Live on the air during a BBC radio interview late last week, best-selling author Naomi Wolf received some unwelcome news about her new book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love. While discussing the history of same-sex relations in Victorian England, the program host disputed the author's claims that "several dozen executions" for the crime of homosexuality were recorded at the Old Bailey (London's Central Criminal Court). Wolf based this claim on the use of the phrase "death recorded" for defendants, such as 14-year-old Thomas Silver, whose guilty plea and death sentence for sodomy were recorded in 1859.
During the exchange, which can be heard around the 20:00 – 25:00 minute mark of the recording, host Matthew Sweet refuted Wolf's assertion that death sentences had been carried out for Silver and others convicted of sodomy or homosexuality. Sweet, whose 2001 book Inventing the Victorians debunked a number of common misconceptions about the era, pointed out that dictionaries of the era defined the phrase "death recorded" not as an actual execution, but rather as an abstention from carrying out a death sentence. Wolf pledged to look closely at this, and has already discussed her plans to correct future editions of the book.
This mortifying moment serves as an important reminder about understanding context for terminology – no matter the era that you are researching, nor how commonplace the words might seem or how straightforward their meaning might appear. Although the phrase "death recorded" is no longer found in modern editions of Black's Law Dictionary, contemporaneous dictionaries are of course a critical source to help you determine historical definitions from a specific time period. The 1st edition of Black's Law Dictionary (1891) included a headword definition for the phrase "sentence of death recorded" ("In English practice. The recording of a sentence of death, not actually pronounced, on the understanding that it will not be executed"), with a note that the practice was already "in disuse." Black’s later moved this definition to appear underneath the definition of sentence, beginning with the 2d edition from 1910, until the term was dropped from the dictionary altogether beginning with the 5th edition in 1979.
You can find other print and electronic dictionaries (both general and legal) in the Duke Libraries Catalog with subject searches for law -- [jurisdiction] -- dictionaries, e.g., law -- Great Britain -- Dictionaries. This search will return results like Mozley and Whiteley's Law Dictionary, which was cited by Black's Law Dictionary as the source for its definition. (As a further reminder that nobody’s perfect, Black's misspells Whiteley's name as "Whitley" in its source list.)
An important rule of thumb for research and fact-checking is to find multiple sources that corroborate a particular point. For her data on convictions and sentencing, Wolf likely consulted the online Proceedings of the Old Bailey, which were digitized several years ago. While the "about" pages on Punishment Sentences at the Old Bailey do not use or explain the exact phrase "death recorded," the text repeatedly notes that the majority of death sentences were mitigated, and notes that only murderers actually received the death penalty between 1840 and its abolition for minor crimes in 1861. Indeed, the Digital Panopticon (recommended in the Old Bailey help pages for determining the eventual fate of defendants) for Thomas Silver notes a prison license (parole) granted three years later, and a possible death date in 1881.
The Duke University Libraries provide a handout for evaluating the reliability of resources based on The CRAAP Test, a framework originally developed by librarians at CSU Chico. The CRAAP Test helps you evaluate print and online sources for their currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. For help with locating reliable sources of information, be sure to Ask a Librarian.
During the exchange, which can be heard around the 20:00 – 25:00 minute mark of the recording, host Matthew Sweet refuted Wolf's assertion that death sentences had been carried out for Silver and others convicted of sodomy or homosexuality. Sweet, whose 2001 book Inventing the Victorians debunked a number of common misconceptions about the era, pointed out that dictionaries of the era defined the phrase "death recorded" not as an actual execution, but rather as an abstention from carrying out a death sentence. Wolf pledged to look closely at this, and has already discussed her plans to correct future editions of the book.
This mortifying moment serves as an important reminder about understanding context for terminology – no matter the era that you are researching, nor how commonplace the words might seem or how straightforward their meaning might appear. Although the phrase "death recorded" is no longer found in modern editions of Black's Law Dictionary, contemporaneous dictionaries are of course a critical source to help you determine historical definitions from a specific time period. The 1st edition of Black's Law Dictionary (1891) included a headword definition for the phrase "sentence of death recorded" ("In English practice. The recording of a sentence of death, not actually pronounced, on the understanding that it will not be executed"), with a note that the practice was already "in disuse." Black’s later moved this definition to appear underneath the definition of sentence, beginning with the 2d edition from 1910, until the term was dropped from the dictionary altogether beginning with the 5th edition in 1979.
You can find other print and electronic dictionaries (both general and legal) in the Duke Libraries Catalog with subject searches for law -- [jurisdiction] -- dictionaries, e.g., law -- Great Britain -- Dictionaries. This search will return results like Mozley and Whiteley's Law Dictionary, which was cited by Black's Law Dictionary as the source for its definition. (As a further reminder that nobody’s perfect, Black's misspells Whiteley's name as "Whitley" in its source list.)
An important rule of thumb for research and fact-checking is to find multiple sources that corroborate a particular point. For her data on convictions and sentencing, Wolf likely consulted the online Proceedings of the Old Bailey, which were digitized several years ago. While the "about" pages on Punishment Sentences at the Old Bailey do not use or explain the exact phrase "death recorded," the text repeatedly notes that the majority of death sentences were mitigated, and notes that only murderers actually received the death penalty between 1840 and its abolition for minor crimes in 1861. Indeed, the Digital Panopticon (recommended in the Old Bailey help pages for determining the eventual fate of defendants) for Thomas Silver notes a prison license (parole) granted three years later, and a possible death date in 1881.
The Duke University Libraries provide a handout for evaluating the reliability of resources based on The CRAAP Test, a framework originally developed by librarians at CSU Chico. The CRAAP Test helps you evaluate print and online sources for their currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. For help with locating reliable sources of information, be sure to Ask a Librarian.