Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1900-11-24
Prank Burkman Pardoned.

The following notice of Frank
Burkman, pardoned by Governor
Tyler, appears in the Richmond Dis
patch OF Tuesday:
For the first time in twenty years
Frsuk Burkman breathed the air of
free man yesterday. He has seen
the blue skies and the sunshine in all
that fifth of century only through
the bars OF county jails and State
Peniteniiary.
In 1882 Burkman WAS received at
the penitentiary from Essex county
TO serve thirty-six years for double
manslaughter He was then boy
about II years or age He had spent
two years Of his life in the j4fls of
King George and Essex counties.
Burkman's history is most unus-
ual one. 1t reads like a piece of sen
sational fiction. He is q native of
Baltimore. His father died when he
was years of age. His mother mar
ried again The new father did not
make the boys home life happy.
When he was 16 years old Frank ran
away. He sought and obtained SER
vice on board board an oyster pungy
in Chesapeake bay. He had often
dreamed of going to sea, and it seem
ed that his new employment open
ed to him the life for which he had
longed.
1t took but few days for the boy
to learn that the life of a sailor was
not anything like that which he had
pictured. He had dreamed of the
He found it a slavery more
degrading than any African ever
knew. Captain Edwards, according
to all the testimony, was a tyrant.
But he was white. The mate OF the
pungy was a tyrant OF worse type
than the captain. And he was a
negro.
The boys life seems to have been
more dreadful than words can easily
picture. Captain Edwards treated
him as if he were bond slave. He
made him perform unspeakably me-
NAL duties. The captain had his
limitations as tyrant. The negro
mate had none. lie tyrannized over
Burkman in thousand ways, which
toa white man seem nothing short of
fendish.
After being out for some time the
pungy was cruising off King George
county. The limit OF tyranny was
reached by the white captain and
the negro mate. The boy got hold of
the captains revolver. When he
finished using it both white and
black tyrant were dead.
The pungy was worked back to
Burkman gave himself
up to the Maryland authorities. He
was brought back to King George
county for trial. Four, possible five.
trials were given him in the King
George courts. Then change of
venue was obtained to the County
Court OF Essex. The final trial in
the tribunal resulted i'll sentence
Of thirty-slx years-eighteen years
for the killing of each man. 1t was
two years from the time Burkman
gave himself up until he was put in
stripes behind the bars of the Vir-
ginia PenitenGiary, In 1882.
The information contained in the
above was evidently obtained from
Burkman and his friends and is not
only inaccurate in every particular,
but does a great injustice TO the
memory of very humane man and
worthy citizen. The victim of Burk-
man was not Edwards, but Captain
Nelson, of Accomac, and the
evidence at the trial of Burkman was
about as follows:
That he entered the service of
Capt. Nelson as cook on his sloop,
Fannie Southland, not in Baltimore.
out in Accomac in 1880, and in three
weeks thereafter while the sloop was
ying in Machodoc Creek, shot and
killed Captain Nelson and his mate, "a
,olored man, while they were asleep in
,he cabin early in the morning; that
Burkman did not give himself up as
but escaped immediately
rom the sloop after committing the
double murder and was arrested in
Baltimore few days later by Police
man Cadawalder of that city, and
when arrested, acknowledged, that
after killing Captain Nelson and his
mate that he took $42.50 which he
found on the boat, which belonged
10 Capt. Nelson.
That Burkman murdered Captain
Nelson for his money was not ques-
toned at the time and the foul crime
could not be accounted for in any
other way. He could not have had
any other motive for numbering him.
The charge contained in the above
report, justifying the murder of Capt.
Nelson, because he was a tyrant is
entirely without foundation. Capt.
Nelson, we are advised, was too ami
able and kind-hearted ever to treat
anyone badly.
Burkman was tried five times and
convicted of murder in the first de
gree three times. On the fifth trial
be was sentenced to confinement in
the penitentiary for 36 years.
District Convention.