The Mercy Brown Incident
The Controversial History of the Search for Vampires in 19th Century Rhode Island
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Narrated by:
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Jim D. Johnston
About this listen
Since the dawn of humanity, people have both cared for those who have deceased yet also tried to keep them away, typically out of a fear of the dead. In time, that fear helped produce all kinds of legends and beliefs about the dead coming back, and one of the most persistent ones is of the vampire. While everyone has heard of vampires, few people are truly familiar with the history and folklore that have made the mythical beings so popular. Indeed, there are so many legends from so many cultures that it is difficult to come up with a hard definition, and folklore is by its very nature unscientific, but most people in the Western world think of vampires as those who come back from the grave to suck the blood or life essence from the living.
Today the Salem Witch Trials are often remembered as being a relic of a superstitious past, and Salem has transformed itself into a tourist haven and Halloween destination by capitalizing off the trials, which remain well known across America. However, most people have forgotten that New England had a “vampire” scare in the 19th century, when superstitious New Englanders looked to lore to explain tuberculosis, a devastating illness for which they had no available answers.
The last and most famous event in New England’s hunt for vampires came near the end of the 19th century after Mercy Brown died of consumption on January 19, 1892 and her body was exhumed on March 17, 1892. Suspicion fell on her as being a possible vampire, and digging her coffin up was an attempt to determine if she was, in fact, a vampire. Her mother and sister had died before her, also from consumption, and when her brother Eddie caught the disease, he had dreams about Mercy. He also had the feeling of a heavy weight sitting on his chest at night.
A common belief at the time was that victims of consumption might attack living family members, so neighbors insisted that Mercy’s father, George Brown, exhume the three bodies for examination. There were several characteristics people believed to be convincing evidence that a dead person was actually a vampire. This evidence included the presence of liquid or fresh-looking blood in the heart, lungs, or other vital organs and a body that was not as decayed as expected.
After her coffin was opened, the remains were examined, and the relatively good condition of Mercy Brown’s body indicated to her family and neighbors that she was indeed a vampire, and that she was responsible for her brother’s illness. While people who think of vampires today conjure up images of Dracula, in 19th century America, vampires were believed to be tied to tuberculosis, which killed millions of people. American beliefs about vampires connected victims who had died of consumption with living family members who came down with the disease, which was quite common because outbreaks of consumption frequently decimated whole families, striking down previously healthy brothers and sisters within a year or two.
It’s not clear how vampire folklore reached rural New England and became its own cultural phenomenon. The craze over vampires was not even a century old when Bram Stoker’s famous novel was published and movies reshaped the stereotype. Furthermore, the area in which Mercy Brown and other New Englanders lived did not experience a major influx of immigration from Central or Eastern Europe, where the belief in vampires had been around for hundreds of years. Nevertheless, the year 1892 would produce one of the most unique stories in American history.
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History repeats itself
- By Erika Davis on 09-06-24
By: Hourly History
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History's Most Powerful Witches and Wizards
- 2 Books in 1
- By: Desmond Wilde
- Narrated by: Charles D. Baker
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Witches have always worried, scared, and fascinated people in equal measure. From dark magic to home remedies, they have been part of the cultural landscape for people across the world. From Europe to the Americas, Asia to Africa, the idea of women who delve deep into magic has created some of the most enduring stories in the history of humanity. Often, these stories blend the real with the unreal, truth with fiction, and magick with the mundane.
By: Desmond Wilde
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American Witches
- A Broomstick Tour through Four Centuries
- By: Susan Fair
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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On a tour through history that's both whimsical and startling, we'll encounter 17th-century children flying around inside their New England home "like geese". We'll meet a father-son team of pious Puritans who embarked on a mission that involved undressing ladies and overseeing hangings. And on the eve of the Civil War, we'll accompany a reporter as he dons a dress and goes searching for witches in New York City's most dangerous neighborhoods.
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Christan witch book
- By Nicole on 09-01-20
By: Susan Fair
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Medieval Bodies
- Life and Death in the Middle Ages
- By: Jack Hartnell
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Just like us, medieval men and women worried about growing old, got blisters and indigestion, fell in love, and had children. And yet their lives were full of miraculous and richly metaphorical experiences radically different from our own, unfolding in a world where deadly wounds might be healed overnight by divine intervention, or where the heart of a king, plucked from his corpse, could be held aloft as a powerful symbol of political rule.
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I really wanted to love this book, but...
- By Annie Fitt on 05-18-21
By: Jack Hartnell
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The First Ghosts
- Most Ancient of Legacies
- By: Irving Finkel
- Narrated by: Irving Finkel
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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There are few things more in common across cultures than the belief in ghosts. Ghosts inhabit something of the very essence of what it is to be human. Whether we personally 'believe' or not, we are all aware of ghosts and the rich mythologies and rituals surrounding them. They have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries - yet most of us are only familiar with the vengeful apparitions of Shakespeare, or the ghastly spectres haunting the pages of 19th-century Gothic literature. But their origins are much, much older.
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Ghosts Were Causing My Tinnitus!
- By James D on 01-08-22
By: Irving Finkel
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Witch Hunt
- A Traveler's Guide to the Power and Persecution of the Witch
- By: Kristen J. Sollee
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Traveling through cities and sites across Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Kristen J. Sollee - a second-generation witch herself - explores the witch as a figure of female power and persecution. By infusing an adventurous first-person narrative with extensive research and imaginative historical fiction, Witch Hunt captures the magic of travel to make an often-overlooked period of history come alive.
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Bewitching! Loved it!
- By Isalina on 10-08-20
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Strange Tales of Scotland
- Jack's Strange Tales
- By: Jack Strange
- Narrated by: George Ellington
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Strange Tales of Scotland all deal with a particular aspect of Scottish mysteries. You'll learn of the ghost that appeared at the wedding of King Alexander II, and of monsters such as the Shellycoat and Water-horse that were thought to inhabit Scotland’s lochs...Finally, we have a look at the legend of the phantom armies of Scotland; soldiers who refuse to fade away even centuries after their wars have been fought, and their causes faded in history. Welcome to the Strange Tales of Scotland.
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Will listen again & again
- By Kathryn Lamb on 09-01-20
By: Jack Strange
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Beast
- Werewolves, Serial Killers, and Man-Eaters: The Mystery of the Monsters of the Gévaudan
- By: Gustavo Sánchez Romero, S. R. Schwalb
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Something unimaginable occurred from 1764 to 1767 in the remote highlands of south-central France. For three years, a real-life monster, or monsters, ravaged the region, slaughtering by some accounts more than 100 people, mostly women and children, and inflicting severe injuries upon many others.
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Repetitive
- By Octavia on 10-24-24
By: Gustavo Sánchez Romero, and others
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Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses
- From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19
- By: Heather E. Quinlan
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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It can come in waves - like tidal waves. It changes societies. It disrupts life. It ends lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives. Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts.
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Somewhat elemental
- By Bertha Watkins on 10-23-21
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The Colour of Magic
- Discworld, Book 1
- By: Terry Pratchett
- Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place that might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules. But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.
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TERRIBLE Narration!
- By Kayla I on 07-08-22
By: Terry Pratchett
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The Victorian Era
- A Captivating Guide to the Life of Queen Victoria and an Era in the History of the United Kingdom Known for Its Hierarchy-Based Social Order
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Kevin Hung-Liang
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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When Queen Victoria stepped onto the throne of Great Britain and Ireland in 1837, gone were the days when the monarch had supreme authority over the kingdom. Victoria ruled at the head of a government with which she was meant to converse, debate, and ultimately guide, and it was a job she sometimes struggled to perform. Victoria described herself as an emotional creature and blamed her gender for what she believed were her shortcomings as a monarch.
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uneven chapter focus, IA-like narration
- By Daniel on 04-10-24
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The Story We Carry in Our Bones
- Irish History for Americans
- By: Juilene Osborne-McKnight
- Narrated by: Juilene Osborne-McKnight
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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More than 40 million people consider themselves Irish American, and yet most of them do not truly understand the rich cultural history of their ancestors. From prehistoric times to the emigration of the Irish to Amerikay, this broad, yet comprehensive, history gives a general overview of the deep history of Irish Americans.
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Blown away
- By Bob on 01-27-22
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Red
- A History of the Redhead
- By: Jacky Colliss Harvey
- Narrated by: Jacky Colliss Harvey
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Red is a brilliantly told, captivating history of red hair throughout the ages. An audiobook that breaks new ground, dispels myths, and reinforces the special nature of being a redhead, with a look at multiple disciplines, including science, religion, politics, feminism and sexuality, literature, and art. With an obsessive fascination that is as contagious as it is compelling, author Jacky Colliss Harvey (herself a redhead) begins her exploration of red hair in prehistory and traces the redhead gene as it made its way out of Africa with the early human diaspora.
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Pushing Past Stereotypes
- By Troy on 06-09-15
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Mythology: Folklore, Myths & Legends: The History of Gods, Men and the Mythologies of the World
- By: Michael J. Stewart
- Narrated by: William Bahl
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When is a story more than just a story? When does it become a myth? When it holds a piece of truth about our history, our morality, and the cosmos. Throughout history, humankind has used stories to explain the unknown. From the cycle of the moon to the changing of the seasons, tales about supernatural beings and events have served to account for the purpose of the cosmos. But mythology isn’t entirely fiction. These stories have been passed down for generations for a reason.
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Very useful
- By Angela on 02-10-21
What listeners say about The Mercy Brown Incident
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- H.B.
- 11-23-22
EXCEPTIONAL overview of vampire (folk)lore
This is just an exceptional overview of vampire (folk)lore in general, with attention to the many cases in New England.
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