The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United StatesWells-Barnett, Ida B.
History
The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States
Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
African Americans -- History -- 1877-1964; Lynching -- United States; Lynching -- United States -- Statistics
At three o'clock the mob rushed to the jail to secure the prisoner. Mr.
Ray had changed his mind about the promised burning; he was still in doubt
as to the prisoner's guilt. He again addressed the crowd to that effect,
urging them not to burn Miller, and the mob heeded him so far, that they
compromised on hanging instead of burning, which was agreed to by Mr. Ray.
There was a loud yell, and a rush was made for the prisoner. He was
stripped naked, his clothing literally torn from his body, and his shirt
was tied around his loins. Some one declared the rope was a "white man's
death," and a log-chain, nearly a hundred feet in length, weighing over
one hundred pounds, was placed round Miller's neck and body, and he was
led and dragged through the streets of the village in that condition
followed by thousands of people. He fainted from exhaustion several times,
but was supported to the platform where they first intended burning him.
The chain was hooked around his neck, a man climbed the telegraph pole and
the other end of the chain was passed up to him and made fast to the
cross-arm. Others brought a long forked stick which Miller was made to
straddle. By this means he was raised several feet from the ground and
then let fall. The first fall broke his neck, but he was raised in this
way and let fall a second time. Numberless shots were fired into the
dangling body, for most of that crowd were heavily armed, and had been
drinking all day.
Miller's body hung thus exposed from three to five o'clock, during which
time, several photographs of him as he hung dangling at the end of the
chain were taken, and his toes and fingers were cut off. His body was
taken down, placed on the platform, the torch applied, and in a few
moments there was nothing left of C.J. Miller save a few bones and ashes.
Thus perished another of the many victims of Lynch Law, but it is the
honest and sober belief of many who witnessed the scene that an innocent
man has been barbarously and shockingly put to death in the glare of the
nineteenth-century civilization, by those who profess to believe in
Christianity, law and order.
5
LYNCHED FOR ANYTHING OR NOTHING
(_Lynched for Wife Beating_)
In nearly all communities wife beating is punishable with a fine, and in
no community is it made a felony. Dave Jackson, of Abita, La., was a
colored man who had beaten his wife. He had not killed her, nor seriously
wounded her, but as Louisiana lynchers had not filled out their quota of
crimes, his case was deemed of sufficient importance to apply the method
of that barbarous people. He was in the custody of the officials, but the
mob went to the jail and took him out in front of the prison and hanged
him by the neck until he was dead. This was in Nov. 1893.
HANGED FOR STEALING HOGS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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