The Trial and Execution, for Petit Treason, of Mark and Phillis, Slaves of Capt. John Codman / Who Murdered Their Master at Charlestown, Mass., in 1755; for Which the Man Was Hanged and Gibbeted, and the Woman Was Burned to Death. Including, Also, Some Account of Other Punishments by Burning in Massachusetts

Transcriber's Notes
WHO MURDERED THEIR MASTER AT CHARLESTOWN, MASS., IN 1755; FOR WHICH THE MAN WAS HANGED AND GIBBETED, AND THE WOMAN WAS BURNED TO DEATH.
INCLUDING, ALSO,
CAMBRIDGE: JOHN WILSON AND SON. University Press. 1883.

It is not surprising that the execution of a woman, by burning, so lately as when Shirley was governor,—a period when the province had greatly advanced in culture and refinement,—should seem to any one incredible. Indeed, even so critical and thorough a student of our provincial history as our late distinguished associate, Dr. Palfrey, once wrote to me inquiring if the rumor of such a proceeding had any foundation in fact, and if so, whether the execution took place according to law, or by the impulse of an infuriated mob. It gave me great satisfaction to be able to settle his doubts on this subject by referring him to the records of the Superior Court of Judicature, where the judgment, from which I shall presently read to you, and a copy of which I sent to him, appears at length.
The subject is important at this day only as serving to define the nature of the cruel and unusual punishments prohibited by the thirty-first article of the Declaration of Rights, in our state Constitution, since this mode of punishment, having continued after the adoption of the Constitution, cannot have been considered by the framers of that instrument either as cruel or unusual in the sense in which they used these words.
The particulars of the crime for which the malefactors, Mark and Phillis, were executed are briefly as follows: Captain John Codman, a thrifty saddler, sea-captain, and merchant, of Charlestown, was the owner of several slaves whom he employed either as mechanics, common laborers, or house servants. Three of the most trusted of these, Mark, Phillis, and Phebe,—particularly Mark,—found the rigid discipline of their master unendurable, and, after setting fire to his workshop some six years before, hoping by the destruction of this building to so embarrass him that he would be obliged to sell them, they, in the year 1755, conspired to gain their end by poisoning him to death.