Hannah Ocuish

Hannah Ocuish (March 1774 – December 20, 1786) was executed at the age of twelve years and nine months, being hanged on December 20, 1786, in New London, Connecticut. She is believed to be the youngest person executed in the United States.[1][2]

Biography

Ocuish was a Pequot Native American girl with an intellectual disability who was accused of killing six-year-old Eunice Bolles, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, after quarreling with her about some strawberries. The primary evidence against her was her alleged confession to the investigators. At her execution, she thanked the sheriff for his kindness as she stepped forward to be hanged.[2] Ocuish's guilt has never been comprehensively proven nor disproven.

"[Rev.] Henry Channing preached at [her] 1786 execution, publishing the sermon under the title God Admonishing His People of their Duty ... a Sermon ... Occasioned by the Execution of Hannah Ocuish, a Mixed Girl, Aged 12 Years and 9 Months, for the Murder of Eunice Bolles, Aged 6 Years and 6 Months."[3] The sermon, which admonished parents not to neglect religious instructions for their children, summarized the crime as follows, according to Karen Halttunen:

On the 21st of July, 1786, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, the body of the murdered child was found in the public road leading from New-London to Norwich, lying on its face near to a wall ... The neighborhood turned out to hunt for the murderer; Hannah was questioned and claimed that she had seen four boys near the scene of the crime. When a search failed to turn them up, Hannah was interrogated again, and then taken to the Bolles home to be charged with homicide in the presence of the dead child. She burst into tears and confessed. Only at this late point in the narrative is the reader offered a sequential account of the crime. Five weeks earlier, Eunice had reported Hannah for stealing fruit during the strawberry harvest, and Hannah had plotted revenge. Catching sight of her young enemy headed for school one morning, Hannah had lured Eunice from her path with a gift of calico, then beat and choked her to death.[4][5]

Her name has also erroneously appeared as Hannah Omish.[2]

See also

References
  1. "Regional Studies, The Northeast". Archived from the original on February 4, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
  2. "Hannah Ocuish (1774 - 1786) - Find A Grave Memorial". Retrieved 2012-12-09.
  3. Henry Channing (1786). God Admonishing His People of their Duty ... a Sermon ... Occasioned by the Execution of Hannah Ocuish, a Mixed Girl, Aged 12 Years and 9 Months, for the Murder of Eunice Bolles, Aged 6 Years and 6 Months. New-London: T. Green. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
  4. "Divine Providence and Dr. Parkman's Jawbone". Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
  5. A Most Unusual Criminal Execution in New London

Bibliography

Further reading
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