A historical, case-level research dataset documenting known legal executions of women in what is now the United States, from the colonial period to the present.
The Women’s Executions Database (WEB) is the central research resource of the Women’s Executions Project. Based on the M. Watt Espy Papers, the Espy File, court records, historical newspapers, government documents, and subsequent research, it documents individual executions and the legal and social circumstances surrounding them. WEB is continually audited and corrected; uncertain cases and incomplete variables remain under investigation.
Access the dataset
Newest public archived release: Version 12, published July 30, 2026, on Zenodo. The archival record includes CSV and Excel files, value labels, variable labels, metadata, a README, and a change log.
Download WEB v12 and documentation from Zenodo · View the original WEB reference page · Read ongoing dataset notes
The public version and the evolving working master sheet are not necessarily identical. Specific variables, alternative file formats, and clarification of coding decisions may be requested from the project director at cschulze@southalabama.edu. Check the selected release date before making comparisons or citing counts.
Scope and purpose
WEB currently documents more than 700 known executions of women, a figure substantially higher than counts frequently repeated in earlier research. The project’s coverage includes colonial, territorial, and later U.S. jurisdictions. Not all cases can be confirmed with equal confidence, and the surviving evidence is uneven across centuries, places, and social groups. The dataset excludes extrajudicial killings and lynchings as legal executions, although those histories may be examined comparatively.
Its purpose is to make case histories available for transparent, reproducible inquiry while examining how race, gender, enslavement, geography, criminal law, and institutional practices shaped executions. The dataset aims to capture dimensions of women’s lives and experiences that are missing from many general-purpose execution records.
Variables and case-level information
- Identification: recorded names and aliases, race or racial identification, age, occupation, and other available personal details.
- Time and place: execution and offense dates, state or territory, county, place, and jurisdiction.
- Offense: the crime recorded in the historical source, the offense for which a woman was executed, and the original Espy crime code where applicable.
- Legal and social context: circumstances of the prosecution, method of execution, alleged accomplices, victims and relationships, family, and experiences of enslavement.
- Provenance: archival citations and corresponding Espy cards where available.
The downloadable public release includes its own variable and value-label files. The reference mappings below reproduce selected coding conventions displayed on the original WEB page; they are not a substitute for the complete current release codebook.
Selected coding reference
Expand a section to review numerical values. The original source labels for several classifications are retained so that researchers can reconcile the codes with older data. For example, state_execution = 51 means Virginia.
State of execution (V26_state / V26_STAT)
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Unknown |
| 1 | Alabama |
| 4 | Arizona |
| 5 | Arkansas |
| 6 | California |
| 9 | Connecticut |
| 10 | Delaware |
| 11 | Washington, D.C. |
| 12 | Florida |
| 13 | Georgia |
| 15 | Hawaii |
| 17 | Illinois |
| 18 | Indiana |
| 21 | Kentucky |
| 22 | Louisiana |
| 23 | Maine |
| 24 | Maryland |
| 25 | Massachusetts |
| 26 | Michigan |
| 27 | Minnesota |
| 28 | Mississippi |
| 29 | Missouri |
| 32 | Nevada |
| 33 | New Hampshire |
| 34 | New Jersey |
| 35 | New Mexico |
| 36 | New York |
| 37 | North Carolina |
| 39 | Ohio |
| 40 | Oklahoma |
| 42 | Pennsylvania |
| 44 | Rhode Island |
| 45 | South Carolina |
| 47 | Tennessee |
| 48 | Texas |
| 50 | Vermont |
| 51 | Virginia |
| 54 | West Virginia |
Execution place (V22_place / V22_PLAC)
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | City/local jurisdiction |
| 2 | County/local jurisdiction |
| 3 | State prison |
| 4 | Other |
| 5 | Naval ship (original source lists ‘Navel ship’) |
Jurisdiction (V23_jurisdiction)
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | County |
| 2 | State |
| 3 | Federal |
| 4 | Territorial |
| 5 | Indian Tribunal |
| 6 | Other Military |
| 7 | British |
| 8 | Spanish |
Revised crime classifications (V06_crime / V06_BAKE)
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Not in the Espy File |
| 1 | Murder |
| 3 | Criminal assault |
| 4 | Housebreaking–burglary |
| 6 | Conspiracy to murder |
| 8 | Slave revolt |
| 9 | Witchcraft |
| 10 | Robbery–murder |
| 13 | Accessory to murder |
| 15 | Robbery |
| 16 | Arson |
| 18 | Espionage |
| 24 | Kidnap–murder |
| 26 | Arson–murder |
| 31 | Adultery |
| 32 | Spousal murder |
| 33 | Poisoning |
| 34 | Infanticide |
| 35 | Concealing birth |
| 36 | Unspecified felony |
| 38 | Child murder |
| 40 | Attempted murder |
| 42 | Attempted slave revolt |
| 43 | Burglary |
| 44 | Escape from slavery, murder by self-defense |
| 45 | Slave owner/family murder |
| 46 | Violation of banishment |
| 47 | Attempted murder of master or family by poisoning |
| 48 | Attack on master’s family |
Original Espy crime classifications (V05_espycrime / V05_ESPY)
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Not in the Espy File |
| 1 | Murder |
| 3 | Criminal assault |
| 4 | Housebreaking–burglary |
| 6 | Conspiracy to murder |
| 8 | Slave revolt |
| 9 | Witchcraft |
| 10 | Robbery–murder |
| 13 | Accessory to murder |
| 15 | Robbery |
| 16 | Arson |
| 18 | Espionage |
| 24 | Kidnap–murder |
| 26 | Arson–murder |
| 31 | Adultery |
| 32 | Husband murder |
| 33 | Poisoning |
| 34 | Infanticide |
| 35 | Concealing birth |
| 36 | Unspecified felony |
| 40 | Attempted murder |
| 43 | Burglary |
Research sources and verification
The M. Watt Espy index cards and the ICPSR Espy File are foundational starting points, not infallible final records. Cases are checked against surviving court files, contemporary newspapers, state and county documents, historical publications, and relevant scholarship, including work by Daniel Allen Hearn, David V. Baker, and Victor L. Streib. Some cases require reexamination of spelling, execution status, offense, date, jurisdiction, or victim identification.
Analytically recoded offense categories are distinguished from the older Espy classifications. Names of enslavers, where supported by evidence, can supply identifying information otherwise absent from records of enslaved women. Missing information is not interpreted as proof that a characteristic was absent.
The dataset notes describe corrections and archival work that cannot always be understood from a spreadsheet alone. For a citable dataset snapshot, consult the Zenodo release’s documentation and change log.
Citation, versioning, and permanence
Preferred citation for the current public release: Schulze, C. (2026). The Women’s Executions Database (Version 12) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21361301.
For the broader series of archived versions, consult https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17487467. Each Zenodo release has a persistent record, making it possible to identify the exact data used in an analysis. Researchers should state their version, exclusions, and any additional recoding.
Ethical use and historical limitations
The data address executions, slavery, racialized violence, child deaths, sexual exploitation, and other disturbing historical subjects. Original records can contain racist, dehumanizing, or otherwise offensive terminology, preserved only when required to represent the evidence accurately. Such terminology does not express the views of the project or its contributors.
- Situate cases in documented historical and legal contexts.
- Describe uncertainty and archival gaps rather than making unsupported inferences.
- Distinguish source terminology from contemporary analytical categories.
- Credit primary archives, the relevant dataset version, and sources underpinning case-level claims.
Corrections and research inquiries
Researchers who identify possible errors, conflicting documentation, or previously overlooked cases are invited to contact Professor Corina Schulze at cschulze@southalabama.edu. Verified corrections are incorporated into subsequent working revisions and documented in public releases.
Explore the executions-by-state visualization for a geographic overview. The original dataset page remains accessible as a historical and methodological reference.