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Brotherly Love: Murder and the Politics of Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Rhode Island, by Charles and Tess HoVman, pp. 184, Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1993, $27.50. On December 31, 1843, somebody murdered Amasa Sprague, a prosperous Rhode Island textile manufacturer. The Wnger of guilt quickly pointed at three Irish immigrants , the brothers Nicholas, John, and William Gordon. Concentrating on “who did what, when, where,” Charles and Tess HoVman unfold a murder mystery within a context of social, political, and economic upheaval. Court transcripts, contemporary newspapers, and census and local government records give precision and depth to their recounting of legal actions that resulted in the hanging of John Gordon, but a too-ready thesis that “ethnic and religious prejudice against Irish immigrants in the 1840s” doomed the Gordons obscures the nuances of cultural interaction between natives and newcomers disclosed during this notorious case. Nicholas Gordon, the oldest brother, had emigrated about 1836. By 1843, he owned a store and tavern in the mill village of Spraguesville. Nicholas had become a naturalized citizen and earned the right to vote, an exceedingly rare occurrence in Rhode Island. Proud of his success, Nicholas sent for family members still in Ireland. His mother, three brothers, and a niece arrived in June 1843, only to Wnd Nicholas upset that Sprague had inXuenced the town council to revoke his liquor license. Sprague sought his decision to prevent his Irish workers from overindulging at Gordon’s tavern. Incensed, Nicholas Gordon publicly confronted the mill owner. Upon Sprague’s untimely demise—bludgeoned to death after being shot while taking his regular Sunday afternoon walk to check cattle at his farm—local residents , virtually all beholden to the murdered man for their livelihoods, pounced on the Gordons as having an obvious motive to perform the grisly deed. By January 2, before physical evidence had been recovered, three Gordon brother had been arrested. A grand jury indicted the brothers on capital charges and bound them over for trial. Trials form the core of the book. John and William Gordon, charged with committing the murder, came to trial before the Rhode Island Supreme Court in April, 1844. Nicholas, charged with being an accessory before the fact, was held for separate trial. Obviously, if John and William were found not guilty, there would be no case against their brother. The HoVmanns set the trial of John and William against the backdrop of the pending trial, for treason, of Thomas Wilson Dorr. Dorr, son of an old Rhode Island family, had campaigned for constitutional reform that would grant suVrage to a growing population of naturalized citizens who worked in factories and rented rooms in tenements. Dorr’s movement garnered wide general support until he established an independent state government and threatened armed revolt. These actions galvanized conservatives of all parties and inXamed feelings among the politically dominant landed class against foreign and propertyless BOOK REVIEWS 187 usurpers. While somewhat germane, one suspects that the eVort and space the HoVmanns spend discussing Dorr may have been used to better eVect elucidating an unchronicled Providence Irish community whose history and traditions Wgured directly on the case. The prosecution made its case with circumstantial evidence. Witnesses testiWed that parts of a gun and a coat found near the murder scene matched those once in Nicholas Gordon’s possession. Others testiWed on the motive to murder Sprague. The prosecution evoked a theory of Irish kinship that would have moved John and William to act for their brother. Though criticized by the HoVmanns for lack of acuity and aggressiveness, the defense lawyers did present witnesses who established an alibi for William Gordon and, incidentally, gave provocative glimpses of immigrant Irish life. Issued instructions biased against the defendants, the jury returned verdicts of innocent for William and guilty for John. Learning that he faced the gallows, John Gordon exclaimed, “‘It is you, William, that have hung me.’” The HoVmanns later explain that William had hidden a fowling piece and pistol in the Gordon home upon hearing of his brothers’ arrest because in Ireland Wnding weapons in a suspect’s house almost ensured conviction. If produced during the trial, these weapons would be proven not to...

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