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How An Innocent Woman Lost Her Life For Being Poor
Being poor should never be a crime, but unfortunately, in the late 1800s, if you didn’t have a dime to your name, your voice didn’t matter. You could bark all you want, but you would never bite. Elizabeth Fenning’s case was one of those, very disheartening and tears dropping. She was amongst the first woman in history to be convicted of a crime without concrete evidence or victims.
Background
Elizabeth Fenning was a British woman born in 1792 to peasants' parents. Trying to make ends meet and put food on the table proved difficult for the parents, leaving Eliza with no choice but to start domestic work at 14.
Towards the end of January in 1815, she landed a cook job with a middle-class family under the head of Orlibar Turner of number 68 Chancery Lane, London. Fenning moved in. Lived and worked along with the other maid Sarah Peer and two apprentices. In the beginning, she seemed happy with her bosses and colleagues until her mistress Mrs Charlotte Turner threatened her with dismal for inappropriate dressing while entering another apprentice room to borrow a candle. Unhappy with being yelled at, Eliza confided to Sarah that she did not like the madam anymore. Not knowing the mistress and Sarah never liked her initially and was not happy with her presence.
Approximately seven weeks into the job, a tragic incident emerged, which led to her death. lt is said that Fenning loved to cook, and one night, she decided to impress her employers by making delicious dumplings served with potatoes and beef steaks. Her mistress Charlotte also ordered her to prepare steak pies for the apprentices. Sadly things didn’t turn out according to her wishes.
Having too much to prepare, Elizabeth set the dumplings by the fire to rise and headed to the bakers to make the pies. Upon her return, she noticed the dumplings had failed to mature, and out of determination; she tried to fix them without success, as they were served small and black. Nevertheless, they feasted on them, including herself. Soon after dinner, everyone who had taken a bite of the dumplings experienced excruciating pain. A surgeon was called to examine them, and he concluded that they contained arsenic poison. The blame was automatically pointed to the cook, Eliza.
