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When citing the Espy note cards as provided by the M.E. Grenander Special Collections & Archives, please follow their recommended citation guidelines. Of note is the unnamed Panis woman who, along with an accomplice, executed her master in 1763. So far, this is the only documented case in which a Native American slave woman conspires (?) to murder her master. Details of the case are of yet unknown.
Citation guidelines:
Identification of specific item, series, box, folder, M. Watt Espy Papers, 1730-2008. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, State University of New York .
This page is most certainly a work in progress, but I am excited to share that I am assisting Ananya Chari who will be presenting her preliminary findings at the Southern Political Science Association in January of 2026. I hope that she will allow me to share more of her many (many!) accolades she has already amassed in her time at USA. While her work on WEB means the world to me, she is involved in a dizzying number of important projects.
Not knowing Ananya before we started working on this project, I can only say that I am very fortunate that she tracked me down and initiated an important conversation about the importance of colonialism's legacy on women's experiences with capital punishment. My focus on Black and White American women's experiences with the death penalty has missed what might be the ultimate nexus in understanding identity and punishment. Ananya's intellectual curiosity, combined with a unique combination of empathy and methodological approach (and very different academic background), will be a much welcome addition to the website (where we hope to display some of the results once finished), my research, and, if she has the time for it, an invaluable contribution to the literature.
Ananya is using a variety of references similar to what I have listed elsewhere (particularly the work of David Baker) but, for now, I have listed the below.
University at Albany, SUNY. (n.d.). [Native American tribal executions, 1823-1986, Undated]. M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives. University Libraries.
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