Speaker 1: School of humans. I'm not a good neighbor. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: admit that.
Speaker 2: Like I've lived in my apartment for three years, I
Speaker 2: don't know these people. I don't know their names, I
Speaker 2: don't know their business. But also I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: get into their business because of I mean, I would
Speaker 2: say it's out of respect, but it's really just out
Speaker 2: of laziness and fear of other people. But I will say,
Speaker 2: while I might be a slightly rude, standoffish neighbor, at
Speaker 2: least I didn't do this. At Least I didn't write
Speaker 2: a book that featured a lot of details about my
Speaker 2: neighbor's private life where there was some inter family cheating
Speaker 2: and then someone died by suicide. At least I didn't
Speaker 2: write that book that is now considered the first American novel.
Speaker 2: At least I didn't do that. You know, I didn't
Speaker 2: steal my neighbor's story and then sensationalize it so I
Speaker 2: could make a profit and then didn't even publish under
Speaker 2: my real name so that they didn't know it was me,
Speaker 2: me a punk ass bitch.
Speaker 1: At least I didn't do that. Guys.
Speaker 2: Okay, but weirdly enough, crazy that is something that did happen.
Speaker 2: The book was called The Power of Sympathy. It came
Speaker 2: out in seventeen eighty nine. And in today's episode, we're
Speaker 2: gonna hear about the tale that inspired. Part of the
Speaker 2: book involves cheating death. So cue the theme music. This
Speaker 2: is American filth. I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell
Speaker 2: you a filthy story from American history. This week's episode
Speaker 2: the Perez Morton Affair. Okay, do you guys remember the
Speaker 2: episode about an Carrie Randolph. She went on to later
Speaker 2: Mary Governor Morris, But remember she was accused of fucking
Speaker 2: her sister's husband and then having a baby by him,
Speaker 2: and then killing the baby and then killing him. Well,
Speaker 2: this story today is an affair that's very similar to that,
Speaker 2: where you have a younger sister sleeping with her older
Speaker 2: sister's husband.
Speaker 1: But this time it is for real.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was not just accusations, so let's get into it.
Speaker 2: The older sister in today's story is Sarah Wentworth ap Thorpe.
Speaker 1: That's right, what a beautiful name. Apthorpe.
Speaker 2: She was born in seventeen fifty six in Boston, and
Speaker 2: she would go on to be a very well known
Speaker 2: poet in a post revolutionary America. Her contemporaries even dubbed
Speaker 2: her the American Sappho. But she wanted to publish her
Speaker 2: poems until later. You know, women at the time, they
Speaker 2: weren't really out here hustling, grind and trying to get
Speaker 2: their shit published because ough propriety. How polite a woman published,
Speaker 2: That's crazy. So really a lot of her poems were
Speaker 2: just circulated amongst her friends and little literary circles. But
Speaker 2: later on she would start publishing under a pseudonym Felina.
Speaker 2: And the thing is about her work is a lot
Speaker 2: of her poems featured heroes who are either black or indigenous.
Speaker 2: She had one poem called the African Chief, which was
Speaker 2: an early abolitionist work, which probably pissed off her family
Speaker 2: because she came from a long line of slave traders.
Speaker 2: Her grandfather was Charles Apthorpe, and he had done so
Speaker 2: much slave trading that he was declared the richest man
Speaker 2: in Boston. Sarah's dad, James, continued the legacy and so
Speaker 2: when Sarah was born, she was the third of ten
Speaker 2: children and her family was very wealthy. Also, during the
Speaker 2: Revolutionary War, they were loyalists they're like, yes, Mommy Breton,
Speaker 2: and we're actually gonna meet up with Sarah when.
Speaker 1: She a few years into her marriage.
Speaker 2: In seventeen eighty one, when she was around twenty two,
Speaker 2: she married a dude named Perez Morton. Perez was a
Speaker 2: wealthy Bostonian and like a lot of dudes we talk
Speaker 2: about from this period, he was a lawyer and unlike
Speaker 2: Sarah's family, though, he was a patriot.
Speaker 1: During the Revolutionary War, he.
Speaker 2: Had been involved in the Committee of Safety and the
Speaker 2: Committee of Correspondence that were these kind of shadow governments
Speaker 2: where patriots would gather to figure out how to transition
Speaker 2: the cities to being independent American ones instead of stupid
Speaker 2: British ones.
Speaker 1: Later he would get into politics.
Speaker 2: He would be the Massachusetts Attorney General and also the
Speaker 2: speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Speaker 1: But that's later, Okay.
Speaker 2: Currently, he's just a lawyer and married to Sarah, and
Speaker 2: they live in a big aspec mansion in the heart
Speaker 2: of Boston. You know, Sarah's writing her poems. They have
Speaker 2: five kids.
Speaker 1: They got an.
Speaker 2: Elite social circle. Perez is good friends with John Adams.
Speaker 2: They're popular, they're notable.
Speaker 1: But then.
Speaker 2: It all gets undone because in the mid seventeen eighties,
Speaker 2: Sarah's younger sister, Francis Apthorpe, who everyone called Fanny, came
Speaker 2: to live with them, and while she was living there,
Speaker 2: guess what happened? Ah, well, you don't have to guess,
Speaker 2: because I already told you. Perez and Fanny started fucking.
Speaker 1: Oh no.
Speaker 2: And we know this is a double no no, because
Speaker 2: you know, not only is that cheating on your spouse, Perez,
Speaker 2: but because the two of them were in laws at
Speaker 2: the time, that was considered incest yucky. And the thing is,
Speaker 2: though no one really knows, you know, how did this
Speaker 2: affair start? You know, you could look at the power dynamics,
Speaker 2: You could look at Fanny. You know, when she came
Speaker 2: to live at the house, she was about twenty one,
Speaker 2: seven years younger than Sarah and also fifteen years younger
Speaker 2: than Perez. So we just think about that for a second.
Speaker 2: You know, did this a fair start? Because Perez is
Speaker 2: a big old pile of steaming donkey dung and used
Speaker 2: his power as the head of the house and a
Speaker 2: fancy notable lawyer to pressure her into banging.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, was Fanny into it?
Speaker 2: You know? What was she like, Fuck you, Sarah, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna fuck your husband while I live in your house.
Speaker 1: You know what's the deal.
Speaker 2: So in the course of the affair, Fanny became pregnant,
Speaker 2: and at the end of seventeen eighty seven, Fanny had
Speaker 2: a baby, a little girl, and the baby was taken
Speaker 2: outside Boston to be brought up secretly. But the thing is,
Speaker 2: it seems that even after the baby was born, Fanny
Speaker 2: and Perez continued fucking around.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I'm not.
Speaker 2: Gonna say that's all well and good, but I guess
Speaker 2: it would have been fine if nobody found out about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously the Morton household knew. Sarah knew about it.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine she was feeling great about her sister
Speaker 2: and her husband having an affair. But the thing is,
Speaker 2: it also doesn't seem like this was the best kept
Speaker 2: secret around the neighborhood and around Boston. Like, for example,
Speaker 2: one of the neighbors to the Mortons was this guy
Speaker 2: named Betsy. She happened to be the niece of Abigail Adams,
Speaker 2: and she was also a good friend of Fanny's. And
Speaker 2: at some point Fanny wrote her diary that Fanny was
Speaker 2: quote very unwell, which is a very dignified way to
Speaker 2: say that bitch is pregnant. There are other whispers and
Speaker 2: rumors spreading about the household. But then the affair became
Speaker 2: the talk of the town in Boston, once the newspapers
Speaker 2: caught wind of what was happening and started publishing stories
Speaker 2: about it. So, yeah, once this affair was out there
Speaker 2: in the open and everyone was talking about it. But
Speaker 2: it was fucking stressful as hell. A lot was at stake,
Speaker 2: particularly for Fanny. You know, she could be ruined. She
Speaker 2: faced a lot of terrible things, like she could be
Speaker 2: abandoned by her family. She could be completely disgraced in society.
Speaker 2: And the thing is, there weren't very many choices for
Speaker 2: disgrace poor women. She'd have to become a prostitute to
Speaker 2: support herself. She'd be destitute and all alone. And really
Speaker 2: she was quite afraid that her family would leave her.
Speaker 2: Fanny and Sarah's dad, James, was pissed. But you know
Speaker 2: what was he pissed about. Was he pissed about the
Speaker 2: affair I'm mad at Fanny or was he.
Speaker 1: More pissed at Perez?
Speaker 2: While this press was happening, it seemed that Fanny was
Speaker 2: cooped up in the Morton house, and like, was that
Speaker 2: because she feared what her father would say to her?
Speaker 2: Or was it because Perez didn't want her to talk
Speaker 2: about the affair openly? James Louise I would hate to
Speaker 2: be in the middle of this situation. And then let's
Speaker 2: think about Sarah. You know, how was she feeling about
Speaker 2: the whole thing. It does seem that during the scandal
Speaker 2: that she did try to defend her sister. She actually
Speaker 2: did publish a poem in the newspaper under her pseudonym
Speaker 2: that sympathized with Fanny's fear that her family would abandon her.
Speaker 2: The poem said, where is the father fled with raptured breast?
Speaker 2: Where the fond mother in her offspring blessed ah wretched child?
Speaker 2: No friends, thy grief control, no melting parents, soothed thy
Speaker 2: anguish soul.
Speaker 1: I don't like poetry anyway.
Speaker 2: And the thing is, what Fanny and Sarah's dad specifically
Speaker 2: wanted was for Fanny to publicly declare who knocked her up,
Speaker 2: aka Perez. But this was stressing Fanny the fuck out,
Speaker 2: you know, as I said, she was afraid she would
Speaker 2: be disowned, abandoned, hated by the public, but also for
Speaker 2: whatever reason, she did want to name Perez instead of
Speaker 2: deciding what to do. On August twenty eighth, seventeen eighty eight,
Speaker 2: she took a bunch of laudanum and died. We'll be
Speaker 2: right back after these soothing advertisements. Damn, so this was
Speaker 2: so sad. On August twenty eight, seventeen eighty eight, Fanny
Speaker 2: overdose on laudanum and died.
Speaker 1: She was twenty two years old.
Speaker 2: And despite this terrible tragedy, instead of you know, giving
Speaker 2: the Apthorpes and the Morton space to grieve, the Bostonian
Speaker 2: public was still in a frenzy for info.
Speaker 1: The saga would not end.
Speaker 2: Because before Fanny had died, she had written a bunch
Speaker 2: of notes and letters about the turmoil she was facing.
Speaker 2: And then it seen that she had a sneaky made
Speaker 2: or something, because no who got their hands on those
Speaker 2: letters and notes, some grubby handed journalists. I mean, are
Speaker 2: you a journalist if you're just printing gossip? I don't know,
Speaker 2: or maybe if you think about the news, what is it?
Speaker 2: It's just gossip about the government and whatever. And the
Speaker 2: thing is, once they got those documents.
Speaker 1: No they did.
Speaker 2: They published them in the newspaper, horrifying, but also for
Speaker 2: the public so exciting. This was like their Epstein List.
Speaker 2: In one of the notes that Fanny had written, she
Speaker 2: apologized to her family, specifically to Sarah. She had written,
Speaker 2: I knew I was doing injury to one whom I
Speaker 2: supposed was all kindness to me. I pray her to
Speaker 2: forgive me, as I forgive them who have done me
Speaker 2: nothing but injuries.
Speaker 1: I request her not to place.
Speaker 2: This crime to that of black ingratitude, for I am
Speaker 2: sensible of the obligations I was under to her. And
Speaker 2: then in a diary entry that was published, she was
Speaker 2: pleading with Perez. She said, in the name of the heaven,
Speaker 2: let not my sweet infants suffer.
Speaker 1: Take care of it. Unhappy Morton if you ever loved
Speaker 1: its mother. And the thing is Once.
Speaker 2: These letters, notes, diary entries were published, all of it
Speaker 2: continued to snowball. More and more editorials were being published,
Speaker 2: along with public comments, and people started pointing fingers because
Speaker 2: everyone in Boston was trying to figure out who to
Speaker 2: blame for Fanny's devastating death. You know again was more
Speaker 2: in a big pile of Donkey Dung who had seduced
Speaker 2: and dishonored Fanny his victim or on the other side
Speaker 2: of it was Fanny just a crazy gal. In fact,
Speaker 2: the scandal was getting so frenzied. I mean, they probably
Speaker 2: weren't screaming like this, but he was getting so frenzied
Speaker 2: that an inquest was conducted in so September in October
Speaker 2: of seventeen eighty eight, looking into Fanny's death to see
Speaker 2: if Perez was somehow at fault, and the inquest involved
Speaker 2: not just an investigation by the coroner, but also featured
Speaker 2: arguments in front of a jury. Perez had some notable
Speaker 2: supporters like former Massachusetts Governor James Boden and John Adams,
Speaker 2: and it does seem that the apthorpes they just wanted
Speaker 2: the scandal to go away. So the coroner came back
Speaker 2: and said that indeed she had died by deliberate suicide.
Speaker 2: And then a newspaper put out this notice in early
Speaker 2: October seventeen eighty eight. It said, we are happy to
Speaker 2: be able to announce to the public that the accusations
Speaker 2: brought against a fellow citizen in consequence of a late
Speaker 2: unhappy event, and which has been the cause of so
Speaker 2: much domestic calamity and public speculation, have at the mutual
Speaker 2: desire of the parties, been submitted to and fully inquired
Speaker 2: into by their excellency James Boden and John Adams, and
Speaker 2: the result of their inquiry is that the said accusations
Speaker 2: have not been in any degree supported, and that therefore
Speaker 2: there is just ground for the restoration of peace and
Speaker 2: harmony between them.
Speaker 1: It would have been the wish.
Speaker 2: Of many that the extraordinary conduct of the deceased had
Speaker 2: been early attributed to the only accountable cause and insane
Speaker 2: state of mind.
Speaker 1: This notice is just.
Speaker 2: Like, hey, guys, calm down, no need to gossip and
Speaker 2: speculate about Perez anymore. He's a good guy, he's fine.
Speaker 2: Fanny was just the insane one. And at this point
Speaker 2: it does seem that the public was mostly on the
Speaker 2: side of Perez and was just assuming that Fanny had
Speaker 2: some sort of mental issue. So let's get to that,
Speaker 2: nosy neighbor. Now, minding your own.
Speaker 1: Business is boring.
Speaker 2: Like, I love gossip, but clearly everything that was being
Speaker 2: written about Fanny probably put a lot of pressure on
Speaker 2: her very stressed. But one dude went even further than
Speaker 2: writing editorials in a newspaper.
Speaker 1: His name was William Hill Brown.
Speaker 2: He lived near the Mortons, and like everyone in Boston,
Speaker 2: he was well acquainted with the scandal. He was the
Speaker 2: son of a clockmaker, one of the most celebrated in America.
Speaker 2: And despite you know, being well acquainted with time, William
Speaker 2: clearly didn't understand the concept of too soon when, at
Speaker 2: twenty four years old, in January seventeen eighty nine, mere
Speaker 2: months after Fanny's death, he published his novel called The
Speaker 2: Power of Sympathy. By the way, this is the sound
Speaker 2: of an old printing press. First of all, publishing, specifically
Speaker 2: a novel. At the time, that was a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2: People weren't really into novels yet. They thought they were suspicious.
Speaker 2: They're just like, why are you telling me this very long,
Speaker 2: fake story.
Speaker 1: Weird? But this novel, it was a big deal.
Speaker 2: You know, technically it was the first American novel, meaning
Speaker 2: it was written by American author, published by an American.
Speaker 1: And it was a story about Americans.
Speaker 2: And William hill Brown he knew people would be suspicious
Speaker 2: of a novel, so in the preface of the book,
Speaker 2: he's like, hey, yeah, this is a little story I
Speaker 2: made up in my wittle head. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: this book provides a great lesson in morality. He says,
Speaker 2: the point of the book is to quote expose the
Speaker 2: fatal consequences of seduction, and to inspire the female mind
Speaker 2: with a principle of self complacency, and to promote the
Speaker 2: economy of human life. Even before the book came out,
Speaker 2: William Hill Brown and his esteemed publisher, the printer Isaiah Thomas,
Speaker 2: decided that they would capitalize on the sensation of the
Speaker 2: Morton affair to promote the book. Ads for the novel
Speaker 2: started running in newspapers in January seventeen eighty nine, and
Speaker 2: those ads promised a connection between the scandal and the novel.
Speaker 1: And then once the novel was.
Speaker 2: Published, readers in Boston quickly saw that some of the
Speaker 2: events in the novel mirrored exactly what had happened in
Speaker 2: the Morton household. The way that the novel was written
Speaker 2: was in the form of sixty five letters written between
Speaker 2: the various characters, and it's in letters twenty one through
Speaker 2: twenty three where there's a subplot similar to the Morton affair.
Speaker 2: It's the story of the unmarried Ophelia who was seduced
Speaker 2: by her brother in law Martin, and then Ophelia kills herself. Wow,
Speaker 2: not subtle at all. Also, come on, Ophelia, are you
Speaker 2: kidding me? Couldn't you be slightly more creative than do
Speaker 2: a hack Hamlet reference? And then also Martin instead of Morton,
Speaker 2: like you barely changed the name. Isaiah Thomas and William
Speaker 2: Hill Brown thought that capitalizing on the affair would make
Speaker 2: America's first novel a huge success. In fact, William thought
Speaker 2: it would be such a hit that he was afraid.
Speaker 2: He ended up publishing anonymously so that the powerful Perez
Speaker 2: Morton wouldn't come after him. And before the novel came out,
Speaker 2: there were rumors that Perez had indeed tried to concoct
Speaker 2: a plan to suppress the novel. No one knows exactly
Speaker 2: what he was.
Speaker 1: Trying to do.
Speaker 2: Maybe he was trying to Pressurizaiah Brown to not publish it,
Speaker 2: or he had a scheme to buy up all the
Speaker 2: books before anyone else could get them. But luckily for
Speaker 2: Perez Morton, it seems that he really didn't need to
Speaker 2: bother suppressing the book at all, because the power of
Speaker 2: sympathy flopped and basically suppressed itself. No one was interested
Speaker 2: in buying it or reading it, and that's probably for
Speaker 2: a variety of reasons. One is that despite the fervor
Speaker 2: of the scandal in seventeen eighty eight, when the novel
Speaker 2: came out, the interest in the scandal was dying down,
Speaker 2: so people were probably like, Wow, why are you still
Speaker 2: talking about this?
Speaker 1: This is old news.
Speaker 2: Also, as I was saying, everyone was very skeptical about
Speaker 2: novels and fiction. Americans were just not ready for this
Speaker 2: art form. Or maybe the book actually sucked and that's
Speaker 2: why they weren't ready for it. Because soon after this
Speaker 2: book came out, another one came out called Charlotte Temple,
Speaker 2: and that got people reading. So the Power of Sympathy
Speaker 2: quickly went out of print and faded away until it
Speaker 2: was rediscovered as the first American novel in the mid
Speaker 2: nineteenth century. And then, because it was similar to the
Speaker 2: Morton affair, a lot of literary people assumed that the
Speaker 2: anonymous author was actually Sarah. They were like, yeah, Sarah
Speaker 2: Wentworth at Flort Morton wrote this story about her sister.
Speaker 2: The real author wasn't discovered until eighteen ninety four. There's
Speaker 2: this publisher who was trying to print and distribute more
Speaker 2: copies of the book, and he put Sarah's pseudonym on
Speaker 2: the front cover. That's when one of William Hill Brown's
Speaker 2: nieces came forward. It was like, actually, she didn't write it,
Speaker 2: my uncle dad. The Power of Sympathy wasn't the only
Speaker 2: art piece that got inspired by the scandal. In fact,
Speaker 2: in Rule Bennington, Vermont, in April seventeen eighty nine, there
Speaker 2: was a school that stage a play called The Fatal
Speaker 2: Effects of Seduction, and the scandal was the main plot
Speaker 2: of the story. Ah, I just love the idea of
Speaker 2: someone's doing a school play about seduction and suicide. They're
Speaker 2: a bit more edgy in seventeen eighty nine than they
Speaker 2: are now. So back in seventeen eighty nine, the Power
Speaker 2: of Sympathy came out, no one really seemed to care
Speaker 2: that much.
Speaker 1: But the Appthorpes and the Mortons.
Speaker 2: Were still reeling from their loss and trying to figure
Speaker 2: out how they could restore their reputations. So Sarah and
Speaker 2: Fanny had a brother, Charles, and he was a naval officer.
Speaker 2: He decided that one way they could restore their reputation
Speaker 2: was to challenge Perez to a duel. Yes, a duel
Speaker 2: shall solve everyone's problems. So in January seventeen eighty nine,
Speaker 2: he went up to Perez and was like, so you
Speaker 2: want a duel or what. And once you're offered a duel,
Speaker 2: you really have no choice but to accept because of
Speaker 2: gentlemanly honor and all that. But the thing is, it
Speaker 2: seems that Perez and Charles, neither of them really wanted.
Speaker 1: To do a duel. They were just like, this is
Speaker 1: just what you have to do.
Speaker 2: And it does seem that they might have made arrangements
Speaker 2: to have the duel stopped, because when they showed up
Speaker 2: at the place where they were going to have the duel,
Speaker 2: the sheriff was there. And they're like, oh, no, I
Speaker 2: guess we can't shoot each other because the sheriff is here.
Speaker 2: Oh dang, yeah, we can't reschedule. My schedule is packed.
Speaker 2: I simply just cannot fit another duel on my calendar.
Speaker 2: I just don't have another Dawn available until like many.
Speaker 1: Years from now.
Speaker 2: I think it's curious that after Fanny died, that's when
Speaker 2: Sarah started publishing more of her poems.
Speaker 1: She released several books.
Speaker 2: Of poetry over the next decade, And I do wonder
Speaker 2: if her sister's death had anything to do with her
Speaker 2: decision to publish more. I wonder if Perez before had
Speaker 2: been like, ugh, women publishing, that's so impolite.
Speaker 1: I don't like that. No one will publish in my house.
Speaker 2: But then after the scandal, maybe Sarah had this leverage
Speaker 2: and was like, bruh, you can't tell me what to
Speaker 2: do anymore. You fucked my sister and she killed herself.
Speaker 2: I'm going to publish some poems. And despite everything, Sarah
Speaker 2: and Perez stayed together. I mean, technically they could have divorced,
Speaker 2: but that probably would have caused more of a scandal,
Speaker 2: so they were married until Perez's death in eighteen thirty seven.
Speaker 2: Sarah died in eighteen forty six at the age of
Speaker 2: eighty six. She got to live Perez in all of
Speaker 2: her five children. We know that she and Perez had
Speaker 2: their last child in seventeen eighty seven, just six months
Speaker 2: before Fanny had hers. I mean, they could have had more,
Speaker 2: but I guess there's something about your husband having your
Speaker 2: sister's kid that's a bit of a turnoff. But in
Speaker 2: Sarah's poetry, she does hint at why she stayed with
Speaker 2: Perez as one common subject in her work is a
Speaker 2: mother's obligation to her children no matter what and the
Speaker 2: necessity of female resignation.
Speaker 1: Yikes.
Speaker 2: But the thing is, it does seem that Sarah had
Speaker 2: some sort of agency in all of this, because after
Speaker 2: this scandal went down, Sarah had an affair. And who
Speaker 2: was that affair with none other than American film favorite
Speaker 2: Governor Morris bang.
Speaker 1: Bang Bang Bang bang.
Speaker 2: Ah. As with every American Filth episode, we learn a lesson,
Speaker 2: and I think the lesson for today is if you
Speaker 2: feel like writing a novel about your neighbors affair and suicide,
Speaker 2: maybe wait more than like four or five months after
Speaker 2: it happened. Give it a little room to breathe. Anyway,
Speaker 2: this has been American Filth. We'll be back next week.
Speaker 2: American Field is a production of School of Humans and
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcast. It's hosted by me Gabby Watts. I wrote
Speaker 2: and sound designed this episode. Our theme song is by
Speaker 2: me and Jesse Niswanger. Our senior producer is Amelia Brocken.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley.
Speaker 2: You can follow along with the pod on Instagram at
Speaker 2: American filth Pod, also leave a review, leave a rating,
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Speaker 2: blah blah blah, talk about you next week, School of Humans,