Bibliograph

Murder in Lexington, VMI, honor and justice in antebellum Virginia, Daniel S. Morrow

Type

Label

Murder in Lexington, VMI, honor and justice in antebellum Virginia, Daniel S. Morrow

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Murder in Lexington

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Daniel S. Morrow

Sub title

VMI, honor and justice in antebellum Virginia

Summary

In 1853 Lexington, Virginia, Mary Evelyn Anderson, one of the most beautiful women in the Commonwealth, spurned the advances of a young law student named Charles Burks Christian. Humiliated and heartbroken, Christian confronted, stabbed and killed the man he believed responsible for Anderson's decision. The man was her cousin, Thomas Blackburn, a VMI cadet and student of Stonewall Jackson. What followed was a circus of inept and brilliant lawyers dragging members of the most prominent families in antebellum Virginia through an all-too-public discussion of seduction, courtship, honor and self-defense. Author and historian Daniel S. Morrow chronicles the history of the events that led to Blackburn's death, the trials that followed and the impact on Lexington, its two colleges and the men and women who would soon find themselves engaged in a great Civil War

Target audience

adult

Classification