Lynching of Peter Betters

Last updated
Lynching of Peter Betters
Location Jamestown, Ohio, U.S.
DateJune 12, 1887;137 years ago (1887-06-12)
TargetPeter Betters
Attack type
 Lynching
VictimPeter Betters
MotiveRetaliation for the assault of Martha Thomas

On June 12, 1887, Peter Betters was lynched by a small mob in Jamestown, Ohio following the brutal assault of Martha Thomas. [1] The lynching was historically notable because assault victim Martha Thomas was Black, and because a mixed crowd of Black and White citizens joined together to seek revenge for her injuries by murdering her accused attacker Peter Betters.

Contents

Background

For many years prior to her murder, Martha Thomas was a well-respected resident of Jamestown, a small community in Greene County, Ohio. [1] In her older age, she needed increased help around her property. In early 1887, she offered fellow Jamestown resident and petty criminal Peter Betters the opportunity to work on her and her husband's land in exchange for housing. [2] When Thomas' husband died a few months later, however, she asked Betters to move out and find other work. Betters continued to work a job with the Stinson Brothers Livery stable, despite his poor reputation in Jamestown following several recent criminal charges. [1] Betters had recently served two sentences in Jamestown jail, one for sexual assault charges and the other for stealing a horse. [2] Because he was known as a common thief, "it was no surprise when Betters was accused [of the lynching]." [3]

In the middle of the night on Saturday, June 11, 1887, Martha Thomas was asleep in her home when she heard a loud sound. [1] A drunken Peter Betters had slid underneath her home and broken in by destroying the bricks of Thomas' hearth. [2] While Martha Thomas' two visiting grandchildren were able to escape from the house, Ms. Thomas was not as lucky. [2] When Thomas was found, she was unconscious and had suffered several broken ribs and a partially crushed skull. [2] Despite the severity of her injuries, though, Thomas survived and was able to identify Betters as her attacker; perhaps because he was said to have attacked her with a coal oil lamp in hand. [2]

Lynching

When the Jamestown marshal found Peter Betters in the early morning of June 12, 1887, he arrested him and put him in Jamestown's lock-up. [3] Although the small town had quickly become aware of Betters' arrest and collective anger was growing, the Jamestown marshal did not post a personal guard at Betters' cell that night. [2] Thus, around midnight, a fifteen-person mob, made up of both Black and White Ohioans, began marching to the jail with "hats pulled over their faces and coats turned the wrong side out" as a means of disguise, and broke into Betters' cell. [3] After forcing their way inside, mob members gave Betters to a group waiting outside who dragged him down the street toward the county fairgrounds. [2] Onlookers were ordered to return home, but those who were able to witness the event reported that Betters repeatedly screamed out "Murder! Save me!" while the mob chanted "Hang him!" and "Shoot him!" [2] Upon completing the half-mile walk to the fairgrounds, the mob hanged Betters from a broken oak tree. [2] Historians David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker write that newspaper coverage quoted organizers as saying the recently fallen tree was "forming an admirable gallows." [2]

"The neighborhood was greatly excited over the affair and the fugitive negro was hunted down. In the fair grounds where the cyclone played such fearful havoc some time ago there are many trees bent by the storm, which make EXCELLENT GALLOWS." [4] - page 1, Springfield News-Sun, June 13, 1887

After hanging Betters, the mob's apparent leader ordered the group to go home. Reports quoted him as addressing the group: "We have done good work; we have nothing to be sorry for. Now keep quiet and all will be well. Colored people are as true to virtue and justice as steel." [2] The mob quickly dispersed and returned to their homes. Betters was left hanging in the fairgrounds for the rest of the early morning.

Aftermath

Early the next morning, June 12, Jamestown resident Horace D. Buckles was on his way to catch a train when he passed the fairgrounds and noticed Better's body. Buckles reported, "His toes were only a couple feet from the ground." [5] After Buckles contacted the authorities, a coroner confirmed Betters' death, and he was taken down from the tree to be quietly buried in a local cemetery. [3] A town inquest was held shortly after Betters' death, but no one reported to have any information on the lynching. [3] In fact, according to Meyers|Meyers Walker, some residents suggested Betters' death had been a suicide, although the general population did not actually believe this theory. [5] There was no town mourning following the death of Peter Betters. Rather, Jamestown citizens were largely happy to see Thomas' assault avenged. The event passed by relatively quietly overall. A local newspaper, the Xenia Democrat News concluded, "few men could have managed a hanging bee so well or so quietly." [5]

Significance

While Better's death was of little significance to Jamestown residents, his lynching was historically notable, specifically because of its multiracial nature. In the 1890s, racial segregation was the law of the land and racial mixing was largely taboo. Nevertheless, Martha Thomas became a universally respected member of Jamestown despite her race and was known to socialize with white and Black folks alike. [6] What is more though, and what sets this lynching apart, is that her death was avenged by a mob of both white and Black individuals who worked together to lynch Peter Betters. [7] Segregation played no recorded role in this case. In fact, a Black man reportedly led the mob, thus acting as a superior to the white men involved. This willingness to forgo traditional racial hierarchies and societal norms about intermixing is indicative of the importance of carrying out this lynching to Jamestown residents. In that sense, this case is empirical evidence of the prevalent notion among scholars that vastly different groups can be united under the act of a riot to abandon usual societal rules and carry out a shared vision of activism or, in this scenario, justice. [8]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rounkles 2020, p. 78.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Meyers & Meyers Walker 2018, p. 80.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Rounkles 2020, p. 79.
  4. ↑ "Peter Betters lynching (13 June 1887)". Newspapers.com. 1887-06-13. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
  5. 1 2 3 Meyers & Meyers Walker 2018, p. 81.
  6. ↑ "Peter Betters lynching (13 June 1887)". Newspapers.com. 1887-06-13. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
  7. ↑ "Peter Betters lynching (23 June 1887)". Newspapers.com. 1887-06-23. Retrieved 2024-10-26.
  8. ↑ Gilje 1996, p. 8.

Related Research Articles

In the broader context of racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosewood massacre</span> 1923 massacre of African Americans in Florida, US

The Rosewood massacre was a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six black people were killed, but eyewitness accounts suggested a higher death toll of 27 to 150. In addition, two white people were killed in self-defense by one of the victims. The town of Rosewood was destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot. Florida had an especially high number of lynchings of black men in the years before the massacre, including the lynching of Charles Strong and the Perry massacre in 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching in the United States</span> Extrajudicial killings in the United States by mobs or vigilante groups

Lynching was the widespread occurrence of extrajudicial killings which began in the United States' pre–Civil War South in the 1830s, slowed during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued until 1981. Although the victims of lynchings were members of various ethnicities, after roughly 4 million enslaved African Americans were emancipated, they became the primary targets of white Southerners. Lynchings in the U.S. reached their height from the 1890s to the 1920s, and they primarily victimized ethnic minorities. Most of the lynchings occurred in the American South, as the majority of African Americans lived there, but racially motivated lynchings also occurred in the Midwest and border states. In 1891, the largest single mass lynching in American history was perpetrated in New Orleans against Italian immigrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith</span> 1930 lynching of African-American prisoners in Marion, Indiana

J. Thomas Shipp and Abraham S. Smith were African-American boys who were murdered in a spectacle lynching by a group of thousands on August 7, 1930, in Marion, Indiana. They were taken from jail cells, beaten, and hanged from a tree in the county courthouse square. They had been arrested that night as suspects in a robbery, murder and rape case. A third African-American suspect, 16-year-old James Cameron, had also been arrested and narrowly escaped being killed by the mob; an unknown woman and a local sports hero intervened, and he was returned to jail. Cameron later stated that Shipp and Smith had committed the murder but that he had run away before that event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching of Jesse Washington</span> 1916 event in Waco, Texas, United States

Jesse Washington was a seventeen-year-old African American farmhand who was lynched in the county seat of Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, in what became a well-known example of lynching. Washington was convicted of raping and murdering Lucy Fryer, the wife of his white employer in rural Robinson, Texas. He was chained by his neck and dragged out of the county court by observers. He was then paraded through the street, all while being stabbed and beaten, before being held down and castrated. He was then lynched in front of Waco's city hall.

On May 16, 1918, a plantation owner was murdered, prompting a manhunt which resulted in a series of lynchings in May 1918 in southern Georgia, United States. White people killed at least 13 black people during the next two weeks. Among those killed were Hazel "Hayes" Turner and his wife, Mary Turner. Hayes was killed on May 18, and the next day, his pregnant wife Mary was strung up by her feet, doused with gasoline and oil then set on fire. Mary's unborn child was cut from her abdomen and stomped to death. Her body was then repeatedly shot. No one was ever convicted of her lynching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching of Ed Johnson</span> African American who was lynched in the U.S.

On March 19, 1906, Ed Johnson, a young African American man, was murdered by a lynch mob in his home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had been wrongfully sentenced to death for the rape of Nevada Taylor, but Justice John Marshall Harlan of the United States Supreme Court had issued a stay of execution. To prevent delay or avoidance of execution, a mob broke into the jail where Johnson was held, and abducted and lynched him from the Walnut Street Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching of Anthony Crawford</span> African American who was lynched in the U.S.

Anthony Crawford was an African American man who was killed by a lynch mob in Abbeville, South Carolina on October 21, 1916.

Roy Mitchell was an African-American man from Waco, Texas who was convicted of six murders and executed on July 30, 1923. His arrest, trial, conviction, and execution are considered an example of continued bigotry in the Texas judicial system of the 1920s, but also of reforms aimed at curbing mob violence and public lynching. Mitchell was the last Texan to be executed in public and is often described as the last to be legally hanged before the introduction of the electric chair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1912 racial conflict in Forsyth County, Georgia</span> Racially motivated violence and subsequent racial cleansing in Forysth County in 1912

In Forsyth County, Georgia, in September 1912, two separate alleged attacks on white women in the Cumming area resulted in black men being accused as suspects. First, a white woman reportedly awoke to find a black man in her bedroom; then days later, a white teenage girl was beaten and raped, later dying of her injuries.

On Tuesday, November 12, 1914, John Evans, a black man, was lynched in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, by a mob of 1,500 white men, women and children. Evans was accused of the murder of Edward Sherman, a white real estate developer, and the attack of Sherman's wife, Mary. After word of the attack spread, and Mary Sherman claimed her attackers were "two negroes," a citywide search ensued. Suspicions immediately led to John Evans. Two days after the murder, a posse consisting of some of the city's most prominent and well-respected members stormed the St. Petersburg jail, threw a noose around Evans' neck and marched him to his death. He was never given a fair trial. Evans was hanged from a light post on the corner of Ninth Street South and Second Avenue. At first, he kept himself alive by wrapping his legs around the light pole. An unidentified white woman in a nearby automobile ended his struggle with a single bullet. Though the shot was fatal, the rest of the crowd began shooting at Evans' dangling body until their ammunition was depleted.

The lynching of the Frenches of Warsaw took place in Warsaw, Gallatin County, Kentucky on May 3, 1876, between 1 am and 2 am on a Wednesday morning. Benjamin and Mollie French, African Americans, were lynched by a white mob for the murder of another African American, which was unusual for this period. Lake Jones was an elderly black man who had faithfully served a white family named Howard, both before and after his emancipation from slavery. The Frenches were accused of poisoning Lake Jones with arsenic and intending to steal his money.

Christopher C. Davis was a Black man who lived near Albany, Ohio with his wife and two children. He worked as a farm laborer. In 1881, he was accused of raping and assaulting a White woman, after which he was arrested. While in jail in Athens, Ohio, before his trial, a mob of White men broke into the jail and lynched him by hanging him from a bridge over the Hocking River. None of the White men were indicted of a crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Alonzo Tucker</span> 1902 lynching in Coos Bay, Oregon, United States

Alonzo Tucker was an African American boxer and owned a gym in Coos Bay, Oregon. He was accused by Mrs. Dennis for assault. After the lynching, Dennis and her family quickly left town and headed to California. Tucker is the only documented lynching of a black man in Oregon.

The Danville race riot occurred on July 25, 1903, in Danville, Illinois, when a mob sought to lynch a Black man who had been arrested. On their way to county jail, an altercation occurred that led to the death of a rioter and the subsequent lynching of another Black man. At least two other Black residents were also assaulted. The rioters failed to overtake the police stationed at the jail and the Illinois National Guard restored order the next day.

The lynching of F. W. Stewart occurred shortly after midnight on November 7, 1898, about a mile outside of Lacon, Illinois. Stewart had been accused of the assault of a miner's daughter in Toluca. About one hundred miners formed a mob and broke into the Marshall County jail to retrieve Stewart, whom they subsequently hanged.

William Keemer was the victim of a racial terror spectacle lynching in 1875 in Greenfield, Indiana. Keemer, a Black man, was dragged from his jail cell in Hancock County, Indiana on June 25, 1875 by a white mob from Hancock, Shelby, and Rush counties. Keemer was hung at the Hancock County fairgrounds and over 1,000 people traveled to view the body. Keemer was arrested on June 24 for an alleged sexual assault against a white women in Carthage, Indiana. No trial was held for the alleged crime and William Keemer remains innocent. In 2021 a historical marker commemorating the anti-Black violence committed against Keemer was approved by the Indiana Historical Bureau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynching of William Andrews</span> 1897 lynching in Princess Anne, Maryland

William Andrews was an African American laborer who was lynched by a white mob in Princess Anne, Maryland on June 9, 1897. Andrews, then 17, was tried, convicted, and hanged all in one day after being accused of assaulting Mrs. Benjamin T. Kelley.

The lynching of Charles Lockwood took place on July 25, 1886, in Morris, Litchfield County in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Lockwood, a farmhand who had allegedly murdered a 16-year-old girl, was found hanging from a tree days after fleeing the scene of his alleged crime, while posses prowled the countryside searching for him. While the coroner attributed Lockwood's death to suicide, many sources consider his death a lynching.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.