Testimonials
Julie
“This book examines the 1793 case of Lanah Sawyer, who at the age of seventeen, was sexually assaulted by Henry Bedlow.… As this story unfolds, one sees distinct classism, double standards, and the heavy burdens of proof women endured…. The story is all too familiar in many ways, and though progress has been made, so much of what Lanah endured still goes on today. …
I recommend this book for its rich revolutionary history, for the powerful saga and legacy of Lanah Sawyer, and because of the thought provoking questions it leaves us with. … Overall, a stunning historical portrait which is as timely today as it was in 1793.
Julie’s Reviews, on Goodreads.
Debby Applegate
“The Sewing Girl’s Tale is a masterful narrative history, featuring a remarkable combination of riveting drama and world-class scholarship. The Sewing Girl’s Tale is a mystery, a true crime tale, a courtroom drama, and a scathing analysis of a society stacked against young women. John Sweet has written a story of sex and power that is both vividly historic and ripped from the headlines.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age and The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.
Mary Beth Norton
“The Sewing Girl’s Tale is an extraordinary achievement, combining enthralling narration and impressive historical detective work. When in 1793 Lanah Sawyer, a naïve young seamstress, is raped in a brothel by a wealthy man-about-town, she refuses to remain silent and sets off a major scandal, enveloping her, her family and his, criminal and civil courts, an outraged mob, debtors’ prison, forged letters, Alexander Hamilton, and more. Readers will not be able to put this book down!”
Historian and author, most recently, of 1774: The Long Year of Revolution.
Katy Simpson Smith
“In all good histories a heart lies beating, if the historian is patient and attuned enough to hear it. John Wood Sweet, in a dazzling investigative turn, has restored a bright corporeality to eighteenth-century New York, which here feels as alive as it did the day Lanah Sawyer asked the courts to believe a woman. Urgent and resonant, this book is a reminder that history persists in all our bodies.”
Novelist and author, most recently, of The Everlasting.
Patricia Cline Cohen
“John Sweet’s dazzling book transforms a modest sewing-girl’s story of date rape by a rich libertine into a fully realized, near novel-like treatment of the sexual morals of the 1790s. Historians familiar with Lanah Sawyer’s rape case will be awed by his stunning research finds, while general readers will marvel at his astute psychological renderings of all his characters. By close analysis of Sawyer’s options, actions, and words, Sweet fleshes her out from a near-voiceless victim to a young woman intent on getting justice in a legal system stacked by class and gender.”
Historian and author of The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in 19th-Century New York.
Ken Armstrong
“In 1793, in New York City, in a 15-hour rape trial followed by 15 minutes of jury deliberations, six powerful attorneys representing a man of privilege did all they could to turn 17-year-old Lanah Sawyer into someone who didn’t matter. In The Sewing Girl’s Tale, historian John Wood Sweet provides a masterful counter. In a brilliant reconstruction of one of the most telling criminal cases in American history, he brings to life not only Sawyer, but all the malevolent forces aligned against her, including one Alexander Hamilton. Lanah Sawyer and her story mattered—then, and now.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and coauthor of Unbelievable—now a Netflix miniseries.