Malcolm to Lecture on Benedict Arnold

The first lecture in a four-part series sponsored by the Norwich Historical Society in collaboration with the Connecticut League of History Organization will be delivered by Joyce Lee Malcom, George Mason University, the author of The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold: An American Life, on that Norwich-born figure's "complicated life."  The lecture, which will be held Thursday, Jan. 28, at 3 p.m. via Zoom, is is "free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required, here.

--Dan Ernst

Icenhauer-Ramirez's "Treason on Trial"

Robert Icenhauer-Ramirez, an attorney holding a doctorate in history from the University of Texas, Austin, has published Treason on Trial: The United States v. Jefferson Davis, in LSU Press’s book series, Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War:

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, federal officials captured, imprisoned, and indicted Jefferson Davis for treason. He faced execution if found guilty for his role in levying war against the United States. Although the federal government pursued the charges for over four years, the case never went to trial. Most historical analyses of the case focus on interpreting the political reasons why that happened by analyzing the reasons in the broadest national contours. According to Robert Icenhauer-Ramirez, these global assessments, while important, do not attempt to discern how the lives and experiences of those individuals responsible for either prosecuting or defending Davis, or those with a direct interest in the outcome, influenced the handling of the case. He argues that while national politics had a role in the direction of the case, it was the actions and decisions of lesser-known men and women that ultimately were responsible for the failure to convict Davis. Treason on Trial: The United States v. Jefferson Davis focuses on precisely why that happened.

--Dan Ernst

Chapman on the Hodges Treason Case

Jennifer Elisa Chapman, University of Maryland Thurgood Marshall Law Library, has posted United States v. Hodges: Developments of Treason and the Role of the Jury, which is forthcoming in the Denver Law Review:

Legal history is an important element in understanding current legal and political discussions. What, then, can a long forgotten treason trial from the War of 1812 teach us about present day discussions of treason and the development of the jury trial in America? In August 1814 a number of British soldiers were arrested as stragglers or deserters in the town of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Upon learning of the soldiers’ absences the British military took local physician, Dr. William Beanes, and two other residents into custody and threatened to burn Upper Marlboro if the British soldiers were not returned. John Hodges, a local attorney, arranged the soldiers’ return to the British military. For this, Hodges was charged with high treason for “adhering to [the] enemies, giving them aid and comfort.” The resulting jury trial was presided over by Justice Gabriel Duvall, a Supreme Court Justice and Prince Georges County native, and highlights how the crime of treason was viewed in early American culture and the role of the jury as deciders of the facts and the law in early American jurisprudence. Contextually, Hodges’ trial took place against the backdrop of the War of 1812 and was informed by the 1807 treason trial of Aaron Burr.

--Dan Ernst

Xia on justice and nationalism in wartime China

Back in 2017, Yun Xia (Valparaiso University) published Down with Traitors: Justice and Nationalism in Wartime China with the University of Washington Press. From the publisher:

Throughout the War of Resistance against Japan (1931-1945), the Chinese Nationalist government punished collaborators with harsh measures, labeling the enemies from within hanjian (literally, "traitors to the Han Chinese"). Trials of hanjian gained momentum during the postwar years, escalating the power struggle between Nationalists and Communists. Yun Xia examines the leaders of collaborationist regimes, who were perceived as threats to national security and public order, and other subgroups of hanjian-including economic, cultural, female, and Taiwanese hanjian. Built on previously unexamined code, edicts, and government correspondence, as well as accusation letters, petitions, newspapers, and popular literature, Down with Traitors reveals how the hanjian were punished in both legal and extralegal ways and how the anti-hanjian campaigns captured the national crisis, political struggle, roaring nationalism, and social tension of China's eventful decades from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Praise for the book:

 "Yun Xia's perceptive study traces the legal definition and the political usages of the profoundly emotive word hanjian (traitor). She looks at the years of the Resistance War and shows the ways in which the designation was used as China's political world was increasingly polarized." -Diana Lary

"Deeply researched and intriguing. Yun Xia details the scope of the traitor trials, which dwarfed the war crime trials of the Japanese." -Barak Kushner

"Wartime collaboration breeds treason trials-but trials in turn create collaborators by defining and punishing them. This book, the first in English, reconstructs the tangled political and legal processes in China that singled out those charged with aiding the Japan during the war, and that went on to influence mass campaigns after 1949." -Timothy Brook

Further information is available here.