First he was made to remove his clothing, and when the flames began
to eat into his body it was almost nude. Before the fire was
lighted his left ear was severed from his body. Then his right ear
was cut away. During this proceeding he uttered not a groan. Other
portions of his body were mutilated by the knives of those who
gathered about him, but he was not wounded to such an extent that
he was not fully conscious and could feel the excruciating pain.
Oil was poured over the wood that was placed about him and this was
ignited.
The scene that followed is one that never will be forgotten by
those who saw it, and while Sam Hose writhed and performed
contortions in his agony, many of those present turned away from
the sickening sight, and others could hardly look at it. Not a
sound but the crackling of the flames broke the stillness of the
place, and the situation grew more sickening as it proceeded.
The stake bent under the strains of the Negro in his agony and his
sufferings cannot be described, although he uttered not a sound.
After his ears had been cut off he was asked about the crime, and
then it was he made a full confession. At one juncture, before the
flames had begun to get in their work well, the fastenings that
held him to the stake broke and he fell forward partially out of
the fire.
He writhed in agony and his sufferings can be imagined when it is
said that several blood vessels burst during the contortions of his
body. When he fell from the stake he was kicked back and the flames
renewed. Then it was that the flames consumed his body and in a few
minutes only a few bones and a small part of the body was all that
was left of Sam Hose.
One of the most sickening sights of the day was the eagerness with
which the people grabbed after souvenirs, and they almost fought
over the ashes of the dead criminal. Large pieces of his flesh were
carried away, and persons were seen walking through the streets
carrying bones in their hands.
When all the larger bones, together with the flesh, had been
carried away by the early comers, others scraped in the ashes, and
for a great length of time a crowd was about the place scraping in
the ashes. Not even the stake to which the Negro was tied when
burned was left, but it was promptly chopped down and carried away
as the largest souvenir of the burning.
CHAPTER III.
ELIJAH STRICKLAND, A COLORED PREACHER, LYNCHED.
Sunday night, April 23d, a mob seized a well-known colored preacher,
Elijah Strickland, and, after savage torture, slowly strangled him to
death. The following account of the lynching is taken from the Atlanta
Constitution:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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