That Farce of a Trial
November 14, 1896
Summary
Despite committing terrible crimes, four lynchers are released from prison after only nine months.
Transcription
The trial of the "Colleton lynchers" at Aiken, S. C., resulted as might have been expected, in their acquittal. The murderers who were thus released were Dr. W. B Ackerson, the son of a Methodist preacher, Frank Brant, Wyman Kiers, and Frank Jenny.
The crime was the most brutal in the criminal annals of this country - a full account of which was published in our issue of October 24th. 1896.
They brutally murdered two colored persons and fearfully maltreated the third.
Isham Kearsh was suspected of having broken into the church and stolen two pieces of furniture and the Bible.
Upon this vague suspicion, he was dragged from his home, and with a tatter around his neck dragged for two miles behind the buggy, being several times jerked off his feet. He was flayed alive. The fiends returned and secured his aged mother and his 17 year old wife. The latter had a five months old babe.
Both were stripped and beaten into insensibility. Kearse's mother, Hannah, expired. His wife made her escape. She lingered between life and death, but finally recovered and was the principal witness at the trial.
Liberal minded white citizens were aroused and the white men named arrested. They have been in jail nine months, but have been as before stated released. Suppose for an instant that colored men had been guilty of such an outrage, the country would teem with condemnation not only of the guilty people, but with essays upon the depravity of the American citizen of African descent.
As for us, we believe in defending ourselves. Would to God that poor Isham Kearsh had been prepared, and that one or more of his murderers had been sent to their "long home.''
White men cannot blame us. Christendom will justify us.
Colored men, you who live in lonely communities, defend yourselves against the lawless, regardless of their race or their color, their politics or their religion. When white thugs, depraved youngsters realize that to attack a colored man's home is to lose a life in the undertaking and cause a vacancy around their hearthstones, they will cease their murderous practices and their relatives will use their influence to restrain them in the exercise of their fiendish pastimes. Whether by the shot-gun or the repeating rifle, the bowie knife or the broad-axe, the mailed hand of the law or the influence of public sentiment, lynch-law must go.
The crime was the most brutal in the criminal annals of this country - a full account of which was published in our issue of October 24th. 1896.
They brutally murdered two colored persons and fearfully maltreated the third.
Isham Kearsh was suspected of having broken into the church and stolen two pieces of furniture and the Bible.
Upon this vague suspicion, he was dragged from his home, and with a tatter around his neck dragged for two miles behind the buggy, being several times jerked off his feet. He was flayed alive. The fiends returned and secured his aged mother and his 17 year old wife. The latter had a five months old babe.
Both were stripped and beaten into insensibility. Kearse's mother, Hannah, expired. His wife made her escape. She lingered between life and death, but finally recovered and was the principal witness at the trial.
Liberal minded white citizens were aroused and the white men named arrested. They have been in jail nine months, but have been as before stated released. Suppose for an instant that colored men had been guilty of such an outrage, the country would teem with condemnation not only of the guilty people, but with essays upon the depravity of the American citizen of African descent.
As for us, we believe in defending ourselves. Would to God that poor Isham Kearsh had been prepared, and that one or more of his murderers had been sent to their "long home.''
White men cannot blame us. Christendom will justify us.
Colored men, you who live in lonely communities, defend yourselves against the lawless, regardless of their race or their color, their politics or their religion. When white thugs, depraved youngsters realize that to attack a colored man's home is to lose a life in the undertaking and cause a vacancy around their hearthstones, they will cease their murderous practices and their relatives will use their influence to restrain them in the exercise of their fiendish pastimes. Whether by the shot-gun or the repeating rifle, the bowie knife or the broad-axe, the mailed hand of the law or the influence of public sentiment, lynch-law must go.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Liam Eynan
Citation
“That Farce of a Trial,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed September 14, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1557.