A Dance with Death: Canadian Women on the Gallows, 1754-1954

Andrea Levan is an associate professor and co-ordinator of the Women’s
Studies Program, Thorneloe College, Laurentian University.

This book tells the stories of 49 Canadian women who, between 1754 and
1854, were tried for murder and sentenced to death. Thirty-one had their
sentences commuted to a term of imprisonment, but 18 were hanged. For
each case, the author outlines the motive and the circumstances leading
to the murders, describes attempts to cover the deed, and concludes with
a brief summary of the trial and the subsequent outcome. Grouped under
such headings as “women who poisoned,” “women who killed for
profit,” and “women who killed their own children,” the accounts
give a fascinating glimpse of life in Canada’s past, including public
attitudes toward crime and punishment. Unfortunately, Anderson makes
little attempt to draw to our attention to the more interesting themes
that emerge. For example, many of the women were married to men much
older than themselves, had many children, and were isolated in their
homes. The desperation of a woman such as Minnie McGee, who bore nine
children in 14 years, lost two in a whooping-cough epidemic, and then
poisoned the rest, is never really analyzed. The author focuses on her
mental collapse, her senseless babbling, and her frenzied rages rather
than on the social conditions that shaped her life.

In general, for each narrative, the prevailing view of the crime at the
time tends to be repeated uncritically. For example, Sarah Jackson
“liked men too much,” Susan Kennedy was “foul-mouthed,” and
Doris MacDonald was “a tough little cookie.” In contrast, women who
killed their illegitimate infants were given a great deal of public
sympathy if they were perceived to be the innocent victims of
unscrupulous men. These attitudes are never examined in the context of
public attitudes toward women’s roles. In addition, Anderson provides
no critical exploration of why some sentences were commuted while others
were not. He even sidesteps the moral implications of capital
punishment, stating simply that “the issue will continue to come
before us with first one side and then the other victorious.”

The sensational aspects of the topic (augmented by a rather lurid
cover) dominate the book, and this is too bad, because there were many
possi-bilities here for interesting discussion.