Abstract
For 2 days, Singleton Mercer stalked Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton through Philadelphia’s streets. Finally, late in the afternoon of Friday, February 10, 1843, Mercer tracked Heberton onto the John Finch, a steamboat that ferried people between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. As that boat docked on the Jersey shore, Mercer walked over to the carriage carrying Heberton, pulled out a gun, and fired four shots. Only one hit his target, but that was enough. Heberton died within the hour and Mercer, who had been seized immediately after the shooting, was taken to the Woodbury County Jail, where he was held without bail for a month and a half.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
To put this wealth into context, $50,000 in 1843 would buy roughly $1,501,415 worth of goods in 2008 dollars. See “Measuring Worth: Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present,” Economic History resources at EH.net, http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/.
- 3.
On the First Troop, see http://www.ftpcc.com.
- 4.
- 5.
At the time, the age of consent in Pennsylvania was 10. Odem 1995, Table 1.
- 6.
See also PPL, Feb. 20, 1843, p. 2.
- 7.
Ironically, Hammond himself was subject to precisely this sort of censure. Bleser 1988, pp. 93, 96, 169, 179, 180.
- 8.
On cowhiding in Philadelphia, see ST, Feb. 10, 1843, 2; ST, Nov 8, 1844, 1; PPL, June 6, 1854, 1; PPL, June 17, 1854, 2; PPL, June 30, 1841, 2; PPL, Apr. 10, 1843, 2.
- 9.
The story of Absalom is from two Samuel Chaps. 13 and 14.
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Dale, E. (2011). Popular Sovereignty: A Case Study from the Antebellum Era. In: Marciano, A. (eds) Constitutional Mythologies. Studies in Public Choice, vol 23. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6784-8_7
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