page_title: Alice Mitchell
section_title: Relationship with Freda Ward
hierarchical_section_title: Alice Mitchell / Relationship with Freda Ward
caption_attribution_description: English: An earlier crayon portrait of Frederica Ward. From the Appeal Avalancche Newspaper, Memphis, TN.
context_page_description: Alice Mitchell was an American woman who gained notoriety for the murder of her lover, Freda Ward. On February 23, 1892, the 19-year-old Mitchell cut the throat of Ward, then 17 years old. Mitchell was subsequently found insane by means of a jury inquisition and placed in a psychiatric hospital until her death in 1898.
  The case, which was exploited by sensationalist press, focused attention on the sexual attachments of women and drew out discussions of lesbianism into the public discourse. The case was headlined as "A Very Unnatural Crime" across the country. The case influenced the popular literature of the era which began to depict lesbians as "murderous" and "masculine". One identity that came to be thought lesbians was the "mannish lesbian" creating dialogue of gender expression.
  The case history produced by Mitchell's defense describes her as "a regular tomboy". In the courtroom Alice Mitchell was presented as "insane" by her attorneys and her trial was not tried in criminal court but for questioning of lunacy.
  This story was featured on Investigation Discovery's Deadly Women.
context_section_description: Alice and Freda met at the Higbee School for Young Ladies. They were very open about their relationship: they kissed, hugged, and held hands. This was not considered as homosexual behavior during this period and intimate female friendships were called "chumming" in Memphis. However, their relationship was more serious than "chumming" and Alice especially had an obsession with Freda. Freda's family left Memphis and moved upriver to Golddust, Tennessee. Because Alice and Freda did not live in the same city, they only saw each other occasionally. However, when one of them would make the trip to see the other, they would stay together for weeks at a time. When visiting, the two would share a bed at night. Freda was not as serious about the relationship as Alice was and was interested in two men in addition to Alice. The two dated until Freda’s eldest sister and surrogate mother Ada Volkmar forbade Freda to communicate with Alice.
caption: An earlier crayon portrait of Frederica Ward. From the Appeal Avalancche Newspaper, Memphis, TN.
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