Mark and Phillis [was: coloured folk: to clarify]

[Joel S. Berson]

I agree with what John writes.  Goodell's "The trial and execution,
for petit treason, of Mark and Phillis" is certainly the best
description of the case.  Revere's report is ambiguous; one wishes he
had written "had been" hung in chains.  Goodell takes it as "alluding
to the site of the gibbet as a place well known at that time" (the
point above Charlestown neck where the road to Cambridge began), not
that Revere actually saw Mark's body still hanging.  Although Mark's
body was reported (in 1813) to have remained on the gibbet "until a
short time before the revolution", the latest (I suppose) "certain"
sighting that Goodell reported is 1758, not long after the execution.

Joel

At 7/21/2011 01:44 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>         In an account written 23 years after his ride,
>http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/ride-letter-to-Belknap.html, Revere
>wrote, "After I had passed Charlestown Neck, and got nearly opposite
>where Mark was hung in chains, I saw two men on Horse back, under a
>Tree."  That seems to me to be ambiguous as to whether the body was
>still there in 1775, although it was certainly long gone when Revere
>wrote in 1798.  Mark was hanged in 1755 for petit treason (the killing
>of his master, considered a crime more serious than murder).  As with
>some other very serious crimes, such as piracy, he was first hanged, and
>then his body was brought to the gibbet to be left there in chains until
>it disintegrated over a period of years.  Mark's body is said to have
>remained on the gibbet until a short time before the Revolution, so it
>likely was removed shortly before or after Revere's ride.  For anyone
>who is interested, there is a full discussion of Mark's case at
>http://books.google.com/books?id=GXSWgxS8B7cC.
>
>
>John Baker
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Wilson Gray
>Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2011 4:09 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: coloured folk: to clarify
>
>On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 9:33 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > Phillis was the name of one of the two slaves executed for the murder
> > of John Codman in Charlestown, Mass., in 1755.  (The other slave
> > condemned was hanged, and then his body was left on the gibbet in
> > Charlestown for a number of years.  Paul Revere mentions the location
> > "where Mark was hanged" -- it was at a crossroads -- in his
> > description of his ride, but it's not likely the body was still
> > hanging then; rather, he was probably using the location as a
> > "landmark" to describe his route.)
> >
>
>Good to know!
>
>--
>-Wilson
>-----
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-Mark Twain
>
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