Victim ID: VA1880021801
Victim Name: Page Wallace
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 25
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged and riddled with bullets
Accusation: Outraging a 35 year-old married white woman
Date: 1880-02-18
City: Leesburg
Mob Composition: About 100 men, masked
Summary: A crowd of about 100 men lynched Page Wallace, a black man, on February 18th, 1880, across the Potomac river near Leesburg, in Loudoun county. Wallace was accused of committing an outrage on a married white woman.
On Tuesday, January 27th, 1880, Page Wallace broke out of jail where he was serving time for raping a black woman the previous fall. A couple of days later, on January 29th, Mr. Wallace allegedly committed an outrage on a white woman named Mary Morman, as she was walking home after getting off a ferry. Mr. Wallace grabbed her and told her to stay quiet. According to The Daily Dispatch, “He then accomplished his purpose, and left her lying on the road.” Once he left, Mrs. Morman alerted her neighbor about the attack which sparked several people to return to the scene of the crime and offer a $50 reward for his capture. On February 2nd, Mr. Wallace was seen intoxicated in a saloon in Maryland, where he allegedly confessed his crime. Bystanders in the saloon seized him and took him to jail. A requisition was issued by the governor to return Mr. Wallace to Virginia. Around 5:46 p.m., Mr. Wallace arrived at Point of Rocks where, according to the Daily Dispatch, “a crowd of about one hundred men had gathered, and by their actions they showed what their object was. […] When the sheriff and his deputy stepped from the car with their prisoner a cry went up, “There he is!” […]. Quietly the crowd followed the three to the river, the negro being handcuffed to the deputy. The three took a boat across the ferry, and the crowd followed as fast as they could [to] secure boats. On the Virginia side were about one hundred and fifty masked men, who waited the sheriff’s coming in quiet, but as soon as his boat touched the shore they made a rush for it. The sheriff drew his revolver and attempted to the best of his ability to drive them back, but all his resistance was useless.” The mob took Wallace and dragged him for three hundreds yards to the spot where he allegedly assaulted Mrs. Morman, and then hanged him to a sycamore tree. The Daily Dispatch also reported that “Mary Morman, upon whom the outrage was committed, was present at the landing of the officers, identified Wallace, pointed out the spot where the outrage had been committed, and, after the negro had been hung to the tree, to her was accorded the privilege of firing the first shot at his swinging and almost lifeless body. This she did with a good aim, and after her, fifteen or twenty shots were fired, riddling the body from head to foot. The body was left hanging, and was viewed by hundreds of people before night set in.” The Rockingham Register further noted that “There were eight newspaper reporters at the scene of the execution, so well understood was it that the deed would be done.”
News Coverage: Daily Dispatch, Rockingham Register, Shenandoah Herald.
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1880-02-03)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1880-02-19)
Article Link (from Shenandoah Herald published on 1880-02-04)
Article Link (from Shenandoah Herald published on 1880-02-11)
Article Link (from Shenandoah Herald published on 1880-02-25)