Rites of execution capital punishment and the transformation of American culture, 1776-1865 - Masur, Louis P. (Oxford University Press, 1989)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-197) and index
Introduction -- Ritual and reform in antebellum America -- The design of public executions in the early American republic -- The opposition to capital punishment in post-Revolutionary America -- The dream of reformation and the limits of reform -- The origins of private executions in America -- Anti-gallows activists and the commitment to moral reform -- The conflict over capital punishment in antebellum America -- Epilogue