Synopses & Reviews
In May of 1857, the body of Duncan Skinner was found in a strip of woods along the edge of the plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as an overseer. Although a coroner's jury initially ruled his death to be accidental, an investigation organized by planters from the community concluded that he had been murdered by three slaves acting under instructions from John McCallin, an Irish carpenter.
Now, almost a century and a half later, Michael Wayne has reopened the case to ask whether the men involved in the investigation arrived at the right verdict. Part essay on the art of historical detection, part seminar on the history of slavery and the Old South, Death of an Overseer is, above all, a murder mystery--a murder mystery that allows readers to sift through the surviving evidence themselves and come to their own conclusions about who killed Duncan Skinner and why.
Review
"Death of an Overseer is far more than an engrossing tale about the Old South. It is at least as much a book about the writing of history.....For specialists in the field who are already familiar with the secondary literature Wayne marshals, this book is an exciting high-wire act. Time and again I found myself asking whether he could explain things to the uninitiated...while also engaging those who have already invested in the field. In my judgment, he succeeds brilliantly....Will quickly become required reading in courses on the Old South--and in courses that explore the way historians practice their craft."--Journal of American History
"A very distinctive, creative, and intriguing book that is a hybrid of several genres: part monograph, part mystery novel, and part manual for historical research and interpretive analysis.....Wayne's observations about the historian's craft seem eminently sensible and significant, and his explanatory style is apt and engaging....This book effectively conveys important ideas about the practice of history, while simultaneously telling a fascinating, though frustratingly incomplete, story about a murder in the Old South."--American Historical Review
"Michael Wayne has written a genuine old-South detective thriller-but this one happens to be true. Death of an Overseer not only unravels the mystery of who murdered Duncan Skinner and why; it also reveals new insights into the nature of slavery and race relations in the nineteenth-century South."--James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom
Synopsis
In May of 1857, the body of Duncan Skinner was found in a strip of woods along the edge of the plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as an overseer. Although a coroner's jury initially ruled his death to be accidental, an investigation organized by planters from the community
concluded that he had been murdered by three slaves acting under instructions from John McCallin, an Irish carpenter.
Now, almost a century and a half later, Michael Wayne has reopened the case to ask whether the men involved in the investigation arrived at the right verdict. Part essay on the art of historical detection, part seminar on the history of slavery and the Old South, Death of an Overseer is, above all,
a murder mystery--a murder mystery that allows readers to sift through the surviving evidence themselves and come to their own conclusions about who killed Duncan Skinner and why.
About the Author
Michael Wayne teaches history at University College, the University of Toronto. His first book,
The Reshaping of Plantation Society, won multiple prizes, including the Francis Butler Simkins Award of the Southern Historical Association.