Episode 2: Theodore Tilton v. Henry Ward Beecher
In 1874, the most famous preacher in America, Henry Ward Beecher, was publicly accused of adultery. The story became one of the greatest sex scandals of the 19th century, and led to a shocking trial, in which Beecher’s accuser, Theodore Tilton, sued Beecher for ruining his marriage. The trial would reveal just how hard it can be to find answers in a courtroom, especially when a celebrity is involved…
Episode Resources
Episode Transcript
Works Cited/
Referenced
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Debby Applegate, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2007).
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Eunice White Bullard Beecher, Find a Grave,
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Henry Ward Beecher, “Speech at the Assemblies of the Old and New Schools,” (1869) in William C. Beecher and Reverend Samuel Scoville, A Biography of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1888).
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Henry Ward Beecher, "Sermon to Plymouth Church," quoted in the New York Times, 3 July 1875.
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Statement of Henry C. Bowen to the Examining Committee of Plymouth Church, quoted in the New York Times, 3 March 1876.
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The Great Brooklyn Romance: All the Documents in the Famous Beecher-Tilton Case, Unabridged (New York: J.H. Paxon, 1874).
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Richard Wightman Fox, Trials of Intimacy: Love and Loss in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
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Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Moral Battle Cry for Freedom.”
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Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl, “Mass Communication and Para-social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance,” Psychiatry no. 19, 215.
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The Library of Congress, “The Travails of Reconstruction.”
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Charles Marshall, The True History of the Brooklyn Scandal (Philadelphia, National Publishing Company, 1874).
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The New York Times: “The Ruling Passion,” 20 January 1857; “The Beecher Trial: The Proceedings,” 12 January 1875; “Mrs. Tilton Pleads Guilty,” 16 April 1878.
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Theodore Tilton vs. Henry Ward Beecher: action for criminal conduct. Tried in the City Court of Brooklyn, Chief Justice Joseph Neilson presiding: verbatim report by the official stenographer (New York: McDivitt, Campbell & Co, 1875).
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Elizabeth Richards Tilton, Find a Grave.
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Robert Shaplen, “The Beecher-Tilton Affair,” The New Yorker, 4 June 1954.
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“Wages in the United States and Europe, 1870-1896,” Bulletin of the Department of Labor no. 18, ed. Carroll D. Wright and Oren W. Weaver (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, September 1898)
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Altina L. Waller, Reverend Beecher and Mrs. Tilton: Sex and Class in Victorian America, (University of Massachusetts Press, 1982).
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Victoria Woodhull, “And The Truth Shall Make You Free,” (speech, New York City, 20 November 1871), Iowa State University Archives of Women’s Political Communication.
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Victoria Woodhull, “The Beecher-Tilton Scandal Case,” Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, 2 November 1872.