“The Sinners All Bow” by Kate Winkler Dawson is a true crime book that investigates a murder in 1832 that possibly was the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”
In a Tiverton, R.I., farmyard, Sarah Maria Cornell was found dead. It was December 1832, and the weather was very cold. She was hanging from a stake near the haystacks on the farm. She was discovered in the early morning by John Durfee, who was working the family farm for his father. After her death, it was discovered that she was pregnant. Sarah was unmarried, had lived a rough life, but had found God and was a follower of a Methodist minister, Ephraim Avery.
At first, people assumed she had committed suicide, but when the local doctor came forward stating she wanted to keep the baby, the investigation turned into a murder investigation.
Six months after Sarah’s death, Catharine Read Arnold Williams went to Tiverton to investigate the death. She was a writer of nonfiction and is believed to have written the first American true crime book, named “Fall River.” If you have read Hawthorne, you will recall that “The Scarlet Letter” is set in Fall River.
In 1856, Tiverton residents voted to rename its northern section (where the farm was located) to Fall River. In 1861, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to move Massachusetts’ boundary to include Fall River, thus explaining how Tiverton, R.I., became Fall River, Mass.
Catharine investigated the death and tried to find justice for the poor victim. Unfortunately, a young unwed woman in Puritan New England found murdered did not evoke sympathy among the locals. Many believed she got what she deserved. But did she? The minister accused of being her lover was declared not guilty after standing trial.
Dawson, working with Williams’ book, investigates to find and solve the mystery of Sarah Maria Cornell. Dawson talks as if she and Williams are co-authors working together to find the truth. That is a little confusing when you start the book. However, I soon realized that Williams put so much detail in her book, it was like two people working on a book together.
“The Scarlet Letter” was one of the first American Classics that I read in high school; I always liked that story. However, to find out that “Hester” really existed, and she did not have a good ending for her and her baby, was depressing, to say the least. After her death, Sarah’s character was maligned, and people were very judgmental of her behavior. Something I think the people of Tiverton should have remembered as Christians; we are to extend the same forgiveness and mercy that Christ extends to us.
Susan McKinney is the librarian at the St. Joseph Township-Swearingen Memorial Library. She is an avid reader and enjoys mystery, suspense, fantasy and action novels.
