Victim ID: VA1889112301
Victim Name: Robert Bland
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 21
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged and riddled with bullets
Accusation: Attempted criminal assault on a 16 year-old white girl,daughter of a federal government official
Date: 1889-11-23
City: Prince George
Mob Composition: 20-30 masked men

Summary: A mob lynched Robert Bland, a black man, on November 23^rd, 1889, in Prince George County, Virginia. Bland was accused of attempting a criminal assault on a 16-year-old white girl.

On November 21^st, 1889, Robert Bland, a 21 year-old black man, allegedly attempted to assault Miss Susie Gee, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Mr. Charles Gee, a federal government official, near Disputanta station in Prince George County (Alexandria Gazette). Bland was arrested that night by a posse and sent to a magistrate; he was scheduled to go to trial in December. On the night of November 22^nd, 1889, “a mob consisting of around forty mounted, well-masked men went to the residence of Henry King, the Negro jailer, and demanded the keys to the jail” (Alexandria Gazette). According to the Coroner’s report, the mob arrived at the jail between 11 pm and 12 am. The 20-30 masked men banged on King’s door at his home and told him to open up and give them the keys, or they would start shooting. When King refused to give up the keys, they fired three rounds against him, one grazing his face. The mob placed a rope around King’s neck and dragged him 27 yards from his house toward the jail. The mob heard the keys in King’s pocket, took them, and forced King to lead the mob to the jail cell where Bland was being confined. Bland was then tied hand and foot and carried from the jail toward the County courthouse. Once they were back at the jailhouse, they blindfolded King and placed him into an empty jail cell while they retrieved Bland. Juba Steward, a neighbor of Henry King, witnessed the events, as he testified that he saw 20 to 30 men in the distance around Henry’s house. When he heard the noise subsiding, he went into the jailhouse and found Henry King locked up in one of the jail cells. Another eyewitness, John J. Birchett, saw Robert Bland’s body hanging in the distance and heard 6 or 7 gunshots that were fired at the body also. H.C. Britton also testified at the Coroner’s inquiry, stating that Henry King’s wife came up to their house asking to help Henry, but he said to calm down and that the mob wouldn’t hurt him. The Coroner’s report concluded that Robert Bland “came to his death violently at the hands of some person or persons to them unknown, having been forcibly taken from the County Jail, where he had been committed for the crime of attempted rape, after overpowering the Jailor and getting possession of the keys and take to a neighboring tree, and hung by the neck and shot, until he was dead.” Constable Robert Stevens cut down Bland’s body at about 1 AM (Daily Times).

Archival Sources: Coroner’s Inquisition

News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Daily Times, Free Lance-Star, Peninsula Enterprise, Rockingham Register, Valley Virginian

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1889-11-25)
Article Link (from Daily Times published on 1889-11-23)
Article Link (from Daily Times published on 1889-11-24)
Article Link (from Peninsula Enterprise published on 1889-11-30)