Deliberate Evil
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Webster, and the 1830 Murder of a Salem Slave Trader
The 1830 murder of wealthy slaver Joseph White shook all of Salem, Massachusetts. Soon the crime drew national attention when it was discovered that two of the conspirators came from Salem’s influential Crowninshield family: a clan of millionaire shipowners, cabinet secretaries, and congressmen. A prosecution team led by famed Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster made the case even more newsworthy. Meanwhile, young Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne – who knew several of the accused – observed and wrote. Here, using source materials not available previously, Edward J. Renehan Jr. provides a riveting narrative of the cold-blooded murder, intense investigations, scandal-strewn trials, and grim executions that dominated headlines nearly two-hundred years ago.
Edward J. Renehan Jr. is the author of The Life of Charles Stewart Mott, Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould – King of the Robber Barons, The Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown, and The Kennedys at War, among others. He has appeared on C-SPAN’s BookTV, The History Channel, and PBS, and has been interviewed on National Public Radio. His essays and reviews have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle. An avid sailor, he resides just outside Newport, Rhode Island, with his family.
