Oct. 26th Task

         1892 Fall River, MA, like the rest of America—in fact, like the rest of the world—is ruled by men.  The irony that a woman has governed the greatest empire in the world—Britain—for over fifty years is lost on the majority of the ‘stronger sex’. 

         Women are believed to be weaker, less intelligent and to require protection—even supervision.  They are not believed capable of such ‘masculine’ traits as aggression and murder.  And if the occasional female did exhibit murderous thoughts and/or acts, they would use poison—the women’s weapon of choice.

         For the New England men who would judge Lizzie Borden, men whose forefathers had arrived on the Mayflower—good, God-fearing men with a strong sense of morality and justice—could not fathom the idea of a mere female could orchestrate—not one but two—brutal axe murders.  And even if they could wrap their minds around that—the idea of patricide was too much for these men bred and raised in staunch Puritan ethics.

         Women have begun rumbling about wanting more say in how their world is run.  And men don’t intend to give up that control.  Somehow, this Sunday school teaching spinster accused of hacking her father and step-mother to death becomes a symbol to the suffragettes.   

         No, the jury would not find her guilty for fear of providing more fuel to the smoldering fire of the women’s rights movement.