Burning Babylon

The burning of Mount Benedict in Charlestown, Massachusetts, was one of the worst acts of nativist violence in American history. On August 11, 1834, a group of men attacked the convent as nuns and female pupils scrambled to safety. The rioters torched the building, inflicting over $50,000 worth of damages that were never repaid. Although a small group of men attacked Mount Benedict, sermons and speeches given prior to the event, the firemen’s neglect to intervene, and the acquittal of the rioters point to a larger conspiracy. The first convent narrative appeared two years before the burning along with other anti-Catholic materials. These works reinforced the conviction that nuns were dangerous women, in need of rescue or retribution. In this chapter I describe the burning of Mount Benedict in the context of the gendered critique of nuns and the birth of the convent narrative.