Victim ID: VA1878030601
Victim Name: Charlotte Harris
Race: Black
Sex: Female
Age: Unknown
Job: Unknown
Method of Death: Hanged
Accusation: Instigating the burning of a barn
Date: 1878-03-06
City: Harrisonburg
Mob Composition: Disguised

Summary: About a dozen persons with blackened faces hanged Charlotte Harris, a black woman, on March 6^th, 1878 in Rockingham County, Virginia. Harris was accused of instigating the burning of a barn.

On Thursday, February 28^th, 1878, the barn of Henry Sipe in Rockingham County burned down, and a black teenager, Jim Ergenbright (or Arbegast), was arrested with the accusation of having set the barn on fire (Evening Star). Charlotte Harris was later accused of being the instigator of the burning of the barn, and, on March 6^th, she was arrested and placed under guard to await a trial. At about 11 PM, two men appeared in front of the outbuilding where Harris was held, about 13 miles from Harrisonburg. Armed with cocked revolvers, they demanded the jailers to turn Harris over to them. According to The Daily Dispatch, the two armed men “informed the guard that if they surrendered her peaceably it would be well for them; if not, they must take the consequences. But at this moment a rush of armed men (in appearance black) made an entrance and seized Charlotte.” The disguised party took Charlotte Harris about 400 yards from the jail and hanged her to a tree.

On March 16^th, 1878, the Governor of Virginia offered a $100 reward for the capture of the lynchers of Charlotte Harris; about ten days later, a grand jury in Rockingham County was unable to identify any parties responsible for the lynching (Alexandria Gazette). Jim Ergenbright, the young boy accused of having burned Mr. Sipe’s barn, was acquitted from all charges on April 16^th, 1878 (Alexandria Gazette).

In September 2020, a historical marker to honor the memory of Charlotte Harris was unveiled in the Court Square of Harrisonburg, VA. The marker reads: “About a dozen disguised people took Charlotte Harris from the custody of jailers in eastern Rockingham County on the night of 6 March 1878 and hanged her from a tree approximately 13 miles southeast of here. This is the only documented lynching of an African American woman in Virginia, and it received nationwide attention. A grand jury that met here failed to identify any of the lynchers. Harris had been accused of inciting a young African American man to burn the barn of a white farmer. This man was later acquitted on all charges. More than 4,000 lynchings took place in the United States between 1877 and 1950; more than 100 people, primarily African American men, were lynched in Virginia.”

For more details on this lynching, you can read this essay by Tom Blair.

News Coverage: Alexandria Gazette, Daily Dispatch, Evening Star, Staunton Spectator

Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1878-03-11)
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1878-03-16)
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1878-03-27)
Article Link (from Alexandria Gazette published on 1878-04-17)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1878-03-11)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1878-03-16)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1878-03-18)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1878-03-18)
Article Link (from Daily Dispatch published on 1878-04-17)
Article Link (from Evening Star published on 1878-03-11)
Article Link (from Evening Star published on 1878-03-19)
Article Link (from Evening Star published on 1878-04-17)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1878-03-12)
Article Link (from Staunton Spectator published on 1878-04-23)