Conclusion
In the mid nineteenth century ‘Omie Wise' became a popular folk ballad in the United States. The song recounted the murder in 1807 of Naomi Wise by Jonathan Lewis in rural North Carolina.
Lewis and Wise had conducted a sexual relationship, but when Wise revealed that she was pregnant Lewis drowned his lover. The ballad was popular for its pathos, which was not impeded by Wise's background as an orphan and a servant. Indeed, ‘Omie Wise' suggests that sensibilities about gender and violence had changed drastically since the days of William Byrd. The brutal treatment of a woman, especially a servant, would not have aroused popular sympathy in the eighteenth century. However, had Wise been African American, it is doubtful that her story would have captured the nation's imagination in the same way.[458]Gendered violence in early America had its own unique dimensions, shaped by the experience of colonisation, the establishment of a plantation economy and the inequalities of race in the New World. The exploitation of women was key to the conquest of the Americas beginning with first contact. It flourished under the expansive power of the household head in the English colonies as well as the spread of indentured servitude and slavery. Yet gendered violence was frequently challenged, by Quakers, Revolutionaries and women themselves. Although the exploitation of women of colour continued after the Revolution, the United States sought to reverse the spousal abuse, rape and gendered violence of early America.