By Céillie Clark-Keane
On July 29th, 1788, the Salem Mercury published a story about Elizabeth Whitman, an educated, single woman from Connecticut who died alone and away from home at the Bell Tavern in then-Danvers, Massachusetts, after giving birth to a stillborn baby. The story was quickly picked up by papers in Boston and throughout New England. The early nation became intrigued by Whitman’s fate and speculated whether she was meeting her lover, the baby’s presumed father, and which respected community member he might have been.
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