Henry Smith (lynching victim)
Encyclopedia
Henry Smith was an African-American who was tortured and murdered at a public, heavily attended and promoted lynching
on February 1, 1893 at the Paris Fairgrounds in Paris, Texas
.
Smith was accused of the brutal murder of three-year-old Myrtle Vance, the daughter of a policeman known for mistreating prisoners. Smith was among those who had previously been beaten by Myrtle's father, after he had been arrested for drunkenness. He was a neighborhood handyman and known alcoholic. According to a New York Times article from Feb. 1, 1893, Smith allegedly: "picked up little Myrtle Vance ... near her father's residence, and ... carried her through the central portion of the city... En route through the city he was asked by several persons what he was doing with the child." When the police found no clues to the child's death, people in the area decided Smith must have committed the crime. After Myrtle's body was found, Smith continued life as usual, but upon hearing a mob was after him, he fled to Hope, Arkansas
.
There he was captured and brought back to Paris by train, where a mob of an estimated 10,000 whites placed him on a carnival float and carried him through town and out into a prairie. There, he was placed upon a scaffold and tortured for fifty minutes by members of the girl's family, who thrust hot iron brands into his flesh, starting with his feet and legs and working upward to his head. The family members involved included Myrtle's father, uncles, and twelve-year-old brother. A February 2, 1893 article in the New York Sun stated that, "Every groan from the fiend, every contortion of his body was cheered by the thickly packed crowd." Eventually, the hot irons were thrust into his eye sockets and down his throat. Afterwards, finding he was still breathing, the crowd poured oil on him and set him on fire
. The crowd then fought over the hot ashes to collect his bones and teeth as souvenirs.
On February 7, Henry Smith's stepson, William Butler, was lynched outside Paris. Though Butler was known as an upstanding citizen, he was hanged only on suspicion that he had known, and not divulged, the whereabouts of Henry Smith after he had fled.
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
on February 1, 1893 at the Paris Fairgrounds in Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas is a city located northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex in Lamar County, Texas, in the United States. It is situated in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. In 1900, 9,358 people lived...
.
Hope, Arkansas
Hope is a small city in Hempstead County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2008 United States Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 10,378...
.
There he was captured and brought back to Paris by train, where a mob of an estimated 10,000 whites placed him on a carnival float and carried him through town and out into a prairie. There, he was placed upon a scaffold and tortured for fifty minutes by members of the girl's family, who thrust hot iron brands into his flesh, starting with his feet and legs and working upward to his head. The family members involved included Myrtle's father, uncles, and twelve-year-old brother. A February 2, 1893 article in the New York Sun stated that, "Every groan from the fiend, every contortion of his body was cheered by the thickly packed crowd." Eventually, the hot irons were thrust into his eye sockets and down his throat. Afterwards, finding he was still breathing, the crowd poured oil on him and set him on fire
Execution by burning
Death by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft....
. The crowd then fought over the hot ashes to collect his bones and teeth as souvenirs.
On February 7, Henry Smith's stepson, William Butler, was lynched outside Paris. Though Butler was known as an upstanding citizen, he was hanged only on suspicion that he had known, and not divulged, the whereabouts of Henry Smith after he had fled.
External links
- Burned at the Stake: A Black Man Pays for a Town’s Outrage
- Handbook of Texas Online
- New York Times article, "ANOTHER NEGRO BURNED; HENRY SMITH DIES AT THE STAKE. DRAWN THROUGH THE STREETS ON A CAR -- TORTURED FOR NEARLY AN HOUR WITH HOT IRONS AND THEN BURNED -- AWFUL VENGEANCE OF A PARIS (TEXAS) MOB."
- Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
- Smith lynching photograph
- Vance family account of Myrtle Vance murder and Smith lynching PDF