When Societies Put Animals on Trial

The Hartlepool Monkey

A legend from the Napoleonic Wars tells the story of a French ship wrecked on the coast of England in a fishing village called Hartlepool. When the locals went to examine the boat, a monkey walked off the ship. These Englishmen had heard terrible stories about the French, so when they saw this tiny, hairy simian, they could only assume that this was the enemy they had heard so much about. They believed that it must be a spy and decided to hang it.