts incorporated the ethos of politeness into the law of criminal speech.

Kristin A. Olbertson (Author)

9781009098908, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 March 2022

258 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.7 kg

'Through her careful and perceptive scholarship Kristin Olbertson has deepened our knowledge of law as an instrument for maintaining social, gender, and racial hierarchies in the eighteenth century.' Lyndsay Campbell, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

This book, the first comprehensive study of criminal speech in eighteenth-century New England, traces how the criminalization, prosecution, and punishment of speech offenses in Massachusetts helped to establish and legitimate a social and cultural regime of politeness. Analyzing provincial statutes and hundreds of criminal prosecutions, Kristin A. Olbertson argues that colonists transformed their understanding of speech offenses, from fundamentally ungodly to primarily impolite. As white male gentility emerged as the pre-eminent model of authority, records of criminal prosecution and punishment show a distinct cadre of politely pious men defining themselves largely in contrast to the vulgar, the impious, and the unmanly. “Law,” as manifested in statutes as well as in local courts and communities, promoted and legitimized a particular, polite vision of the king's peace and helped effectuate the British Empire. In this unique and fascinating work, Olbertson reveals how ordinary people interacted with and shaped legal institutions.

1. Introduction
2. A politer peace
3. Sensibility
4. Civility
5. Credibility
6. Cacophony
7. Respectability
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]