| The Library of Virginia >> Exhibitions >> Working Out Her Destiny | |
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Where are the Women: Examples from the LVA Collections Family Violence |
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Introduction Where are the Women: |
On 19 November 1935, a jury of twelve men in Wise County convicted Edith Maxwell of murdering her father and sentenced her to twenty-five years in prison. Maxwell's case briefly became a national cause célèbre, as newspapers, including the Washington Post, produced a stream of articles to encourage people to raise money to appeal the verdict. At age twenty-one, Edith Maxwell lived with her parents and two younger sisters in Pound, about ten miles from Wise. After attending East Radford Teachers' College for three years, she taught forty pupils in one-room school. She curled her hair and wore face powder, lipstick, and rouge. To her family and many people in Wise, she was stepping outside accepted custom and demeanor for a local school teacher. On 20 July 1935 Maxwell returned home after dark with Raymond Meade, a young friend. Her father, Trigg Maxwell, a blacksmith and pipe inspector, was drunk and threatened to beat his daughter for being out late. Later that night Trigg Maxwell died, and the circumstantial evidence suggested that Edith Maxwell had killed him. Her case demonstrates the tensions that existed between small communities and families when mores were changing. Wearing makeup and staying out late with a young man were not considered proper behavior for a young teacher in Wise. The Maxwell case also reveals details of family life in a small town, where alcohol and violence might lead to behavior that would not have been tolerated in a public space. During the several appeals, defense lawyers cast enough doubt on the conviction that Edith Maxwell was pardoned late in 1941 and left Virginia. |