Compassion and indifference: The attitude of the english legal system toward Ellen Harper and Selina Wadge, who killed their offspring in the 1870S

Abstract

This article reconstructs the evasive tales of two lower-class rural English mothers, Ellen Harper and Selina Wadge, who killed their offspring in the 1870s. Investigating depositions, other legal documents prepared for their trials, and reports of inquests and trial proceedings (when existent) in local and national newspapers, it interprets incoherent remnants of their life stories and through them the attitude of the English legal system toward mothers who killed their offspring in the late nineteenth century. Selina's and Ellen's personal experiences are related in concrete detail and read in the light of contemporary policies, laws, rules, and norms concerning, for example, motherhood, poverty, reproduction, sexuality, and demography. Reconstructing the concealed stories of two marginalized poor mothers, this article reilluminates the way in which England's middle-class mind-set, implicit policies, norms, and regulations influenced the legal system's decision making and dominated the degenerating, poverty-stricken life of oppressed lower-class mothers. © 2008 Sage Publications.