Book Review: Everyday crimes: Social violence and civil rights in early America

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016820913108
• Author: Shelby Hatcher
• Date: 01 December 2023
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Ryan, K. A. (2019).

Everyday crimes: Social violence and civil rights in early America. New York University Press. 387 pp. $39.00, ISBN

9781479869619

Reviewed by: Shelby Hatcher, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016820913108

Everyday Crimes: Social Violence and Civil Rights in Early America explores the relationship

between masters and their dependents such as slaves, indentured servants, apprentices, wives, and

children. Ryan focuses on exploring the phenomenon of physical abuse within this patriarchal rela-

tionship. While Ryan mentions that verbal abuse was also utilized, it was harder to identify docu-

mented accounts, so the book focuses on the physical assaults. To conduct this research, Ryan

utilizes legal documents, governmental documents, diaries, letters, and newspapers within the

three prominent colonies of New York, New Newfoundland, and Massachusetts. Ryan breaks

down the culture and social norms originating during the colonial era and travels to the 1820s.

Overall, the book is easy to understand with Ryan developing her argument early on. She reinforces

this argument throughout the rest of the book. The book is broken up into an introduction, three parts

that encompass three blocks of early American history, and the conclusion.

In the introduction, Ryan introduces the reader to the perception of corporal punishment during

the colonial era within America. She explains how she collected her data and brief‌ly describes

how each part of the book is broken down. She argues that the disenfranchised population

(slaves, wives, and servants) were not the ones that changed society’s perception on corporal pun-

ishment and assault, but instead, it was the guardians of these individuals, parents, sympathetic

bystanders, and the courts. Ryan utilizes the key components of routine activities theory to approach

history and explains how each fundamental part of the triangle affects one another. The introduction

starts out slow for Ryan breaks down the main arguments in each section. However, Part I became

easier to read.

Part I describes the colonial period of America prior to the Revolutionary War. Ryan utilizes the

tale of Benjamin Franklin and his indentured servitude to his brother, James, as a comparison point to

describe the often-harsh relationship between master and apprentice. As she moves from each group,

wives, slaves, and so on, she describes how the legal system and location of the town/city helped

determine the punishment (if any) that a master/husband could obtain due to the abuse. Each

chapter within Part I provides a relatable antidote to help personalize the historical context, while

also providing a detailed account of the struggle of power between classes. Ryan mentions how

each type of dependent has its own sets of struggles due to the nature of the established societal rela-

tionship prior to the physical abuse.

Part II is the shortest section of the three. Ryan describes how the skirmishes prior to the

Revolutionary War affected the court’s rates of punishing masters for abuse. Ryan describes how

the servants and apprentices were less likely to be released from their masters. Due to this decline

in court assistance and the rise of impending war, servants, apprentices, wives, and slaves were

Book Reviews

Criminal Justice Review

2023, Vol. 48(4) 532-539

© 2020 Georgia State University

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