The Lynching in Pennsylvania
March 23, 1894
Summary
A black man is lynched after being accused of murder, but his attackers have yet to be convicted and remain unknown.
Transcription
The lynching of Richard Puryear, colored at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, Thursday, March 15th, was inexcusable but the stereotyped verdict of the coroner's jury that “ the deceased came to his death by being hung by parties unknown to the jury was even more”.
Puryear was charged with murder and if reports are to be accredited there was sufficient evidence to secure his conviction.
This makes the crime of his lynching all the more heinous.
That such a condition of Affairs was possible upon the soil of Pennsylvania will cause the average law-abiding citizen to stop and Ponder.
The New York Press, and it is true of the 17th States the situation exactly, and by clear cut logic shows the utter lack of justification of the whole proceedings. It says:
“ it is stated that the lynching of the colored criminal, Richard Puryear, at Stroudsburg on Thursday is the first occurrence of the swords in Pennsylvania for more than half a century. The fact that Pennsylvania has so adorable a record in this respect makes the outrage in question the more conspicuous and inexcusable. Northern newspapers which sternly denounced the frequent and barbarous execution of color offenders by mobs in the southern states cannot afford to palliate the Stroudsburg tragedy. Pennsylvania is the second state in the Union. It is highly civilized Commonwealth, with thoroughly organized a reliable courts of law, and with a population mainly composed of intelligent and industrious white Americans. Assuredly the lynching of a helpless prisoner in such a community, is as least as great an outrage as it is in the semi barbarous region of the South, Where respect for law has never been a controlling sentiment, and where the idea that a man has a right to avenge his own wrongs by killing those who have injured him still hold sway to an extraordinary extent”.
And again:
“ it may be urged that the double crime of which Richard Puryear was guilty was peculiarily atrocious”
Puryear was charged with murder and if reports are to be accredited there was sufficient evidence to secure his conviction.
This makes the crime of his lynching all the more heinous.
That such a condition of Affairs was possible upon the soil of Pennsylvania will cause the average law-abiding citizen to stop and Ponder.
The New York Press, and it is true of the 17th States the situation exactly, and by clear cut logic shows the utter lack of justification of the whole proceedings. It says:
“ it is stated that the lynching of the colored criminal, Richard Puryear, at Stroudsburg on Thursday is the first occurrence of the swords in Pennsylvania for more than half a century. The fact that Pennsylvania has so adorable a record in this respect makes the outrage in question the more conspicuous and inexcusable. Northern newspapers which sternly denounced the frequent and barbarous execution of color offenders by mobs in the southern states cannot afford to palliate the Stroudsburg tragedy. Pennsylvania is the second state in the Union. It is highly civilized Commonwealth, with thoroughly organized a reliable courts of law, and with a population mainly composed of intelligent and industrious white Americans. Assuredly the lynching of a helpless prisoner in such a community, is as least as great an outrage as it is in the semi barbarous region of the South, Where respect for law has never been a controlling sentiment, and where the idea that a man has a right to avenge his own wrongs by killing those who have injured him still hold sway to an extraordinary extent”.
And again:
“ it may be urged that the double crime of which Richard Puryear was guilty was peculiarily atrocious”
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Carlos Serrano
Citation
“The Lynching in Pennsylvania,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1595.