Hannah: The Condemned Child

By: Sanchez, Alana

In December 1786, a small Connecticut town gathered behind its meeting house to witness a hanging. The condemned was Hannah Ocuish, twelve years old.

Told through the surviving record--especially the execution sermon printed on the day she died-- Hannah: The Condemned Child traces the case from a summer morning on the road outside New London to the courtroom, the gaol, the pulpit, and the scaffold. It asks how fear hardens into certainty, how a child's words are filtered through adult authority, and how print can turn a girl into an "example" for generations to come.

Written in a restrained, documentary style, this book explores:

what the sources claim--and what they leave out

childhood, culpability, and punishment in early America

poverty, placement, and the "management" of unwanted children

the making of moral theatre through sermons, courts, and crowds

Content note: this book discusses the killing of a child and the execution of a child.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GR6LZCC1
• ISBN13: 9798250688857
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"