On this date in 1774, Daniel Wilson was hanged before a throng of 12,000 in Providence, Rhode Island, for rape.
A journeyman carpenter turned small-time New England crook, Wilson had a gift for escape and busted out of the Providence jail three times — never retaining his liberty long enough to get clear of the gallows’ shadow. Our friends at the wonderful Early American Crime blog cover the man’s career here … absent the rape, whose particulars seem to have escaped the documentary trail and which Wilson also delicately elides in his hang-day broadsheet.
I find it hard to believe that 12,000 came for this hanging.
The population of R.I: at that time was not even 60,000 people.
When Providence became an official city in 1831 it had 17,000 people. So we should believe that about one in five people of those in the state who were not slaves traveled to see this execution during a time when travel was very slow and travel accomodations were rather scarce. The people would have had to have come and gone back home all in a day or many of them would have had to have slept outside.
Such a claim does not seem likely to me.
I find it hard to believe that 12,000 came for this hanging.
The population of R.I: at that time was not even 60,000 people.
When Providence became an official city in 1831 it had 17,000 people. So we should believe that about one in five people of those in the state who were not slaves traveled to see this execution during a time when travel was very slow and travel accomodations were rather scarce. The people would have had to have come and gone back home all in a day or many of them would have had to have slept outside.
Such a claim does not seem likely to me.