The Abortionist of Howard Street: Medicine and Crime in Nineteenth-Century New York

Josephine McCarty, known as Dr. Emma Burleigh, was an abortionist in Albany, New York, but her true identity was much more complex. She was a Confederate spy, blockade runner, and mistress to corrupt Albany politicians. Her murder trial revealed her as a calculating and heartless operative, but her life was much more nuanced. R.E. Fulton explores the nuances of McCarty's life, from marriage to divorce, financial abuse, and quarrels with intimate partners, to decipher the truth behind the stories and myths surrounding her and what ultimately led her to that Utica streetcar with a pistol in her dress pocket.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 15 May 2024
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Josephine McCarty, a woman with multiple identities, was known as Dr. Emma Burleigh, the abortionist of Howard Street in Albany, New York. On January 17, 1872, McCarty shot her ex-lover in the face and boarded a streetcar in Utica, New York, unaware that her bullet had passed through her target's head and into the heart of an innocent man sitting beside him. The unlucky passenger died within minutes, and McCarty was arrested for attempted murder. She quickly became the most notorious woman in central New York. However, McCarty was far more than a murderer. In Maryland, she was Johnny McCarty, a blockade runner and spy for Confederate forces. In New York, she was whispered of as a mistress to corrupt Albany politicians. Who was she? The prosecution in her murder trial claimed she was a calculating and heartless operative in both the bedroom and her public life. Or was she the victim of ill fortune and the systemic weight of misogyny and male violence? The answer was not as simple as either narrative. In this absorbing and rich history, R.E. Fulton considers the nuances of Josephine McCarty's life, from marriage to divorce, financial abuse to quarrels with intimate partners, and more, trying to decipher the truth behind the stories and myths surrounding McCarty and what ultimately led her to that Utica streetcar with a pistol in her dress pocket. "The Abortionist of Howard Street" revisits a rich history of women's experience in mid-nineteenth century America, revealing McCarty as a multifaceted, fascinating personification of issues as broad as reproductive health, education, domestic abuse, mental illness, and criminal justice.

Weight: 907g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501774829