Page 1 of 4
A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial
Suzanne Lebsock, 2003
W.W. Norton & Company
442 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780393326062
Summary
It is 1895 in rural Virginia and a white woman lies in her farmyard, hacked to death with a meat ax. Suspicion soon falls on a young black laborer, who tries to flee the county.
He, in turn, accuses three local black women of plotting the murder and wielding the ax.
Through vivid courtroom scenes and gripping personal stories, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Suzanne Lebsock takes us deep into this world when Reconstruction is slowly fading and Jim Crow is on the rise. (From the publisher.)