Year: 1870

On Friday, January IA, negro by the name
of Lewis Hines was executed at Tarboro, North
Carolina for violating the person of young
white woman named Sarah L. johnson, in April
of last year. correspondent thus depicts the
terrible scene witnessed at his execution


At about quarter past II the condemned man
was pinioned at the elbows, and, with his hat on,
was led down the steps of the jail to the lower
noor thence into the yard, and into the enclo-
sure, where, for the first time, Lewis saw the
structure on which he was to die. He ascended
to the platform firmly, and took a seat on the
chair viewing the assembled crowd calmly, and
smiling all the while. Everybody waited with
intense anxiety some expression from the con-
demned man of his guilt, of which the entire
community were SO well satisfied; but there was
n general craving to hear the culprit himself
either acknowledge or deny it. Without, how
ever, rising from his chair, he made rambling
semi-religious address of over ten minutes
duration in which he endeavored to impress
the spectators with the information that he was
going to heaven, where hoped to meet all of
fhem both white and colored. After this he
asked for q chew of tobacco, and he took an I'M
mense quid into his mouth, which a by
glass of water, and then another, both
of which he drank with an evident relish. His
next want was q preacher, and after while
dwarfish but venerable specimen of the colored
race, quite modest in his demeanor, assembled to
the platform of the scaffold; but, instead of
praying. he commenced n sermon, which was
delivered with telling effect He pointed to the
condemned, now on the verge of eternity, and
held him up as a warning to all his hearers, both
white and colored men should control their
passions, and when a bad thought suggested it.
self it should be crushed at once. He hoped his
brother was prepared to meet his Maker, and
that he had repented of all the sins done in his
body. During the delivery of this sermon the
condemned man exhibited the strongest symp-
toms of emotion and terror His features as
sumed at times fearful and repulsive express
al IN 0f f,nicp no hncamq


and the grimaces he made were horrible to
behold. He shook in every limb, his heels
beating the scaffold violently. SO nervous
was he. He fairly writhed in his chair; but
the preacher needed not this exhibition of
terror. He rather seemed gratifed, and
continued in the same strain, which the more
terribly increased the tortures of the condemned.
Many in the crowd who witnessed this scene
were surprised that the Sheriff did not suspend
the remarks of the preacher and put an end to
the agony of the unfortunate wretch. As soon,
however, as the preacher concluded and took
last farewell, Lewis stood up and seemed to re-
gain his composure. Another incoherent reli-
gious address followed, but no allusion to the
crime whatever. His main point seemed, in the
latter speech, to assure his hearers that the
colored man would be as ''bright" in Christ as
the white man. No distinction would be made
there and this he repeated some twenty times.
He broke into sort of song peculiar to negroes,
at the close stating his poor little soul" would
soon be out of the body and with the angels in
heaven, and called upon all, regardless of color,
to meet him in that blessed place.


The Sheriff then asked the condemned man if
he had any confession to make, to which he re-
piled that he had not; but in making no confess
sion he did not deny his guilt. The cap was
then placed over his head, forever darkening his
vision to oil earthly things, the moose was ad-
justed by the Sheriff's deputy and at IL NJ. the
drop fell. A scene of fearful excitement here
snsued. The knot on the rope was not properly
placed and when the body fell it slipped round
under the chin. The legs had not been pinioned
either, and the suspended wretch struggled in
terrible manner. He had fallen about three
feet and half, and the neck was not
broken. With convulsive effort he
succeeded in getting his hand up to the rope,
his throat, and holding this he got his feet again
on the platform. All this time there was the
greatest excitement and commotion in the small
crowd within the inclosure, while those without
we're ignorant of the exciting scene. A gurgling
noise in the throat, as of difficult respiration
could be distinctly heard by the entire crowd in
the yard. The Sheriff ran and pushed his feet
off the scaffold, and the condemned man wa,
again swinging in mid air, but still struggling
violently. In seventeen minutes, however he
was pronounced dead, and the body was cut
down and placed in q coffin. Thus ended the
execution of Hines, bungled and horrible
affair, but Tarboro had its annual hanging.