History has a funny way of scrubbing the "inconvenient" parts. Most people, if you ask them about the first woman executed in the United States, will point a finger at Mary Surratt. They remember the sepia-toned photos of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. They see the hood and the gallows. But Mary Surratt wasn't the first. Not by a long shot. She was just the first to be executed by the federal government. To find the real beginning of this grim timeline, you have to go back way further. Back to 1632. Back to a woman named Jane Champion.
Jane lived in the Virginia colony, specifically in Jamestown. It wasn't exactly a vacation spot. Life was brutal. Dirt, disease, and strict religious law governed every single breath. Honestly, we don't have a diary from Jane or a portrait to know if she was tall or short, or if she liked the humid Virginia summers. What we do have are the court records of her death.
She was hanged. Why? Because of a pregnancy that ended in a nightmare.
The Scandal That Cost a Life
Jane Champion was a married woman. Her husband, Percival, was a man of some means. But Jane had an affair. In a tiny, claustrophobic settlement like Jamestown, secrets didn't stay secret for long. She became pregnant by a man named William Gallopin.
In the 1630s, this wasn't just a "personal issue." It was a crime against the state and God. Jane allegedly tried to hide the pregnancy for months. When the baby was born—and subsequently died—the colony didn't see a grieving mother. They saw a murderer.
What really happened?
There is compelling evidence from historians like Dale Brumfield that the child might have been stillborn. But back then, they didn't do autopsies with modern precision. They used "the test of the water" or just looked for any sign of "concealment." Because Jane had hidden the pregnancy, the law assumed the child's death was her fault.
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The charge was infanticide.
The double standard here is staggering. William Gallopin, the lover, was also sentenced to die. But here’s the kicker: there is no record of him ever actually being hanged. He likely escaped the noose while Jane was marched to the gallows. She was executed in 1632, her body reportedly donated to "science"—which, in those days, basically meant a crude dissection for anatomical study.
Why We Keep Forgetting Jane
The reason "first woman executed in the United States" usually brings up Mary Surratt or even the Salem Witches is mostly about branding. The United States didn't exist in 1632. We were a collection of British colonies. So, technically, Jane was executed under British colonial law.
But if we are talking about the land that became the U.S., she’s the one.
Following Jane, the floodgates sort of opened. You had:
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- Margaret Hatch (1633): Hanged in Virginia for murder.
- Dorothy Talby (1638): Hanged in Massachusetts. She had what we would now call severe postpartum psychosis, but they just saw a "wicked" woman who killed her daughter.
- Mary Latham (1643): This one is wild. She was executed for adultery. Just adultery.
It’s easy to look back and feel superior, but these cases show a pattern of how the legal system used the death penalty to police women's bodies and "morality" rather than just punishing violent crime.
The Federal First: Mary Surratt
Fast forward to 1865. The Civil War is ending. Lincoln is dead. The nation is screaming for blood. Mary Surratt owned the boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and his buddies met up. Did she know the plan?
President Andrew Johnson famously said she "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Her trial was a mess. It was a military commission, not a civilian court. Five of the nine judges actually recommended clemency because of her age and gender, but Johnson ignored it. On July 7, 1865, she was led out into the scorching D.C. heat. They had to hold an umbrella over her head so she wouldn't faint from the sun before they could hang her. Talk about a weirdly polite way to treat someone you're about to kill.
Modern Myths and Misconceptions
You’ve probably heard people talk about the Salem Witch Trials when discussing early executions. While those were horrific, they were a specific "moral panic." Most women executed in early America weren't accused of witchcraft; they were accused of "concealing a birth" or infanticide.
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It was basically a legal trap. If a woman had a baby out of wedlock and it died—even of natural causes—her "concealment" of the pregnancy was proof of intent to kill.
Acknowledge the Complexity
We have to admit that historical records are patchy. When we say Jane Champion was the "first," we mean she's the first one recorded. There were likely many others, particularly indigenous women or enslaved women, whose deaths weren't deemed "legal" enough to make it into the surviving colonial ledgers.
Actionable Insights: How to Track This History
If you’re a history buff or a true crime fan looking to dig deeper into the actual records of early American executions, don't just trust a quick Google snippet. The data is often layered.
- Check the ESPY File: This is the most comprehensive database of executions in the U.S. from 1608 to 2002. It lists names, ages, and crimes.
- Distinguish between Colonial and Federal: When researching "firsts," always specify if you mean the colonial era, the post-1776 era, or the federal system.
- Look at Regional Archives: The Virginia Historical Society has more on Jane Champion than almost any national textbook.
- Question the Narrative: Always ask who wrote the record. In Jane’s case, it was the men who sentenced her.
Jane Champion’s story isn't just a "fun fact" for a trivia night. It’s a window into how the legal system in America was built. It started with a woman who had a secret and ended with a rope. Whether it was "justice" or just a community lashing out in fear depends entirely on which historian you ask.
The next time someone brings up the first woman executed in America, you can tell them about the Jamestown woman who lost her life over a stillbirth and a scandal, long before the Founders ever put pen to paper.
To understand the full scope of capital punishment in the U.S., you should look into the "infanticide laws" of the 17th century. These specific statutes were responsible for the vast majority of female executions during the colonial period. Reading the original 1624 English statute (which Virginia followed) provides a chilling look at how "concealment" became a death sentence by default.