The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-01-15
WHOLESALE LYNCHING:
Eight C0lOred Men Taken From
/. Jail and Shot.
They Had Been Imprisoned on the
., Charge of Murder.

/ A crowd Of masked men early in the morn
ing broke into Barnwen IS. C) jail, forty
miles from Charleston, and lynched eight
colored prisoners, all charged with murder.
The crowd numbered several hundred men.
The prisoners were taken out Of town and
shot. The TAILOR was tied and forced to &C
company the lynchers. The whole thing was
conducted in a skillful manner, the citizens
of the town not knowing anything about 1t.
After the lynching the jailor was released.
The citizens of the town were ignorant OF
any attempt on the Jail. A rgeCcrowd o1
colcred men speedily congregated at the
scene of the lynching and fears were enter.
tBined of more trouble. The Governor was
appealed to for troops to preserve the peace.
J. The eight colored men were charged with
committing and being accessories to the
crimes described below: On the afternoon OF
October 80, John J. Hefferman was shot and
instantly killed in restaurant in the town
of Barnwell, by Ripley johnson. Heferman
was one of the principal merchants OF the
town, and johnson was employed at that
time in running cotton-gin. There had been
some trouble between the white man and the
colored man the day before, and although
there were conflicting accounts as to the
difficulty, it is probable that Hefferman
threatened the colored man, for he had
been summoned to appear before the
town council the morning following, and
had been put under bonds. The killing took
place in a colored restaurant, where Heffer-
man had followed Johnson. Five colored
men, charged with being accessories to the
murder who were in the restaurant at tue
time, fed to a swamp, but were shortly al
terward captured. A large reward was
offered for johnson, and he was captured
two weeks later.
The other night Robert Martin, young
white man of great promise, was way
laid and shot to death, while riding to
his fathers house. 1t was about eight
o'clock in the evening. The young man
was within seventy-fve yards OF a
cluster of colored peoples houses on the side
of the road, when he was fired upon from be-
hind. The occupants of the houses heard the
gun and heard the exclamation ''Oh, me!
Oh, me! you have killed mep but they did
not go to the help Of the wounded man.
Martin was not missed that night by his
parents, as he was in the habit, on reaching
home late, Of going to his own rooms,
which were separated from the rest OF tne
house. In the morning servant noticed tie
riderless horse at the gate, and finding blood
on the saddle gave the alarm, and search
was begun. The body of the young man
was found on the side of the public road with
in a hundred yards Of the house above
mentioned. he had evidently lived
only few minutes. Five bullets had entered
his back. The young man had not an enemy
in the county so far as any OF his TRENDS
knew, and the community was greatly
excited over his murder. Itwas subsequently
discovered that Martin was shot by a
party of colored men who worked on his
fathers place, and whom the young man kept
..tQ1bey close to their work, allowing them
little license. It was also believed that the
people in the houses near where the murder
was committed knew all about it, and that
was the reason they would not 60 to the as
sistance of the dying man.
5: The names of the men lynched are
Ripley johnson, Michel Adams, Peter
Bell, 'Rafe" Morrell, Hugh Furze, Hudson
johnson, Robert Phoenix and Judge Jones.
They were shot to pieces. The firing was the
first intimation the people of the town had OF
the trouble. 1t seemed to them as If the
colored people would rise up and avenge the
lynching. In response to a request, the
Governor ordered a company OF infantry an and
whites were armed and pretty well organ
lied
The leading men in Barnwel in the night
sent out circular stating in substance that
the people of that community had been
greatly incensed by the repeated murders OF
whites by colored men, three white
men of prominence having recently
been killed, that the trial Of some
of these colored men had been put of, that II
seemed as if justice would not be done. They
could not explain their feelings, nor could
stand how they felt at the repeated outrages;
but they were confident any other COM
munity in the country would have acted in
the same manner.