Victim ID: VA1869061201
Victim Name: Jesse Edwards
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Age: 18
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Outraged and murdered an 18 year-old unnamed white woman
Date: 1869-06-12
City: Lexington
Mob Composition: 20-30 men
Summary: A mob of about 20 to 30 men lynched Jesse Edwards, a 18 year old black man, on the night of Friday, June 12th, 1869 in Lexington, Rockbridge County. Edwards had been accused of assaulting and murdering a young white girl, Susan Hite.
On Monday, June 8th, 1869 Jesse Edwards allegedly seized, outraged, and murdered a young white girl named Susan Hite. Hite had been walking from the residence of Mr. Wm. A. Campbell, her brother-in-law with whom she was living, to attend preaching at a school house in the neighborhood. According to the Daily Dispatch, Edwards attacked Susan Hite, as “he nearly tore off her upper lip in stifling her cries while accomplishing his fiendish purpose, and then bear her to death with a rock […] fracturing her skull, beating in her nose and face, and hacking her in the most cruel manner.” Afterwards, Edwards concealed her body in a bush, wrapped the corpse in a blanket, and carried it between one and two miles with a horse to throw in the river. Hite’s body was later found in shallow water. Edwards confessed these facts after his arrest. At about 1AM on Friday, June 12th, four men called upon Thomas L. Perry, the jailer, telling him they had a prisoner to hand over. When Perry opened the jail door, the masked men seized him, took his keys, and threatened him into silence. A mob of 20-30 men waited outside when the four men took Edwards; the mob carried Edwards five or six miles in the direction where Susan Hite had been presumably murdered, before they hung him from a tree, where he was later found. A Coroner’s Inquiry investigated the lynching, concluding that “Jesse Edwards was hanged and shot to death on the morning of the 12 day of June 1869 by parties to this jury unknown.” As part of the investigation, several witnesses were interviewed, including the jailer Thomas Perry. One witness stated that “A man called at my house about 4 o’clock this morning & asked me for a rope & promised to return it – shortly after I heard four shots – I live about half mile from this spot – The rope was not returned – I did not see the face of the man that asked for the rope and did not recognize his voice.” Dr. H. G. Davidson made a postmortem examination of Jesse Edwards’s body, finding signs of death by strangulation. Edwards had also been shot four times; one bullet entered the right nipple, one the left, one about the median of the chest, and one about the left sixth rib. All the bullets penetrated the lungs. Edwards most likely died by strangulation from the lynching, as there was very little internal and no external hemorrhage. Edwards body was found hung upon a chestnut tree near the houses of William A McClung and Davy Fielding, near Lyles Mill in Rockbridge County.
A week after the lynching, the Daily Dispatch reported that someone had told detectives “that no such person existed as Miss Susan Hite; that no rape and no murder had been committed, but that Jesse Edwards had been a very active politician and was mobbed to prevent negroes from registering.” The newspaper, however, strenuously rejected these accusations and stated that “the miscreant who attempted to make political capital out of this affair deserves to be hung on the same tree on which the brutal murderer and ravisher met the reward of his crime.”
Archival Sources: Coroner’s Inquisition
News Coverage: Daily Dispatch; Native Virginian; Staunton Spectator
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1869-06-11)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1869-06-21)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1869-06-18)
Article Link (from The Native Virginian published on 1869-07-02)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1869-06-15)