Victim ID: VA1866041301
Victim Name: James Holden
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Murdering a married white woman and attempted murder of a black woman
Date: 1866-04-13
City: Pungoteague
Mob Composition: Unknown
Summary: On the evening of April 13th, 1866, James (or John) Holden was lynched in Pungoteague, Accomack County. Holden, an African American man, was accused of murdering a white woman and injuring a black woman in an attempted robbery.
On April 12th, 1866, James Holden allegedly attempted to rob Mrs. Drummond, wife of Captain John Drummond. According to the Staunton Spectator, Holden “asked Mrs. Drummond for some money supposed to be in the house, which she refused to give him.” After the refusal, Holden allegedly killed Mrs. Drummond with an axe and dragged her to the stables. According to the Alexandria Gazette, a black woman named Lucy Bivans who worked for the Drummonds was the only witness. After the murder, Holden allegedly insisted that the black woman say her mistress was kicked by a horse. After she refused to tell the story, Holden allegedly struck her with the axe and left. The woman survived the attack and relayed the facts to authorities, but it is not clear if she lived or died afterwards. Holden was arrested and confined by authorities on April 12th, according to witnesses heard by the Coroner’s Inquisition. The newspaper Day Book would later write that “The citizens of the county getting news of this horrid transaction, immediately turned out en masse, scoured the country around and finally arrested the miscreant. It was their design to lodge him in prison for trial, but so great was the indignation of the crowd, when they were thoroughly acquainted with the enormity of his crime, that their resolution changed, and they determined to execute summary justice on him. They, therefore, at once hung him to a limb of a tree.” The Coroner’s Inquiry tasked to investigate the lynching concluded that Holden died “by hanging by the neck on the 12th or 13th day of April 1866 by some person or persons unknown to the jury.” The Day Book concluded its article on the lynching with these words: “This summary justice, we trust, may strike some terror among the heartless and brutal miscreants, so many of whom are turned loose upon society to plunder and murder our people.”
Mrs. Drummond died on April 17th, 1866 as a result of her injuries from the attack, according to another Coroner’s Inquiry. Several people were interviewed in connection to the attack on Mrs. Drummond. One of the witnesses, Mary Frances Rodgers, stated that “I saw the negro [Holden] which was arrested and confined at Pungoteague on the 12th. […Holden struck] aunt Drummond with an axe, she fell and the negro took her up and threw her in the horse stable.” Another witness, Dianna Dought, claimed that “I saw John Holden come across the field where I was, I asked him what was the matter at Capt. Drummonds, He told me that Mrs. John Drummond and Lucy Bivans had got into a fight and had killed each other.”
Additional information about this lynching can be found here.
Archival Sources: Coroner’s Inquisition of John Holden; Coroner’s Inquisition of Mrs. Drummond
News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Day Book, Staunton Spectator
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1866-04-18)
Article Link (from Day Book published on 1866-04-19)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1866-05-01)