The Trials of a Scold by Jeff Biggers

Author:Jeff Biggers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

SIX

The Huntress in the Den of Vipers

There is many a journalist now languishing in poverty, while dozens to whose success in life he gave the first impulse, roll by him in their carriages, and have forgotten his very existence. There is no country, save ours, in the world, where journalists are expected to do as much work for the special benefit of others without recompense.

—THE HUNTRESS, APRIL 15, 1837

Disregarding the conviction’s terms to adhere to “good behaviour” for a year, Anne immediately packed up her belongings and prepared to take a valedictorian’s victory lap through the South after her infamous trial. She also announced plans to publish a three-volume series of Black Book travels on the Southern states. With the national media attention from the trial, Royall’s demand for appearances soared, book sales flourished, and the author cleverly sought to manipulate the notoriety for her own gain.

The trial had also upturned her role as an author: she became more watched than read, her status shifting from that of a critical observer into one critically observed as a cause célèbre. Her journeys now took on a barnstorming element of performance, drawing a great deal of newspaper attention and onlookers. The mirror focused on Anne for the rest of her travel life, and suddenly every move or word became a news headline; she became her own pen portrait. Increasingly, the public cared less about what she wrote and more about what she said—or how she interacted in the commons. The temptation for more outrageous gaffes or declarations tugged at Anne’s every move. In the process, she transformed from an esteemed author and social critic, in the minds of the public, to a peculiar roadside attraction.

One man who had mastered the art of self-promotion in his own singular way, Phineas Taylor “P. T.” Barnum, reflected on Royall’s unique role in this period. Before he became the great pioneering American showman, largely remembered in history for his freak shows and touring circus, Barnum had also enjoyed a storied career as a newspaperman and politician in Connecticut. In his first press battles, he confronted evangelical extremists, fighting against the sabbatarian movement and the Congregationalist attempt to fortify a state church.

Wielding the Danbury Herald of Freedom like a battle axe, the young Barnum went on the offensive against church leaders, eventually drawing three libel suits. Unlike Anne, who preferred to lampoon individual foibles and keep her invective largely focused on the hypocrisy of religious dogma, Barnum made personal charges against local leaders outside the bounds of their politics, claiming they had engaged in usury and fraudulent financial schemes. Sentenced to two months in jail, the impish Barnum seized the silver lining of his predicament like a vaudeville barker: “The excitement in this and the neighboring towns is very great,” he wrote about his own trial in 1831, “and it will have a grand effect. Public opinion is greatly in my favor.… I chose to go to prison thinking that such a step would be the means of opening many eyes, as it no doubt will.

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