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The Respectability Defense: Lizzie Borden and Ossian Sweet
| This paper will compare two highly publicized murder trials – Lizzie Borden who was acquitted of killing her father and step-mother in 1892 and Ossian Sweet, a Black physician acquitted of killing a white man in 1925. The defense strategy in both cases centered on the respectability of the defendant and, in particular, definitions of femininity and masculinity that seemed incompatible with violence. The defendants each performed respectability flawlessly during their trials – Borden by her modest silence and Sweet with a dignity under cross examination “so fierce it was inspiring.” The descriptions, public response, and transcripts of these trials offer historians the opportunity to examine the role race, class, and gender play in defining respectability as well as the cultural power of respectability during periods of social change.
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