Victim ID: VA1884080201
Victim Name: John Fitzhugh
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Attempted outrage on a married white woman
Date: 1884-08-02
County Name: Rappahannock
Mob Composition: Unknown
Summary: The lynching of John Fitzhugh, a black man, occurred on August 2nd, 1884 in Rappahannock county, after an accusation of attempting to outrage a married white woman.
On Sunday, July 27th 1884, after attending a black church service, John Fitzhugh allegedly approached the house where a white woman lived. According to the Alexandria Gazette, Fitzhugh watched the husband leave the house with a neighbor, leaving his wife alone; Fitzhugh then ran to his nearby home to grab a revolver and hurried back to the man’s home. Upon arrival, Fitzhugh found the woman alone on the porch with an infant in her arms. Allegedly, Fitzhugh made an “infamous proposal” to the woman, which caused her to react by pushing him off the porch and scream for help (Alexandria Gazette). A youth passing by heard the commotion and forced his way into the home and Fitzhugh left the home temporarily, waiting for the boy to leave. It was expected that his crime would “visit speedy and rigorous punishment” (Alexandria Gazette). Fitzhugh was captured and jailed; shortly after midnight on August 2nd 1884, a small band of mounted men made their way to the jail and forced entry. They seized Fitzhugh from his sleep and informed him that he must prepare for a speedy death. They hurried him from his cell into the woods and put a noose around his neck. “He begged to be spared, and promised, if permitted to live, to mend his ways and never depart from the path of rectitude” (Alexandria Gazette). Fitzhugh was hanged from an oak tree limb.
In an article published in 2019 in the Rappahannock News, a relative of the descendants of John Fitzhugh gave a different version of the events. In an interview given in 1999, Mr. Thomas “Cooter” Wigington stated that Fitzhugh “was out cutting cress one day and got hungry up in one of them hollows. Anyhow, he went to this lady’s house and wanted something to eat. He didn’t talk plain and was a big robust man. The lady got the food for him and she brought it to the gate, but she didn’t bring anything (a spoon or fork) for him to eat the food with . . . and he was asking for a fork . . . but he wasn’t saying it plainly and this lady misunderstood him. She got nervous and started screaming. Of course, back in that time it was a picnic . . . (meaning a black man approaching a white woman). They (authorities) got him and put the old man in jail, and said the lady told them he never forced or touched her. But they (the lynch mob) went right on that night to the jail and got him out and swung him up! I don’t know where, they carried him up in the hollow somewhere. Hung him!”.
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Valley Virginian
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1884-08-04)