Deist Monster
On Religious Common Sense in the Wake of the American Revolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10019882 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C Grasso (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 43-68 |
| Publication date | 2008-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/25095464 |
| OpenAlex | W2330039818 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 1 |
In Wethersfield, Connecticut, on December 11, 1782, William Beadle, a respected merchant known as a doting father and husband, cut the throats of his wife and four young children and then fired two pistols into his head. It was neither a crime of passion nor a fit of delirium, the article in the Hartford Connecticut Courant explained: In the previous years, Beadle “betook himself more to books than usual, and was unhappily fond of those esteemed Deistical ... and (as he expresses himself), ‘renounced all the popular religions of the world, he intended to die a proper Deist.’” By early January that initial article had been reprinted in newspapers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. By the middle of that month, it had reached Virginia. “What a monster of a man was this!” exclaimed the Reverend John Marsh at the funeral for Mrs. Beadle and the children.1
Archaeology · Art history · Frontier · Genealogy · Monster · Newspaper · Passion · Political science · Wife · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classics · History · Law · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.46 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |