Abstract

This thesis focuses on the emotional impact capital punishment had on families and communities in Québec during the late nineteenth century by examining the case of Cordélia Viau. On March 10, 1899, in the small town of Sainte-Scholastique, Cordélia Viau was executed alongside her accomplice, Samuel Parslow, for the homicide of her husband, Isidore Poirier, in their house in Saint-Canut. In the month preceding her execution, the Viau family – her parents, three of her sisters, and a brother-in-law – set out to campaign for mercy on behalf of Cordélia. Their efforts were a strategic appeal to the wife of the Governor General, Lady Minto, documented in the archival capital case file. This unusual strategy of appealing to the wife of the Queen’s representative rather than the Governor General demonstrates an understanding of the power of the emotions shared between the women, as mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives. Unfortunately for Cordélia, the emotions they hoped to provoke, such as sympathy, pity, and piety, were not compelling enough to save her life. At the same time, the press covered the case with sensational details. Newspapers such as La Presse, La Patrie, The Montreal Daily Star, and The Gazette sought to provoke emotions in their readers by using stereotypes about women and violent crime, highlighting the shame of murder and hangings, and dissecting the actions of the crowd that gathered to witness the execution. Alongside the private and public emotions raised by the case, early abolition sentiment appeared in articles describing the execution.