School of humans. I'm not a good neighbor. I'm gonna admit that.
Like I've lived in my apartment for three years, I don't know these people. I don't know their names, I don't know their business. But also I'm not trying to get into their business because of I mean, I would say it's out of respect, but it's really just out of laziness and fear of other people. But I will say, while I might be a slightly rude, standoffish neighbor, at
least I didn't do this. At Least I didn't write a book that featured a lot of details about my neighbor's private life where there was some inter family cheating and then someone died by suicide. At least I didn't write that book that is now considered the first American novel.
At least I didn't do that. You know, I didn't steal my neighbor's story and then sensationalize it so I could make a profit and then didn't even publish under my real name so that they didn't know it was me, me a punk ass bitch.
At least I didn't do that. Guys.
Okay, but weirdly enough, crazy that is something that did happen. The book was called The Power of Sympathy. It came out in seventeen eighty nine. And in today's episode, we're gonna hear about the tale that inspired. Part of the book involves cheating death. So cue the theme music. This is American filth. I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history. This week's episode the Perez Morton Affair. Okay, do you guys remember the
episode about an Carrie Randolph. She went on to later Mary Governor Morris, But remember she was accused of fucking her sister's husband and then having a baby by him, and then killing the baby and then killing him. Well, this story today is an affair that's very similar to that, where you have a younger sister sleeping with her older sister's husband.
But this time it is for real.
Yes, it was not just accusations, so let's get into it. The older sister in today's story is Sarah Wentworth ap Thorpe.
That's right, what a beautiful name. Apthorpe.
She was born in seventeen fifty six in Boston, and she would go on to be a very well known poet in a post revolutionary America. Her contemporaries even dubbed her the American Sappho. But she wanted to publish her poems until later. You know, women at the time, they weren't really out here hustling, grind and trying to get their shit published because ough propriety. How polite a woman published, That's crazy. So really a lot of her poems were
just circulated amongst her friends and little literary circles. But later on she would start publishing under a pseudonym Felina. And the thing is about her work is a lot of her poems featured heroes who are either black or indigenous. She had one poem called the African Chief, which was an early abolitionist work, which probably pissed off her family because she came from a long line of slave traders.
Her grandfather was Charles Apthorpe, and he had done so much slave trading that he was declared the richest man in Boston. Sarah's dad, James, continued the legacy and so when Sarah was born, she was the third of ten children and her family was very wealthy. Also, during the Revolutionary War, they were loyalists they're like, yes, Mommy Breton, and we're actually gonna meet up with Sarah when.
She a few years into her marriage.
In seventeen eighty one, when she was around twenty two, she married a dude named Perez Morton. Perez was a wealthy Bostonian and like a lot of dudes we talk about from this period, he was a lawyer and unlike Sarah's family, though, he was a patriot.
During the Revolutionary War, he.
Had been involved in the Committee of Safety and the Committee of Correspondence that were these kind of shadow governments where patriots would gather to figure out how to transition the cities to being independent American ones instead of stupid British ones.
Later he would get into politics.
He would be the Massachusetts Attorney General and also the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
But that's later, Okay.
Currently, he's just a lawyer and married to Sarah, and they live in a big aspec mansion in the heart of Boston. You know, Sarah's writing her poems. They have five kids.
They got an.
Elite social circle. Perez is good friends with John Adams. They're popular, they're notable.
But then.
It all gets undone because in the mid seventeen eighties, Sarah's younger sister, Francis Apthorpe, who everyone called Fanny, came to live with them, and while she was living there, guess what happened? Ah, well, you don't have to guess, because I already told you. Perez and Fanny started fucking.
Oh no.
And we know this is a double no no, because you know, not only is that cheating on your spouse, Perez, but because the two of them were in laws at the time, that was considered incest yucky. And the thing is, though no one really knows, you know, how did this affair start? You know, you could look at the power dynamics, You could look at Fanny. You know, when she came to live at the house, she was about twenty one, seven years younger than Sarah and also fifteen years younger
than Perez. So we just think about that for a second. You know, did this a fair start? Because Perez is a big old pile of steaming donkey dung and used his power as the head of the house and a fancy notable lawyer to pressure her into banging.
But at the same time, was Fanny into it?
You know? What was she like, Fuck you, Sarah, I'm gonna fuck your husband while I live in your house.
You know what's the deal.
So in the course of the affair, Fanny became pregnant, and at the end of seventeen eighty seven, Fanny had a baby, a little girl, and the baby was taken outside Boston to be brought up secretly. But the thing is, it seems that even after the baby was born, Fanny and Perez continued fucking around.
And I mean, I'm not.
Gonna say that's all well and good, but I guess it would have been fine if nobody found out about it. I mean, obviously the Morton household knew. Sarah knew about it. I can't imagine she was feeling great about her sister and her husband having an affair. But the thing is, it also doesn't seem like this was the best kept secret around the neighborhood and around Boston. Like, for example, one of the neighbors to the Mortons was this guy
named Betsy. She happened to be the niece of Abigail Adams, and she was also a good friend of Fanny's. And at some point Fanny wrote her diary that Fanny was quote very unwell, which is a very dignified way to say that bitch is pregnant. There are other whispers and rumors spreading about the household. But then the affair became the talk of the town in Boston, once the newspapers caught wind of what was happening and started publishing stories about it. So, yeah, once this affair was out there
in the open and everyone was talking about it. But it was fucking stressful as hell. A lot was at stake, particularly for Fanny. You know, she could be ruined. She faced a lot of terrible things, like she could be abandoned by her family. She could be completely disgraced in society. And the thing is, there weren't very many choices for disgrace poor women. She'd have to become a prostitute to
support herself. She'd be destitute and all alone. And really she was quite afraid that her family would leave her. Fanny and Sarah's dad, James, was pissed. But you know what was he pissed about. Was he pissed about the affair I'm mad at Fanny or was he.
More pissed at Perez?
While this press was happening, it seemed that Fanny was cooped up in the Morton house, and like, was that because she feared what her father would say to her? Or was it because Perez didn't want her to talk about the affair openly? James Louise I would hate to be in the middle of this situation. And then let's think about Sarah. You know, how was she feeling about the whole thing. It does seem that during the scandal
that she did try to defend her sister. She actually did publish a poem in the newspaper under her pseudonym that sympathized with Fanny's fear that her family would abandon her. The poem said, where is the father fled with raptured breast? Where the fond mother in her offspring blessed ah wretched child? No friends, thy grief control, no melting parents, soothed thy anguish soul.
I don't like poetry anyway.
And the thing is, what Fanny and Sarah's dad specifically wanted was for Fanny to publicly declare who knocked her up, aka Perez. But this was stressing Fanny the fuck out, you know, as I said, she was afraid she would be disowned, abandoned, hated by the public, but also for whatever reason, she did want to name Perez instead of deciding what to do. On August twenty eighth, seventeen eighty eight, she took a bunch of laudanum and died. We'll be
right back after these soothing advertisements. Damn, so this was so sad. On August twenty eight, seventeen eighty eight, Fanny overdose on laudanum and died.
She was twenty two years old.
And despite this terrible tragedy, instead of you know, giving the Apthorpes and the Morton space to grieve, the Bostonian public was still in a frenzy for info.
The saga would not end.
Because before Fanny had died, she had written a bunch of notes and letters about the turmoil she was facing. And then it seen that she had a sneaky made or something, because no who got their hands on those letters and notes, some grubby handed journalists. I mean, are you a journalist if you're just printing gossip? I don't know, or maybe if you think about the news, what is it? It's just gossip about the government and whatever. And the thing is, once they got those documents.
No they did.
They published them in the newspaper, horrifying, but also for the public so exciting. This was like their Epstein List. In one of the notes that Fanny had written, she apologized to her family, specifically to Sarah. She had written, I knew I was doing injury to one whom I supposed was all kindness to me. I pray her to forgive me, as I forgive them who have done me nothing but injuries.
I request her not to place.
This crime to that of black ingratitude, for I am sensible of the obligations I was under to her. And then in a diary entry that was published, she was pleading with Perez. She said, in the name of the heaven, let not my sweet infants suffer.
Take care of it. Unhappy Morton if you ever loved its mother. And the thing is Once.
These letters, notes, diary entries were published, all of it continued to snowball. More and more editorials were being published, along with public comments, and people started pointing fingers because everyone in Boston was trying to figure out who to blame for Fanny's devastating death. You know again was more in a big pile of Donkey Dung who had seduced and dishonored Fanny his victim or on the other side of it was Fanny just a crazy gal. In fact,
the scandal was getting so frenzied. I mean, they probably weren't screaming like this, but he was getting so frenzied that an inquest was conducted in so September in October of seventeen eighty eight, looking into Fanny's death to see if Perez was somehow at fault, and the inquest involved not just an investigation by the coroner, but also featured
arguments in front of a jury. Perez had some notable supporters like former Massachusetts Governor James Boden and John Adams, and it does seem that the apthorpes they just wanted the scandal to go away. So the coroner came back and said that indeed she had died by deliberate suicide. And then a newspaper put out this notice in early
October seventeen eighty eight. It said, we are happy to be able to announce to the public that the accusations brought against a fellow citizen in consequence of a late unhappy event, and which has been the cause of so much domestic calamity and public speculation, have at the mutual desire of the parties, been submitted to and fully inquired into by their excellency James Boden and John Adams, and the result of their inquiry is that the said accusations
have not been in any degree supported, and that therefore there is just ground for the restoration of peace and harmony between them.
It would have been the wish.
Of many that the extraordinary conduct of the deceased had been early attributed to the only accountable cause and insane state of mind.
This notice is just.
Like, hey, guys, calm down, no need to gossip and speculate about Perez anymore. He's a good guy, he's fine. Fanny was just the insane one. And at this point it does seem that the public was mostly on the side of Perez and was just assuming that Fanny had some sort of mental issue. So let's get to that, nosy neighbor. Now, minding your own.
Business is boring.
Like, I love gossip, but clearly everything that was being written about Fanny probably put a lot of pressure on her very stressed. But one dude went even further than writing editorials in a newspaper.
His name was William Hill Brown.
He lived near the Mortons, and like everyone in Boston, he was well acquainted with the scandal. He was the son of a clockmaker, one of the most celebrated in America. And despite you know, being well acquainted with time, William clearly didn't understand the concept of too soon when, at twenty four years old, in January seventeen eighty nine, mere months after Fanny's death, he published his novel called The Power of Sympathy. By the way, this is the sound
of an old printing press. First of all, publishing, specifically a novel. At the time, that was a pretty big deal. People weren't really into novels yet. They thought they were suspicious. They're just like, why are you telling me this very long, fake story.
Weird? But this novel, it was a big deal.
You know, technically it was the first American novel, meaning it was written by American author, published by an American.
And it was a story about Americans.
And William hill Brown he knew people would be suspicious of a novel, so in the preface of the book, he's like, hey, yeah, this is a little story I made up in my wittle head. But at the same time, this book provides a great lesson in morality. He says, the point of the book is to quote expose the fatal consequences of seduction, and to inspire the female mind with a principle of self complacency, and to promote the
economy of human life. Even before the book came out, William Hill Brown and his esteemed publisher, the printer Isaiah Thomas, decided that they would capitalize on the sensation of the Morton affair to promote the book. Ads for the novel started running in newspapers in January seventeen eighty nine, and those ads promised a connection between the scandal and the novel.
And then once the novel was.
Published, readers in Boston quickly saw that some of the events in the novel mirrored exactly what had happened in the Morton household. The way that the novel was written was in the form of sixty five letters written between the various characters, and it's in letters twenty one through twenty three where there's a subplot similar to the Morton affair. It's the story of the unmarried Ophelia who was seduced by her brother in law Martin, and then Ophelia kills herself. Wow,
not subtle at all. Also, come on, Ophelia, are you kidding me? Couldn't you be slightly more creative than do a hack Hamlet reference? And then also Martin instead of Morton, like you barely changed the name. Isaiah Thomas and William Hill Brown thought that capitalizing on the affair would make America's first novel a huge success. In fact, William thought it would be such a hit that he was afraid. He ended up publishing anonymously so that the powerful Perez
Morton wouldn't come after him. And before the novel came out, there were rumors that Perez had indeed tried to concoct a plan to suppress the novel. No one knows exactly what he was.
Trying to do.
Maybe he was trying to Pressurizaiah Brown to not publish it, or he had a scheme to buy up all the books before anyone else could get them. But luckily for Perez Morton, it seems that he really didn't need to bother suppressing the book at all, because the power of sympathy flopped and basically suppressed itself. No one was interested in buying it or reading it, and that's probably for
a variety of reasons. One is that despite the fervor of the scandal in seventeen eighty eight, when the novel came out, the interest in the scandal was dying down, so people were probably like, Wow, why are you still talking about this?
This is old news.
Also, as I was saying, everyone was very skeptical about novels and fiction. Americans were just not ready for this art form. Or maybe the book actually sucked and that's why they weren't ready for it. Because soon after this book came out, another one came out called Charlotte Temple, and that got people reading. So the Power of Sympathy quickly went out of print and faded away until it was rediscovered as the first American novel in the mid
nineteenth century. And then, because it was similar to the Morton affair, a lot of literary people assumed that the anonymous author was actually Sarah. They were like, yeah, Sarah Wentworth at Flort Morton wrote this story about her sister. The real author wasn't discovered until eighteen ninety four. There's this publisher who was trying to print and distribute more copies of the book, and he put Sarah's pseudonym on the front cover. That's when one of William Hill Brown's
nieces came forward. It was like, actually, she didn't write it, my uncle dad. The Power of Sympathy wasn't the only art piece that got inspired by the scandal. In fact, in Rule Bennington, Vermont, in April seventeen eighty nine, there was a school that stage a play called The Fatal Effects of Seduction, and the scandal was the main plot of the story. Ah, I just love the idea of someone's doing a school play about seduction and suicide. They're a bit more edgy in seventeen eighty nine than they
are now. So back in seventeen eighty nine, the Power of Sympathy came out, no one really seemed to care that much.
But the Appthorpes and the Mortons.
Were still reeling from their loss and trying to figure out how they could restore their reputations. So Sarah and Fanny had a brother, Charles, and he was a naval officer. He decided that one way they could restore their reputation was to challenge Perez to a duel. Yes, a duel shall solve everyone's problems. So in January seventeen eighty nine, he went up to Perez and was like, so you want a duel or what. And once you're offered a duel, you really have no choice but to accept because of
gentlemanly honor and all that. But the thing is, it seems that Perez and Charles, neither of them really wanted.
To do a duel. They were just like, this is just what you have to do.
And it does seem that they might have made arrangements to have the duel stopped, because when they showed up at the place where they were going to have the duel, the sheriff was there. And they're like, oh, no, I guess we can't shoot each other because the sheriff is here. Oh dang, yeah, we can't reschedule. My schedule is packed. I simply just cannot fit another duel on my calendar. I just don't have another Dawn available until like many.
Years from now.
I think it's curious that after Fanny died, that's when Sarah started publishing more of her poems.
She released several books.
Of poetry over the next decade, And I do wonder if her sister's death had anything to do with her decision to publish more. I wonder if Perez before had been like, ugh, women publishing, that's so impolite.
I don't like that. No one will publish in my house.
But then after the scandal, maybe Sarah had this leverage and was like, bruh, you can't tell me what to do anymore. You fucked my sister and she killed herself. I'm going to publish some poems. And despite everything, Sarah and Perez stayed together. I mean, technically they could have divorced, but that probably would have caused more of a scandal, so they were married until Perez's death in eighteen thirty seven. Sarah died in eighteen forty six at the age of
eighty six. She got to live Perez in all of her five children. We know that she and Perez had their last child in seventeen eighty seven, just six months before Fanny had hers. I mean, they could have had more, but I guess there's something about your husband having your
sister's kid that's a bit of a turnoff. But in Sarah's poetry, she does hint at why she stayed with Perez as one common subject in her work is a mother's obligation to her children no matter what and the necessity of female resignation.
Yikes.
But the thing is, it does seem that Sarah had some sort of agency in all of this, because after this scandal went down, Sarah had an affair. And who was that affair with none other than American film favorite Governor Morris bang.
Bang Bang Bang bang.
Ah. As with every American Filth episode, we learn a lesson, and I think the lesson for today is if you feel like writing a novel about your neighbors affair and suicide, maybe wait more than like four or five months after it happened. Give it a little room to breathe. Anyway, this has been American Filth. We'll be back next week. American Field is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcast. It's hosted by me Gabby Watts. I wrote and sound designed this episode. Our theme song is by
me and Jesse Niswanger. Our senior producer is Amelia Brocken. Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. You can follow along with the pod on Instagram at American filth Pod, also leave a review, leave a rating, leave a comment, do something, promote the algorithm. Blah blah blah blah blah, talk about you next week, School of Humans,