The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers : Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York (Studies in the History of Sexuality)

Amy Srebnick tells the story of the death of Mary Rogers, antebellum New York City's "Beautiful Cigar Girl". First believed murdered by rapists, later thought the victim of a failed abortion, Mary Rogers became a cause célèbre. Drawing upon the events that surrounded Rogers's death, the author weaves a sensational narrative of sex, violence, and the city, and treats such subjects as the changing roles of women, the Penny Press, and abortion.