in the kitchen cabin.) In the days afterward, the brothers made other slaves rebuild the chimney and hide the remains within it. Two additional megaquakes jolted the region on January 23, 1812, and February 7, 1812. The second caused a partial collapse of the chimney that had concealed George's remains. In early March 1812, a neighborhood dog retrieved the young man's skull and deposited it in open view in a roadway. Neighbors saw the skull and began to inquire about it. They determined it was that of slave George, who was missing, and learned that he had been murdered. In slaveholding areas of the United States, the torturous murder of a slave was illegal. Lilburn and Isham Lewis were quickly investigated, arrested and charged. After they had been released on bail, on April 9, 1812, Lilburne encouraged his brother to carry out a joint suicide pact with him. In the event, only Lilburne died. Held on investigation as accessory to the suicide, Isham escaped from jail and disappeared. Many books and articles since 1812 have examined the case of slave George and Jefferson's nephews. Historian Boynton Merrill, Jr. considered the case as arising out of the power abuses inherent in the institution of slavery, frontier stresses, mounting personal and financial losses in the Lewis family, Lilburn's mental instability, and abuse of alcohol by both brothers. Representation in other media The poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren explored the scandal in his book-length poem Brother to Dragons, A Tale in Verse and Voices (1953, revised 1979). See also Slavery in the United States List of slaves War of 1812 Notes References 19th-century American slaves People murdered in Kentucky History of Kentucky 1794 births 1811 deaths Murdered African-American people Male murder victims Axe murder People from Virginia Stabbing attacks in the United States Incidents of violence against boys