Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Author’s note: This is my third submission about events of historical significance following pieces about George Washington and The Boston Tea Party. It is quite lengthy and for that I apologize, but the story and the people involved are both larger-than-life and fascinating. I hope you enjoy reading  this history as much as I do writing about it.

Clutching the mahogany bannister of his elegant  home located in the Shockoe neighborhood of Richmond’s River District, the old man haltingly descended the steps. Sweating profusely, and  doubling up in pain, he could not even summon the energy to cry out. Almost falling numerous times, the  ‘father of American  jurisprudence,”  finally reached the kitchen only to find his freed-slave housekeeper, Lydia Broadnax, and her son, Michael Brown, writhing in distress and afflicted with the same intestinal ailment. Hours later when one of the triumvirate of Richmond’s elite medical establishment would arrive, the Judge would purposefully sit-up in his bed to declare, “I am murdered.” It was May 25, 1806. Fourteen agonizing days and numerous repetitions of the charge later, that prediction would come true.

Continue reading “The Curious Death of George Wythe: “I Am Murdered!”” →