Under the 1624 English infanticide statute, a woman could be found guilty of murder by the death of a bastard child. Scholars have shown how the 1696 incorporation of the statute into colonial law resulted in an increase in convictions and in the production of numerous Puritan sermons. This thesis analyzes, Lessons of Caution to Young Sinners, delivered by Thomas Foxcroft at the 1733 execution of Rebekah Chamblit to show how the sermon destabilizes the universality of the traditional jeremiad form that calls for communal atonement to avert further punishment by God. Using scriptural references, Foxcroft instead locates the threat of pollution in Rebekah's postpartum body. This thesis shows how Foxcroft's construction of her crime, and description of God's just abandonment of her to her innate female depravity, results in her disavowal by the community and her execution, supported by her own narrative, functions as their communal expiation.
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