3 Dead: William Carreker, William Leonard, & a Preacher with No Name

In the summer of 1900, William Carreker was residing in Centerville, Talbot County, Georgia.  He had married wife Lela just five years earlier, and the couple was raising their two sons – Andrew and James – on a farm northeast of the county seat of Talbotton.  They seem to have been doing well at farming, at least well enough to employ a laborer.

Nine years later, almost to the day, William Carreker was still farming in Talbot County.  He was characterized by Fitzhugh Brundage in Lynching in the New South as "one of the few black landowners in the area." On a Saturday night in June of 1909, William had a guest.  A blind, possibly elderly and/or affluent, traveling negro preacher – whose name I do not know – was stopped over at the Carreker place.

And the white folk of the area did not like it.  This traveling preacher, described as meddlesome and mischievous by a local newspaper, was supposedly "a disorganizer…stirring up strife" between the white planters and their "negro farm hands." He was telling the laborers they were essentially still enslaved; would never be truly free unless they stopped working for the white man.

So a posse of local citizens, led by William Marshall Leonard, went to the Carreker farm that fateful Saturday night to discourage the preacher from sowing discourse between the races.  I'm sure words were exchanged, and things certainly got heated.  By the time the night was over, the preacher was missing, Leonard was dead, and Carreker was in hiding.

Columbus Daily Enquirer (Georgia)
Tuesday, 22 June 1909 -- pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

TALBOT CITIZEN WAS MURDERED

William Marshall Leonard Shot to Death at a Negro House.

DOUBLE-BARREL SHOT GUN WEAPON USED

Supposed Murderer Has Fled, But Posses Are Looking for Him.  Crowd of Citizens Went to Negro's House Looking for a Meddlesome Preacher.

Talbotton, Ga., June 21. – (Special.) – The town of Talbotton and the whole county of Talbot are deeply stirred over the assassination of William Marshall Leonard, a prominent young farmer of this county.

Mr. Leonard was found yesterday morning at 10 o'clock at the home of a negro named William Careker, twelve miles from Talbotton.  He with others went to Careker's house Saturday night to stop a disturbance raised by a negro preacher, and it seems that Mr. Leonard became separated from his companions there and was not missed until afterward.  His companions took off the negro preacher, it is understood, and it was then that the tragedy occurred, someone, presumably Careker, shooting Mr. Leonard with a double-barrel shot gun.  The load of shot entered his head and it is supposed caused instant death.

…Both Careker and the negro preacher, who was the cause of all the trouble, have disappeared.  Parties are now scouring the country for them, the search being directed especially towards Careker, but up to last reports neither one had been located.

It seems the negro preacher was a disorganizer and did very mischievous work among the negro farm hands, stirring up strife between the farmers and their employes [sic].  A posse of citizens went to Careker's house with the supposed purpose of dealing with him in such vigorous manner that he would not meddle in such matters in the future, although it is not supposed that any unnecessarily harsh measures were contemplated – just a line of argument that would impress the negro with the necessity of ceasing such harmful and foolish tactics.

Mr. Leonard, who met death in such a tragic manner, was a son of Mr. John Leonard and one of the most prominent young men in the county.  He married Miss Annie Holmes…

Mr. Leonard's funeral took place this morning, and he was buried at Hollingsworth [sic] church.

The day after Leonard was buried, Carreker was lynched.  Supposedly after he had turned himself in to authorities and was placed in jail.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)
Thursday, 24 June 1909 -- pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

Mob Hangs Murderer.
ATLANTA, Ga., June 23. – William Carroker, a negro, charged with the murder of William Leonard, a young white man, was taken from the Talbotton jail last night by a mob that met with no resistance and strung up to a tree until dead.

Mr. Brundage's analysis of the reason for this lynching, in addition to the fact a white planter was dead, seems quite simple:  "Planters who participated in terrorist violence believed that they were restoring and preserving their own economic domination."

About that Preacher

His body was found the day after Carreker was hung for the supposed murder of Leonard.  I don't believe for a minute he lived past that Saturday night, though the newspapers implied otherwise.

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Friday, 25 June 1909 -- pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

NEGRO PREACHER FOUND IN CREEK

An Unknown Traveler Made Speeches to Negroes at Talbotton Which Angered Whites – Posse Had Whipped Him.

Talbotton, Ga., June 24. – After being taken from his house Saturday by a posse the body of a blind travelling negro preacher was found near here yesterday in a creek.  The preacher, whose name has not been learned, had made speeches which angered the whites in his neighborhood, and public indignation against him was further inflamed by the fact that he stopped at the home of the negro William Carroker, who was lynched Tuesday night, for having killed Wm. Leonard, a white man, Saturday, while a posse of whites was searching for the preacher for the intention of warning him away from the community.  The preacher is said to have influenced negroes not to work for whites.

The posse is said to have whipped the preacher, but it is claimed that they did no violence to him and that his death was accidental, due to falling from a bridge.

A couple of notes:  William Marshall Leonard was buried at Collinsworth Cemetery (versus Hollingsworth as reported in a newspaper article transcribed above) in Talbot County, Georgia.  Click for FindAGrave memorial.  Also, other sources suggest the name of the preacher might have been Joseph Hardy, who is often listed as being lynched in Talbot County about the same time as Carreker for "wild talk."

A simple search on Google will give you the statistics. The Tuskegee Institute kept track of lynchings in America from 1882 - 1968. There were 581 in Mississippi, 531 in Georgia, 493 in Texas, 391 in Louisiana, 347 in Alabama, and so on. Total from all states: 4,743. That's more than one lynching and victim a week.

I feel a little like I should try to explain why I would give the horrible acts – those committed by the criminal, as well as those committed on the criminal – voice on this blog. There are no (at least to my knowledge) statistics showing the accuracy of the lynchers. How many times was an innocent person hung, riddled with bullets, and mutilated in the name of "justice?" I mean, we probably agree there are innocent people sitting in jail right now – with supposed checks and balances in place. Imagine when there were none. Shouldn't those innocent people be remembered?

Now, make no mistake, sometimes the lynching party "punished" the right person. As in, sometimes the true perpetrator was indeed apprehended – and then disposed of, often in a barbaric fashion. Even if you take the literal "eye for an eye" death penalty approach, I would not be surprised if that would have been an applicable punishment in only an infinitesimal number of cases. People were lynched for stealing, people were lynched for "insubordination," people were lynched for literally being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And let us not be cowards and leave out the racism debacle that lingers to this day. So another reason for giving voice to these past atrocities is in the same vein of "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

As a family historian, I am saddened to think (1) these revolting deeds took place, and (2) while statistics are easy to find, the names and stories of the individual victims are much harder to locate. A list of lynching victims will unfortunately never be complete. I hope that in a small way, posts such as these will serve as a memorial to those who were victims of Judge Lynch and his frightful law.