Victim ID: VA1892070601
Victim Name: Joe William Anderson
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Attempted outrage on a 14 year-old white girl
Date: 1892-07-06
City: Louisa
Mob Composition: About 50 men
Summary: Joe William Anderson, an African American man, was lynched by a mob on July 6th, 1892, in Louisa County. Anderson was accused of attempting an outrage on a young white woman.
On July 1st, 1892, Joe William Anderson was accused of attempting an assault on the 14-year-old daughter of Mr. Shelhorn or Shalborn, near Gordonsville; the day after, Anderson was captured and brought to the Louisa Courthouse jail (Richmond Planet). Court records indicate that on July 2nd, Andrew, Gretchen, and Gertrude Shalborn, were summoned to testify in court at the trial against Joe William Anderson scheduled to take place on July 11th, 1892, (Commonwealth Cause). At about two o’clock in the morning on July 6th, “a mob surrounded the jail and took the prisoner to the woods near the line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and hung him to a tree. None of the parties concerned in the lynching are known” (Alexandria Gazette). The Richmond Planet denounced the lawlessness of the mob and called for the Louisa County sheriff and the Governor of Virginia to “bring these murderers to justice.”
Archival Sources: Commonwealth Cause
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Norfolk Virginian, Richmond Planet
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1892-07-07)
Was the lynching on July 5th or 6th or some other date.? The news article here does not make it clear.
Thank you.
Zann, the (scant) sources on this lynching indicate that Anderson was killed on the night between July 5th and July 6th (see also this article from the New York Tribune: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87616619/joe-william-anderson-louisa-county/ ). We don’t know the exact hour when he was killed.
Zann, the Coroner’s jury met on the 6th day of July, 1892 per the Court Order books of Louisa County. His lynching must have taken place that day or, more likely, on the 5th and the C’s jury convened the following day. the Death Records for the county reports his cause of death as “hung by mob.”
Hi Elaine, do you happen to have a digital copy of the Coroner’s Inquest over the murder of Joe William Anderson? I do have the Commonwealth Cause about this case from LVA (the documents will be posted online in the coming weeks), but not the Coroner’s Inquest. Please feel free to contact me at defazigx@jmu.edu . Thanks!