Charlotte Harris Lynched, Yet Innocent

I haven't come across many articles such as this one.  A concession that a woman lynched – hung without due process – was, in fact, innocent.

Marietta Journal (Georgia)
26 April 1878, pg. 1 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]

LYNCH - LAW.

Along with the news of the lynching of three men – two negroes and one white – at Huntsville, Ala., for the murder of a white man, comes the story from the Valley of Virginia that the innocence of a colored woman, Charlotte Harris, who was hung there some weeks ago, has been fully established.  This woman was hung by a mob for the offence of burning a barn, and of course the evidence must have been satisfactory to the minds of the parties engaged in the horrible work, or they would not have ventured upon a measure so extreme, and one subjecting themselves in any aspect of the case to a prosecution for murder.

That a mob has no right to punish an evil-doer in any way will not be denied, and the only plea that any one can put up in defense of Lynch law is the probability, or the the [sic] possibility, of the escape of evil-doers either through a weak prosecution or in some other way.  Now, when we look this plea fairly in the face, we see that it wants one of the first elements of truth – that is, candor.  The very men who engage in this unlawful way of pretending to mete out justice are the parties to whom the law looks for assistance and help.  They help to make the lists of jurors, officers and witnesses, who are relied on for a proper execution of the law, and in thus confessing the weakness and uncertainty of the law, they but confess their own weakness.  A good strong dose of the law against such conduct, administered to those guilty, will prove beneficial to society, and will make all those who witness its infliction willing to let the law take its course, and willing also to lend their assistance to a proper enforcement of the law. – Rome Courier.

An article published almost a week earlier in another Georgia newspaper provided more details of the criminal acts:

Augusta Chronicle
20 April 1878, pg. 1 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]

LYNCHED, YET INNOCENT.

A Woman's Life Taken by a Virginia Mob, Who Now is Proved Guiltless.

RICHMOND, VA., April 16. – The barbarous lynching of an unfortunate colored woman named Charlotte Harris, who was accused of being the instigator of a barn burning, had a fitting sequel today in the acquittal of the boy Jim Ergenbright, who was imprisoned at the time for setting fire to the barn.  The poor woman was pursued, captured, brought before a magistrate and committed for trial.  That night a party of ruffians, with blackened faces, rushed into the room in which the woman was confined, took her from the guard, and after dragging her about a mile hung her in a most horrible manner to a black jack sappling [sic].  Her body remained suspended from this tree from the 6th of March until noon on the 9th, when it was finally cut down and interred.  The Governor issued a proclamation for the arrest of the murderers, but owing to the existing secrecy maintained by the lynchers and public sympathy for them none of them have been arrested.  It is now fully established in the acquittal of the boy Jim Ergenbright, who was accused of burning the barn and of being instigated by Charlotte Harris, that the woman was equally guiltless.

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.

Charley Anderson Lynched for Murder of Marshal

According to MonroeWorkToday, the lynching of Charley Anderson is referenced in A Festival of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings, 1882-1930.  The article immediately below, from a Florida newspaper, gives the particulars.  Following that, a somewhat surprising opinion of dissent from a Georgia newspaper.

Tampa Tribune (Florida)
27 September 1909, pg. 1 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]

NEGRO IS LYNCHED FOR MURDER OF MARSHAL

LYNCHING TAKES PLACE ALMOST AT THE SPOT WHERE NEGRO SHOOTS OFFICER AND IN FRONT OF SHOESHOP

FIGHTS WHEN ARRESTED

MEETS WHITE OFFICER AT DOOR WITH A PISTOL

Body Riddled With Bullets and Allowed to Hang From Tree Limb for Some Time Before Moved

(By Associated Press)
LIVE OAK, Fla., Sept. 26. – Swinging from a limb in front of his shoeshop [sic] in Perry, Taylor county, the dead body of Charley Anderson, a negro, was found early this morning, a mob having imposed the death penalty as required for the bullet the negro sent into the heart of Marshal Hawkins, of Perry, last night.

The place of the lynching was almost at the spot where Marshal Hawkins was slain, the officer having been in the act of placing the negro under arrest when he met his death.

Anderson was wanted for a minor offense and was in his shoe shop when the officer went to arrest him.  Hawkins was at the door of the shop when the negro appeared armed with a pistol and before the officer could defend himself, Anderson shot him to death.  Anderson was caught several hours later and at 2 o'clock was in the hands of a mob which made quick work of him.

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
28 September 1909, pg. 6 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]

THE LYNCHING IN FLORIDA.
To shoot down an officer of the law in the discharge of his duty, and for attempting to make an arrest, is a terrible crime.  Certainly, in such cases, the law must be strong enough to mete out the severest penalty, quickly and positively.  The most thorough protection and support are to be given the men who are employed in the name of the law to enforce the machinery of the law.

The man who kills a law officer because he is a law officer commits a double crime.  That his punishment for such an act shall be swift and sure and the severest possible is the unanimous demand.  In fact, there are those that hold that the responsibility of the state does not end with the punishment of the criminal in such cases, but that this responsibility should further extend to the caretaking of those dependent on the victims of such outrages against the law.

When the negro Charley Anderson shot and killed Marshal Hawkins, at Perry, Fla., the murderer deserved to be put to death for his act.  Whether there was real of fancied cause for the attempted arrest of the negro by the marshal is not to be taken into consideration.  That is of no consequence.  When the marshal sought the men in the name of the law, the authority of the law represented in the officer demanded respect and obedience.  But the negro, who was wanted to answer for petty infraction, instead of giving obedience, shot down the marshal [and] opened fire on the law.  For his act he deserved death.

But not at the hands of a mob.  Where the law is not strong enough to assert itself, where its enforcement must be turned over to a crowd of enraged citizens, there is not much law.  Nor will there be respect there for the law.  The men who lynched this Florida negro committed an awful crime, but against their community, their neighbors and themselves.  They outraged the law.  They set it up that they and their people have no respect for law and are incompetent to make and enforce law.  They insulted the law as did the culprit whose life they exacted, though of course in a different manner.  They made invitation that the machinery of the law be disregarded.

Lynch law is never right in a government like ours.  There was no excuse for it in the Florida case.  The people there are not ready to say that they wish to conduct their affairs by mobs and crowds.

The negro murderer merited death, but at the hands of law and not at the hands of a gathering of law breakers.

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.

Murder of Dr. Bozeman, and Lynching of the Slave Perpetrators

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Tuesday, 29 October 1861 - pg. 1 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]
ANOTHER MURDER. -- The Atlanta Confederacy has the following:

CHUNNENUGGEE, ALA., Oct. 24, 1861. -- Dr. R. L. G. Bozeman who lived near this place, was cruelly murdered on Tuesday last, by two of his own negroes. The two negres [sic] had run away about a week previous, and on their return, the Dr. took them -- his overseer being absent -- to the black smith shop to correct them. While addressing one with his back to the other, he was struck on the back of the head, either with a sledge hammer or other piece of iron, fracturing the occipital bone. The boy who killed him has escaped. The one at home charges the killing upon the fugitive. We learn these negroes were given to Dr. Bozeman by his aunt, living near Milledgeville, Georgia.

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Saturday, 2 November 1861 - pg. 1 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]

Dr. R. L. G. Bozeman, of Chunnenuggee, Alabama, was recently killed by a refractory negro. The Doctor was formerly from Baldwin county.

Southern Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia)
26 November 1861 - pg. 4 [Viewable online at Georgia Historic Newspapers; notice originally ran around 25th October, before lynching]

STOP THE MURDERER!
$100 REWARD!
THE ABOVE REWARD will be paid for the apprehension of the boy DOLPHUS, called Dol, who brutally murdered his master, Dr. R. L. G. BOZEMAN, on the 22d instant.

Said boy is of a copper color, about 24 years of age -- has a high, narrow, receding forehead and long Roman nose -- is about five feet eight or nine inches high -- heavy muscle, and weighs about one hundred and seventy to 75 pounds. He was raised near Milledgeville, Ga., and may attempt to return to that place; but the boy who was accessory, states that a white man promised them a pass to a Free Country.

Lodge in jail or deliver to the subscriber, J. R. HERRIN.
Chunnenugee, Ala., Oct. 25th, 1861.

Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
Tuesday, 12 November 1861 - pg. 3 [Viewable online at GenealogyBank]

LYNCHING OF SLAVES AT CHUNNENUGGEE. -- The three slaves, Willis, Adolphus and Bill, concerned in the recent murder of Dr. R. L. G. Bozeman, of Chunnenuggee, Alabama, were lynched on Friday, the 8th inst., by the hanging of Bill and the burning of Willis and Adolphus. We have received a statement of the proceedings by a citizen of Chunnenuggee, which will appear in our Monday's issue. Meantime the author desires a suspension of public opinion respecting the affair. -- Columbus Sun.

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.

Fain Family of Fannin County on Both Sides of the Civil War

To be fair and inclusive, the Fain family of which I am discussing is also rooted in Gilmer County, Georgia and the state of North Carolina.  Preliminary research also suggests a good number went West, but that's for another time.

I've only just begun researching the area including and surrounding Fannin County, Georgia.  In this very early stage of studying – to be honest and clear, and maybe show you how easy it is to begin – all I've really done is pay attention to historical markers, street names, cemeteries, and the like.  In doing so, I'm seeing overlaps of family names and such.  This simple observation has pointed me, for one example, in the direction of the Fain family.

In Blue Ridge (Fannin County), near a magnolia tree in the downtown city park, is a historical marker placed for the 150 year commemoration of the Civil War.  The subject is William Clayton Fain: Georgia Unionist.  The text reads as follows:

One of the leading Unionists in the state during the Civil War, William Clayton Fain was born in Georgia in 1825.  A Fannin County lawyer and state representative, he served in the 1861 Secession Convention, where he opposed Georgia leaving the United States and refused to sign the Ordinance of Secession.  During the Civil War, Fain was an outspoken supporter of the United States and an anti-Confederate leader among the sizeable number of Unionists in Fannin and adjoining counties.  In 1864, the U.S. Army authorized him to raise recruits, which he conducted into Federal lines.  Fain was captured and killed by Confederates near Ducktown, Tennessee, on April 6, 1864.  He was one of many Southerners who opposed the Confederacy, including 400,000 – primarily from the Upper South – who enlisted in the U.S. armed forces.

William Clayton Fain was a son of John Fain (b. abt 1797), who was a son of pioneer and patriot Ebenezer Fain (1762-1842).

The Other Side

Last June, on opening day of farmers market season, I visited the old Blairsville Cemetery in adjoining Union County, Georgia.  Though I wasn't looking for a Fain connection, I found one.

JANE ADELINE FAIN
Beloved Wife Of Col.
JOHN S. FAIN
BORN FEB. 15, 1833
DIED SEPT. 13, 1861
A dear and loving mother gone to rest.

Jane, daughter of March and Sarah Addington, was a wife of Colonel John Simpson Fain.  Col. Fain was born in the Spring of 1818, a son of David and Rebecca Moore Fain.  David (b. 1782) was a brother of William Clayton Fain's father and another son of Ebenezer.

John Simpson Fain was a military man who served in three wars, including the Civil War.  According to an entry by Jeanette Fain Cornelius in the United Daughters of the Confederacy Patriot Ancestor Album (1999, Turner Publishing Co. Paducah, Ky), "In the Civil War he [Col. Fain] organized a company of North GA mountain men in February 1861 and served as captain of Co. G, 1st Regt. GA Regulars.  On May 21, 1862 he was elected lieutenant colonel of 65th GA Inf…" Short of a year later, he was promoted to the rank of colonel.  He served until June of 1863, when he tendered his resignation due to a medical condition.

The common ancestor of William Clayton Fain and John Simpson Fain is their grandfather, Ebenezer Fain.  As I mentioned before, Ebenezer was a pioneer and a patriot.  He was a pioneer of Southern Appalachia from a young age and throughout his full life.  Though born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, when Ebenezer was a young boy, the Fain family moved to southwest Virginia.  Before he was 16, the family moved down into what was then North Carolina.  About 1783, the then married Ebenezer Fain continued the moving tradition of his father by relocating to South Carolina.  Twenty years later, Ebenezer and family returned to what would eventually become Buncombe County, North Carolina.  Finally, about 1819, Ebenezer Fain and family were in north Georgia.  Each move advanced the family to more sparsely populated areas within the Southern Appalachia region.

Prior to his marriage and "settling down" with a family of his own in 1781, Ebenezer served his country in the American Revolution.  He enlisted on five distinct occasions.  One of those included service at the famous Battle of King's Mountain.

Travis H. McDaniel, a descendant of Ebenezer Fain, has written much about his family.  And some of that writing has appeared in the Georgia Backroads magazine.  One such article, "A Man in the True Sense of the Word: Southern Appalachian Pioneer Ebenezer Fain," was published in the Summer 2013 edition.  The following is from that article:

Just a few months later Ebenezer, his father, and several brothers enlisted in the militia at the request of Colonel John Sevier, who would later become Tennessee's first governor.  Sevier's militia, referred to as the Overmountain Men because they came from settlements west of the main crest of the Appalachian Mountains, played a key role in the Battle of King's Mountain, North Carolina, in 1780…This was a turning point in the southern operations during the Revolution.

Ebenezer Fain remained in Georgia until his death in 1842, spending some of his old age in the Hot House area of Fannin County.  Apropos to this posting, is a statement on the passing of Ebenezer attributed to his grandson, John Simpson Fain (also from Mr. McDaniel's article referenced above):

"I was a sort of a favorite child of my grandfather, and he principally raised and educated me, and I learned to love him when quite a child and I can never forget him.  My grandfather was a man in the true sense of the word, physically and mentally and morally.  His death was calm, and without a struggle…"

Ebenezer Fain and his descendants have left a lasting legacy in the mountains of north Georgia.

[Note:  Travis H. McDaniel wrote another article about his Fain family that may be viewed online >>> Clayton Fain's Last Ride.  In that writing, Mr. McDaniel delves deeper into the death of William Clayton Fain at the hands of the Confederacy.]