This week we looked at the evolution of The Bloody Miller into The Knoxville Girl and beyond. Possibly written to document the murder of Anne Nichols on February 10, 1683 by her partner of 2 years. She was pregnant and he did not wish to marry her and raise the child. If it were something nice, we'd call it relatable. But fatal intimate partner violence and feticide aren't nice, so we call it a human tragedy.
In my mind, tragedy is a word used to generalize blame. There is no generalizing blame in a murder story without blaming the victim. The older lyrics usually capture plenty of that, but we can do better. Any historian can tell you that murders of this kind decreased as the stigma against sex and children out of wedlock decreased. What was going on at the same time was the legalization of birth control, abortion, and no-fault divorce. Historical data makes it clear. Anyone seeking to turn the clock back on those freedoms is advocating for intimate partner murder.
This song, with it's timeless story of a relationship turned bad and a coward who should learn how to live with the consequences of his actions has spawned localized versions based on local murders. Author Paul Slade documents a version from Pineville, Missouri called The Noel Girl. It records the murder of Mary Lula Noel who was last seen alive on December 10th, 1892. She was in the company of a man who had come to call on her who was later found guilty of her murder. Unlike the protagonist of the murder ballad, however, he was sentenced to just 10 years in prison. I suppose he wasn't prepared to die.
