The Ballad of Frankie Silver: An Introduction
  n 1831 Frankie Silver, a "likely little
woman" of eighteen was charged with the murder of her young husband Charlie in their frontier cabin in what is now Kona, Mitchell County, North Carolina. Charlie Silver lies in three graves in the Silver family cemetery there. They didn't find him all at once…
 On July 12, 1833, Frankie Silver became the first woman in the state of North Carolina to be hanged for murder. Was she guilty?
The enduring mystery of this case concerns the words that Frankie Silvers' father shouted at her as she attempted to make a speech from the gallows: "Die with it in you, Frankie!" What did he not want her to say?
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| | The three graves of Charlie Silver. |
Burgess Gaither was the 1832 Clerk of the Court for Burke County who witnessed the case of Frankie Silver from arrest to
execution; he narrates the story of the Silver murder as it unfolds before a frontier populace that was at first shocked by the savagery of the crime, and then appalled as they came to understand the true nature of the events, discovering that they are powerless to stop the wheels of justice, and save the young woman from the gallows. Gaither is a 25-year old lawyer, who has married a daughter of the wealthy and influential Erwin family of Morganton. Born of a genteel but impoverished family, Burgess has worked his way into the profession of law, and married his way into the path of power. He wants to fit into polite society on the fringe of the frontier, yet his aristocratic complacency is shaken by the case of Frankie Silver, and he wonders if there is such a thing as equal justice under the law.
Present-day east Tennessee Sheriff Spencer Arrowood, recuperating from a gunshot wound received in the line of duty, is obsessed with the case of Frankie Silver, because he has just been invited to witness an execution.
 Twenty years ago, Spencer Arrowood, then a deputy, had apprehended a fugitive and testified at the trial that sentenced him to death. Now a letter from Riverbend, the new maximum security penitentiary in Nashville says that Sheriff Arrowood is required to be a state's witness to the execution.
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Sharyn McCrumb at Frankie Silver's grave. |
The sheriff is troubled by the memory of the case. At the time, he was sure that
the prisoner was guilty; now he wonders is he uncovered the whole truth. He remembers
that Sheriff Nelse Miller used to say, "These mountains have produced only
two murder cases that make me wonder about justice: Frankie Silver and Fate Harkryder." Spencer
wonders what he meant by that, and he begins to look into both cases, hoping
to satisfy
himself that justice indeed was done. He will find disturbing parallels
between the historic frontier murder case and the sordid seventies conviction
of an east Tennessee teenager.
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| The Ballad of Frankie Silver Quilt, made by Jane Hicks. |
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It is too late to save Frankie Silver, but what about Fate Harkryder? If the
sheriff learns that the wrong man was convicted, he has very little time to save
him.
The Frankie Silver story inspired the New River Valley Chapter of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association in their 2004 fund raising efforts. Read more (PDF file).
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