Everyday Crimes: Social Violence and Civil Rights in Early America

The narratives of slaves, wives, and servants who resisted social and domestic violence in the nineteenth century

In the early nineteenth century, Peter Wheeler, a slave to Gideon Morehouse in New York, protested, "Master, I won't stand this," after Morehouse beat Wheeler's hands with a whip. Wheeler ran for safety, but Morehouse followed him with a shotgun and fired several times. Wheeler sought help from people in the town, but his eventual escape from slavery was the only way to fully se...