Susanna Cox (c. 1785–1809) was a young domestic servant in
Berks County, Pennsylvania
Berks County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Barricks Kaundi'') is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the coun ...
, who was convicted of murdering her illegitimate infant son on April 7, 1809. She was executed in
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...
on June 10, 1809.
History
On the morning of February 17, 1809, the employer of Susanna Cox found the body of her baby in a rubbish bin behind his property. Susanna was immediately questioned, and while she admitted that the baby was hers, she insisted that it was stillborn. After a short investigation, she was convicted on April 7, 1809. Her the court-appointed lawyers did little to defend her and no witnesses were called to testify on her behalf. After a short imprisonment in the local sheriff's home, she was executed in Reading on June 10, 1809.
Berks County was home to large populations of German-language immigrants who settled there in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Cox shared this German heritage (referred to as Pennsylvania German or
Pennsylvania Dutch
The Pennsylvania Dutch (), also referred to as Pennsylvania Germans, are an ethnic group in Pennsylvania in the United States, Ontario in Canada, and other regions of both nations. They largely originate from the Palatinate (region), Palatina ...
). Cox was an uneducated woman who spoke a German dialect and could do little to defend herself in court. She had worked for the family of Jacob Geehr for eleven years, having been born into a poor family with few resources to educate or care for her. Little is known about her life before she came to work for the Geehrs, as she could not read or write and spent most of her time caring for the Geehrs' children.
While Susanna insisted through the investigation and trial that the baby had been stillborn, a medical examination of the body the day it was found saw the baby's jaw broken and fabric stuffed down its throat. Susanna would become the 8th woman in Pennsylvania since the state's founding to be executed for the crime of killing her illegitimate child.
After a brief trial, Cox was hanged in
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...
, on June 10, 1809. Following her execution, her story gained such sympathy that it was written in a ballad and widely circulated in German and in English through newspapers and
broadsides. This immensely popular ballad was printed in over 88 editions in its broadside form throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, the ballad is read at the annual summer Kutztown Folk Festival.
Musical adaptation
In the 21st century, there have been several musical adaptions of the topic, including the following works:
*Brintzenhoff, Keith: "Ballad of Susanna Cox" (Keith Brintzenhoff with Mitch Miller, Mike Hertzog & Karlene Brintzenhoff)
*Werner, Michael: "Die Gschicht vun die Susanna Gax" (
Michael Werner & The New Paltz Band), 2014
General references
*Suter, Patricia, with Russell and Corinne Earnest, The Hanging of Susanna Cox: The True Story of Pennsylvania's Most Notorious Infanticide and the Legend That's Kept It Alive (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books) 2010
*Nest, Bathsheba Doran, a fictional play based on the story of Susanna Cox, Samuel French Publisher, 2008.
*Earnest, Russell and Corinne, Flying-Leaves and One-Sheets: Pennsylvania German Broadsides, Fraktur, and Their Printers (New Castle, Dela.: Oak Knoll Books, 2005).
*Yoder, Don, The Pennsylvania German Broadside: A History and Guide (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005).
*Richards, Louis, "Susanna Cox: Her Crime and its Expiation," Paper read before the Historical Society of Berks County, Pa., 13 March 1900.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Susanna
1780s births
1809 deaths
Executed American women
American murderers of children
American people executed for murder
19th-century executions of American people
People convicted of murder by Pennsylvania
People executed by Pennsylvania by hanging
People from Berks County, Pennsylvania
Filicides in the United States