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prison guards entered his cell, he had already lost a considerable amount of blood. However, the prison doctor stopped the bleeding thus saving his life so that he could be put to death the next day. Exhausted and weakened by the loss of blood, Goode was carried to the gallows at 9:30am on May 25, by prison guards who had strapped him to a chair. A large crowd had gathered in the rain to watch the event that took place inside the walls of the
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628:. Attendees of the meeting were addressed by several prominent figures of the time including Reverend William H. Channing, Wendell Phillips and Reverend James Freeman Clarke. Each speaker implored attendees of the meeting to sign a petition to have Goode's death sentence commuted on the grounds that society, by its neglect, prejudice, and injustice, had in fact made Goode into a murderer and was now using him as an example.
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Twenty-five minutes later, doctors examined the body and pronounced him dead. His body was then turned over to his uncle George Myres who took his body back to his house to prepare for the funeral. Perhaps as a testament to their continued opposition to the death penalty, over one thousand people paraded through the tenement where Goode's body laid, escorting it to the
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Wednesday, June 28, 1848, an argument broke out between Thomas
Harding and Washington Goode regarding a handkerchief that Harding had given to Williams. Sometime thereafter, Thomas Harding was dead of a blow to the head and a knife wound between the ribs. Goode was promptly arrested for the murder of his fellow seaman.
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At 9:45am Goode was placed still strapped to the chair on the platform over the drop, the sheriff placed a white hood over his head and the rope was adjusted around his neck. The sheriff then read the warrant signed by the
Governor after which the trap door sprang open and Goode plunged several feet.
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In the days before the scheduled hanging, Goode repeatedly professed his innocence to the clergymen who entered his prison cell. On the night before the hanging, Goode attempted suicide by swallowing large pieces of tobacco and paper and slashing the veins in his arms with a piece of glass. When the
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Garrison argued that the verdict relied on "circumstantial evidence of the most flimsy character..." and feared that the determination of the government to uphold its decision to execute Goode was based on race. As all other death sentences since 1836 in Boston had been commuted, Garrison concluded
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Goode's case came about in the midst of a national debate over capital punishment and served as a rallying point for Boston's opponents of the death penalty who hoped to save Goode from the gallows. By most accounts, the community's opposition to the death penalty was solid and widespread. Meetings
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to build his case against Goode was largely circumstantial. Although no one saw Goode crack
Harding's skull or stab him between the ribs, several witnesses at the trial testified that they saw a person fitting Goode's description in the area of the crime. Also, when he was arrested Goode had in his
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Washington Goode,a colored man, was hung at Boston on Friday, for the murder of Thomas
Harding. He made a desperate attempt the night previous to commit suicide by cutting the veins of his arm with glass, and swallowing tobacco and tarred rope. Goode was only 20 years of age, and was with General
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adamantly refused to commute Goode's death sentence. Goode's execution marked a turning point in the early 19th-century campaign to abolish the death penalty in
Massachusetts. As no person had been hanged in Boston since 1836, those opposed to the death penalty thought this showed a shift in the
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While others who had been given the same sentence had already been pardoned, Goode's sentence was still scheduled to be carried out even though the evidence presented against him was not clear and conclusive. Committee meetings were held in all the principal towns throughout the state to collect
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Goode was defended by two young distinguished attorneys, William
Aspinwall (who had not previously defended a capital case), while Edward Fuller Hodges (his name is erroneously given as E.F. or Edgar F.) assisted Aspinwall. The two attorneys argued that their client was innocent, denouncing the
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While in port in Boston, it was known that Goode was friends with Mary Ann
Williams, whom he considered to be his girlfriend although she was married. At the same time, another black seaman, Thomas Harding was friends with Williams and also considered her to be his girlfriend. On the night of
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to plead for commutation of Goode's sentence. The activists involved in the protest relied heavily on the question of race to play a large role in saving Goode from the gallows. Through his case, reformers not only sought to express their opposition to the death penalty but also to racism.
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were held in several
Massachusetts cities and towns in support of Washington Goode with a committee being appointed by the Massachusetts Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment to advocate on his behalf.
151:, another trial that would capture Boston's imagination and blur the lines of distinction between opponents and advocates of capital punishment. Goode's trial was reported widely in the newspapers, including
474:. The jury deliberated for only thirty-five minutes before finding Goode guilty of murder and on January 15, 1849 he was sentenced to death by Chief Justice Shaw. He was to be hanged on May 25, 1849.
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testimony of the prosecution's witnesses and casting doubt on the circumstantial evidence presented by Samuel Parker. In his closing argument, Hodges began to discuss the inappropriateness of
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signatures from those who opposed Goode's impending execution. More than twenty four thousand signatures were obtained. In all, 130 petitions from
Massachusetts communities were compiled.
305:. There is some discrepancy to the date and place of Goode's birth. While Goode claimed to have been born in Pennsylvania, his uncle George Myres claimed that Goode was born in
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that Goode would be the last person executed in Boston for a capital offense writing, "Let it not be said that the last man
Massachusetts bore to hang was a colored man!"
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in Massachusetts when Parker objected and was told by Chief Justice Shaw that he was out of order to discuss the appropriateness of justice of the
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as a document of vital historical interest in the history of human rights. In the effort to save Washington Goode from execution, 400 citizens of
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Goode's trial began on January 1, 1849. As it was a capital case, it was tried before the Supreme Judicial Court presided over by Chief Justice
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Despite the powerful and numerous appeals to spare Goode's life including an application by his counsel to commute his sentence, Governor
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in 1836 and after settling among the city's small black population, began working as a servant on board ships that sailed from
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A document entitled "Protest of 400 inhabitants of Concord against the execution of Washington Goode" is preserved at the
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possession a knife whose blade measured ten or eleven inches. Harding's stab wound was measured at nine inches deep.
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public's attitude away from capital punishment. However, Goode was to be hanged as scheduled on May 25.
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Those volunteering to serve on the committee included his attorneys Aspinwall and Hodges, as well as
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By 1848, Goode was a seaman who had reportedly served as second cook on board the steamer
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Rogers, Alan. "Under Sentence of Death": The First Effort to Abolish the Death Penalty,
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in May 1849. His case was the subject of considerable attention by those opposed to the
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124:(c. 1820 – May 25, 1849) was an African-American sailor who was hanged for murder in
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also used the pages of a prominent newspaper, the Semi-Weekly Republican as well as
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Levesque, George. "Black Crime and Crime Statistics in Antebellum Boston."
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and was 28 years of age in 1849 which would have made his birth year 1821.
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Taylor through all the Florida War. He protested his innocence to the last.
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His uncle also claimed that 15-year-old Washington accompanied him to
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to death for the murder of Harvard Medical School benefactor,
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Masur, Louis. "Ritual and Reform in Antebellum America,"
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Debate over capital punishment and petitions for clemency
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who would eventually become the twelfth president of the
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where it was laid to rest in one of the city's tombs.
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and took place on Good Friday, April 6, 1849 at the
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829:(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, ©1989).
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879:. Vol. XIX. No. 15. April 13, 1849. Pages 58–59.
868:"The Execution of Washington Goode, at Boston."
143:who the following year would sentence Professor
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875:"Enthusiastic Meeting at the Tremont Temple."
834:Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts
930:19th-century executions by the United States
872:. Vol. XV, Issue 23. June 2, 1849. Page 175.
920:People convicted of murder by Massachusetts
915:People executed by Massachusetts by hanging
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960:19th-century executions of American people
886:Vol. XIX. No. 13. March 30, 1849. Page 52.
857:Australian Journal of Politics and History
852:. Vol. 29, Issue 65. June 1, 1849. Page 2.
791:Learn how and when to remove this message
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139:His trial was presided over by Justice
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846:, walden.org; accessed March 30, 2017.
293:. Goode reportedly fought for General
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865:. Vol. XVI, Issue 3. June 1, 1849.
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