The Unjust Public Shaming of J.E. Spafford
After the death of his wife, a Seattle laborer fights back against local gossip and accusations of neglect in a poignant appeal to the press.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
I am a poor man, but I have always been industrious and honest, and while experiencing the pain of poverty, I have not realized that it was criminal or a just ground for attacking my character. I admit that the people of Slaughter were kind to me and my dear wife in her late illness and I shall ever hold them in grateful remembrance for it. I deny positively and unequivocally each and every one of the charges made against me of ill treatment of my wife. I have been discharged from arrest because it was admitted that no evidence to sustain these charges could be produced, and this was after abundant time had elapsed within which to procure evidence, if any existed, and furthermore I am able, if an opportunity shall ever be given me, to prove my entire innocence by abundant and unquestionable evidence. I have suffered a great and crushing bereavement in the loss of my wife, whom I loved and who loved me. My affliction is intensified by having witnessed her terrible suffering, through which I remained at her side when others fled because they could not endure to remain. I am conscious of having done for her the best I could according to my knowledge, and yet I have been falsely accused of causing her death, and even after being vindicated of this there are those who seem capable of still adding to my sorrow by pursuing me in the public newspapers. This is more than I can endure, and I ask a generous public not to misjudge me upon mere assertions which cannot be proved. J. E. Spafford, Seattle, April 21st, 1887.
“I am a poor man, but I have always been industrious and honest, and while experiencing the pain of poverty, I have not realized that it was criminal or a just ground for attacking my character.”
Spafford’s plea highlights the vulnerability of the working class to 'social policing' in 19th-century Seattle. His experience mirrors modern digital-age harassment, where unsubstantiated rumors can permanently tarnish a person’s reputation despite a lack of evidence.
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