I think a movie based on the murder of George Wythe would be a fascinating window onto that era of American history.
For those not familiar, George Wythe was an attorney in Williamsburg, a law professor of great renown whose students included Thomas Jefferson (who loved him like a father) and James Madison, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Unlike most of the Founding Fathers from Virginia, he also had lots of cash (i.e. his money wasn’t tied up in land and slaves and debts).
Wythe hated slavery and when his second wife died he freed his own slaves and hers. One, Lydia Broadnax, was a mulatto who voluntarily remained with Wythe after her manumission and almost certainly became his concubine. It is generally believed that he was the father of her son, a very gifted light skinned boy named Michael Brown born when Wythe was 60 years old. Wythe’s legitimate children had died in infancy and, regardless of his paternity, Michael definitely was treated like a son by the old man. Brown was one of the best educated people of color in the United States and assisted Wythe with his law practice and his business interests, respected by almost all who knew him both black and white. (Brown was never a slave.)
Enter the bad guy: Wythe had a grandnephew named George Wythe Sweeney who was closerthanthis to a black cape wearing “Boo! Hiss!” villain. He was raised by Wythe after his parents died but was a complete oxygen thief: a drunk, liar, embezzler and whoremonger who squandered his own inheritance, wasted the educational opportunities his rich granduncle offered him, and took to forging checks on his granduncle’s bank accounts.
It became rumored that Wythe had changed his will to favor Michael Brown over his grandnephew and that Sweeney had in fact been all but disinherited. Sweeney, deep in debt and unwilling to let this happen, poisoned the entire household: Wythe, Lydia, and Michael Brown. Lydia actually witnessed him emptying a packet into their food (he claimed it was “spices”); everybody but for him became extremely sick after dinner. Lydia recovered, but the 80 year old Wythe and the 20 year old Brown both died.
Wythe’s will left his house and grounds to Lydia Broadnax, his bank stock and cash gifts to Michael Brown, and the rest of his considerable estate to his nephew. He appealed to his beloved former student, Thos. Jefferson, then president, to not only serve as executor but to personally oversee the completion of Michael Brown’s education (an odd request to make of so important a man just for the son of a servant, thus adding fuel to the rumors of Brown’s paternity). Since Brown predeceased Wythe, his share of the estate went to Sweeney.
Sweeney was arrested and tried for the murder, but even though there was an eyewitness, she was not allowed to testify. Lydia Broadnax, though free and a property owner, was black by law and thus could not testify against a white man. He inherited his uncle’s estate (though he did at least have the courtesy to end badly).
Why I think this would make for great film (or novel): it is impossible to know from the historical record exactly what Thomas Jefferson, himself almost certainly the father of mulatto children and the recent survivor of a major scandal over Sally Hemings, thought of the ordeal or what role he took in the trial (there is much speculation that he was involved), but a movie could definitely entertain private thoughts or conversation (twixt him and Sally or twixt him and Madison). Ultimately he