Lynching of Manse Waldrop

On December 30, 1887, in South Carolina, a white man named Manse Waldrop was lynched by a mostly African-American mob for allegedly raping and killing a 14-year-old African-American girl named Lula Sherman.

Background

The morning after Christmas, a 14-year-old African American girl named Lula Sherman was alone in home when she heard a knock on her door. When she opened the door, she saw a white man named Manse Waldrop who inquired about the location of her father. After Sherman stated that her parents were not home, Waldrop proceeded to enter the home and rape her. In order to conceal evidence of the rape, he forced her to swallow medicine and stuffed cotton inside her to stop the bleeding. He then pulled on his jeans jacket, picked up his gun, and walked away.

Three days later, Lula's mother Sherman returned and found her visibly shaken and upset. was in a panic as she saw her fourteen-year-old daughter's condition worsen. The girl had been shaken and upset when Delia returned from the funeral on Monday, but no amount of coaxing or commanding could bring Lula to say what was wrong. Now the girl's fever increased and a series of convulsions wracked her young body. After initially refusing Lula finally told her mother the story. By then, the shock of the assault and the infection of from the dirty cotton resulted in the death of Lula. When Dr. T. W. Folger arrived at the house, and examined her corpse, he concluded that she died from being "ravished". Waldrop was eventually arrested and found guilty of his crime.[1]

Lynching

Cato Freeman, Lula's father and a sharecropper, gathered a mob to assist in the lynching of Waldrop. This mob included one white man, Gaylord Eaton, and four black men: John Reese, Bill Williams, Harrison Heyward, and Henry Bolton.

On December 30, 1887, the men forcibly removed Waldrop from police custody as he was being transported from jail and later executed him by hanging.[2] On Monday, January 16, 1888, warrants for the arrest of the men were issued. Harrison Heyward, Cato Sherman, Bill Williams, Henry Bolton, and John Reese were charged with murder while Gaylord Eaton was charged with being an accessory to murder.

The first trial against Cato Sherman and his friends was held on July 9, 1888. They pleaded not guilty. The trial continued on until July 10, 1888, with the result being a mistrial.

The men remained in jail until their second trial on March 6, 1889. Cato Sherman, John Reese, and Gaylord Eaton were found not guilty. However, Harrison Heyward, Bill Williams, and Henry Bolton were found guilty. Bolton requested for a new trial and bail. Williams and Heyward were sentenced to be hanged on April 5, 1889. The result of Williams and Heyward's sentence sparked uproar in both Black and white communities. Petitions for their release were circulated among South Carolina citizens. Black ministers even met with South Carolina Governor, John P. Richardson, to appeal for Williams and Heywards.

Then on July 8, 1889, Williams and Heyward were pardoned and released. The petitioning and support from citizens forced the court to reconsider their original sentence of death for these two men. Specific details for Bolton's trial are unknown, but he was also eventually released.[3]

See also

References
  1. Baker, Bruce E. (September 1, 2005). "Lynch Law Reversed: The Rape of Lula Sherman, the Lynching of Manse Waldrop, and the Debate Over Lynching in the 1880s". American Nineteenth Century History. 6 (3): 273–293. doi:10.1080/14664650500380993. S2CID 144435565 – via CrossRef.
  2. Hill, Karlos K. (January 2010). "Black Vigilantism: The Rise and Decline of African American Lynch Mob Activity in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, 1883-1923". The Journal of African American History. 95 (1): 26–43. doi:10.5323/JAFRIAMERHIST.95.1.0026. S2CID 140461204.
  3. Orr, Michaella. "Call My Name Resistance Tour: Cato Sherman - A Story About a Father Who Lost His Daughter and Gained Justice for Her". Upcountry Historical.
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