American Antiquarian Society
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United States
In 1798, a harrowing series of murders begins in Kentucky. The first body, discovered by cattle drovers, lies bloody at the bottom of a ridge. Then another—a dead boy staring up from a sinkhole. Bodies turn up along roadsides, stuffed into brush. They float to the surface of muddy brooks. For nine months, over hundreds of miles of Kentucky and Tennessee countryside, the terror unfolds. The killers—two men with hazy backgrounds—are brothers, named Wiley and Micajah Harp.
Drawing from her new book, Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution (2026), Katherine Grandjean investigates the historical meanings of the Harps’ infamous spree, revealing the dark side of the young United States’ independence. While the American Revolution was liberating to some, it was also deeply destabilizing, politically and socially, to others. Grandjean unspools the mystery of what sent the Harps reeling and exposes the hidden, violent legacies of the revolutionary era.
Katherine Grandjean is associate professor of history at Wellesley College. Her research explores early American history, environmental history, and the roots of violence in American history. Her first book, American Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England, was published in 2015. Grandjean was an AAS-National Endowment for the Humanities Long-Term Fellow in 2017-18. She was elected to AAS membership in April 2021.