Andrew Dudley in Nelson

Summary: A crowd of men lynched Andrew Dudley, a black teenager, on August 4^th, 1904. Dudley had been accused of assaulting two white girls near Greenfield, in Nelson County.

On the morning of August 4^th, Andrew Dudley approached two girls, Dameron and Bloomer McLain, who were playing outside their house in Greenfield, Nelson county. Dudley allegedly assaulted both girls, leaving one to run to their mother for help, while the other was left behind. As soon as Mrs. McLain approached the scene, Dudley quickly fled (Richmond Times-Dispatch). After Dudley’s arrest, the constable in charge of taking him to the county jail “brought him to Afton to take the train for Lovingston via Charlottesville. When he arrived a crowd of determined men had already assembled and with as little noise as possible, they took the negro from the officer and disappeared in the dusk of evening” (Richmond Times-Dispatch). Dudley was hanged to a cherry tree, about a quarter mile from Afton station.

Rumors concerning black men getting armed to avenge Dudley’s death started to circulate in several newspapers in the days after the lynching (Alexandria Gazette, Richmond Planet, Richmond Times-Dispatch). The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that blacks were going to go after Mr. McClain, the father of the two girls that Dudley allegedly assaulted. No outbreak between the two communities took place, even though many whites were waiting for it. An editorial by the The Free Lance blamed the “degeneracy of the negro race” on conferring them equal political rights to whites, concluding that “Andrew Dudley is a product of the XV Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the bitterness and strife that colossal blunder has engendered.” The Richmond Planet accused both the officer and the mob to be responsible for the lynching: “The fault is with the officer, who failed to protect his prisoner and with the murderers, who lynched him. The guilty parties are known to the officers of the law. The Commonwealth’s Attorney should do his duty and the machinery of the law should be put in motion to the end that none of the guilty men shall escape punishment. Lynch-law must go!”

News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Free Lance, Portsmouth Star, Richmond Planet, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Staunton Spectator and Vindicator, Virginia Citizen, Virginia Gazette, Virginian-Pilot

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1904-08-09)
Article Link (from Free Lance published on 1904-08-05)
Article Link (from Richmond Planet published on 1904-08-13)
Article Link (from Richmond Times-Dispatch published on 1904-08-05)
Article Link (from Richmond Times-Dispatch published on 1904-08-09)
Article Link (from Richmond Times-Dispatch published on 1904-08-10)
Article Link (from Richmond Times-Dispatch published on 1904-08-10)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator and Vindicator published on 1904-08-12)
Article Link (from Virginia Gazette published on 1904-08-13)
Article Link (from Virginia Citizen published on 1904-08-26)