Unsung History1 Jul 2024

Josephine McCarty: Mother, Lobbyist, Spy & Abortionist

Josephine McCarty, née Fagan, aka Mrs. Virginia S. Seymour, dba Emma Burleigh. M.D., was many things: mother, teacher, saleswoman, spy, lobbyist, and abortionist. And in 1872 she was also an accused murderer, after eyewitnesses saw her fire a pistol on a public streetcar in Utica, New York, killing one man and wounding another. Historian R.E. Fulton, author of The Abortionist of Howard Street: Medicine and Crime in Nineteenth-Century New York, joins the podcast this week to discuss how Josephine was both extraordinary and completely ordinary and what her life can tell us about the changing arena of medicine and law and the role of women in both in the late 19th Century United States.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Sad Violin,” by Oleggio Kyrylkoww from Pixabay and is available for use under the Pixabay Content License. The episode image is "Walking dress ; Fichu for afternoon ; Bonnet," 1872; via the New York Public Library Digital Collections; laid on top of a "Lithograph of Albany, New York in 1879," in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

“THE UTICA CAR MURDER.; Coroner's Inquest on the Body of Henry R. Hall--Circumstances of the Killing,” The New York Times, January 21, 1872.
“Mrs. Dr. Emma Burleigh :the mysterious death of Margaret Campbell critically examined, with a review of the testimony, verdict of the jury, comments of the press, etc.,” by T. D. Crochers, Albany, NY, 1872; available via the Harvard Law School Library.
“Medical Education in the 19th Century,” National Museum of Civil War Medicine, December 18, 2023.
"The Entry of Women into Medivine in America: Education and Obstacles 1847-1910,” by Meryl S. Justin, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
“Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War,” by Karen Abbott, Harper Perennial, 2015.
“Abortion, Race, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century America,” by Nicola Beisel and Tamara Kay, American Sociological Review, 2004, Vol. 69 (August:498–518).
“Abortion was once common practice in America. A small group of doctors changed that,” by Ramtin Arablouei and Rung Abdelfatah, NPR All Things Considered, June 6, 2022.

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