by Alexis Coe
First published 2014
Alice Mitchell stands in the Memphis courthouse in 1892, facing trial for slashing her former fiancée's throat. The nineteen-year-old had planned to disguise herself as a man and marry seventeen-year-old Freda Ward, but their secret love letters exposed their relationship. Families tore the young women apart, forbidding all contact. Freda seemed to accept this separation easily, but Alice grew desperate with each letter that went unanswered. On January 25, she took her father's razor and publicly killed the girl she loved. The nation fixated not on the murder itself but on Alice's motivation. Medical experts declared her same-sex attraction a dangerous mental illness. While Alice waited in jail, three fellow prisoners were lynched, drawing attention from civil rights journalist Ida B. Wells. A jury of Memphis gentlemen pronounced Alice insane and committed her to an asylum, where she died mysteriously years later. This true story reveals a tragic romance through original love letters, court documents, newspaper coverage, and historical artifacts that illuminate a forbidden relationship in an unforgiving era.
Genres: historical-fiction, crime, biography-memoir, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, tragic-romance
Setting: Memphis
Period: 1892
224 pages · ebook · Zest Books (Tm)
Content warnings: homophobia, mental-illness, murder