![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Anthony_Crawford_head-and-shoulders_portrait_facing_front.jpg\")
<\/a>\nAnthony Crawford<\/em><\/p>\n
Released on bail, Crawford was headed toward the gin, where his cotton was waiting. The white mob quickly regrouped and attacked him. Crawford resisted, injuring one of the whites, but the men finally overpowered him and kicked him until he had lost consciousness. The sheriff persuaded the mob to permit him to regain custody of Crawford. From his cell, Crawford was heard to say, while spitting blood where they had kicked out his teeth, “I thought I was a good citizen.” By not displaying “the humility becoming a ‘nigger’,” however, he had become vulnerable. When a false rumor circulated that Crawford might be moved to another jail, thee mob mobilized again and easily entered the jail. After shoving Crawford’s broken body down three flights of stairs, they mutilated him, dug their heels into his upturned, quivering face, tied a rope around his neck, and dragged him through the streets of the Negro quarter as a warning. Finally, they hung him to a pine tree and emptied their guns into his body. Dutifully, the coroner convened a jury, which quickly reached the verdict that Anthony P. Crawford had come to his death at at the hands of parties unknown to the jury. A subsequent citizens’ meeting ordered the remainder of the Crawford family to leave town within three weeks.<\/p>\n
A leading South Carolina newspaper had little difficulty in ascertaining the principal reason for Crawford’s murder. “Crawford was worth around $20,000 and that’s more than most white farmers are worth down here. Property ownership always makes the Negro more assertive, more independent, and the cracker can’t stand it.” The citizens of Abbeville, regardless of class, demonstrated by their action\u2014and inaction\u2014not only extraordinary cowardice but also their own complicity in the crime. Pointing to the tree where Crawford was hanged, a resident remarked, “I reckon the crowd wouldn’t have been so bloodthirsty, only it’s been three years since they had any fun with the niggers, and it seems though they jest have to have a lynching every so often.”<\/p>\n
Culled from: Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America<\/a><\/p>\n Culled from: Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America<\/a><\/p>\n This is the final entry of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the archived version<\/a> for all entries up until now).\u00a0 Hope you enjoyed his journey!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s today\u2019s entry:<\/p>\n December 10th.\u00a0<\/b>After an all-night ride, with some sleep, reached Charleston at eight o’clock in the morning, and left the cars in the lower part of the city near the mouth of the Ashley River. The day was cold and cloudy, and a dense mist hung over the harbor. We were kept a large part of the day on a wharf, waiting for the fog to clear away, exposed to the piercing winter’s wind as it blew in from over the harbor. By the middle of the afternoon the mist had lifted, and at four P.M. we were transferred to a small steamer and sailed down the harbor. Passing the many points of interest which, under ordinary circumstances, would have commanded the closest attention of all, at this time all eyes were peering with intensest gaze out into the thick haze which hung over the harbor. At last old, ragged Fort Sumter came in view, and as we passed under its ruined, battered walls, all eyes for a moment turned toward that historic pile. Then the boat’s speed slackened, and swung slowly around so that the gaze of the prisoners, who were confined on the stern of the vessel, suddenly took in the sight before them. There, high before us, only a few yards away, lay the majestic steamer “City of New York,” from whose topmast waved the grand old Stars and Stripes. The scene which follows beggars description. Men shouted and cheered, laughed like idiots, and cried like babies. Men stood with their eyes riveted on that flag as if dreaming; others danced or grasped each other, and all acted like madmen.<\/p>\n Transferred and exchanged! the fulfillment of “hopes long deferred.”<\/p>\n And I’m sure you want to know what happened to George after the war?<\/p>\n He worked as a clerk in a publishing office in Cincinnati, Ohio but at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Phelps Lowe (1841-1905) in October, 1868, he was living in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.\u00a0 They had 2 children. His first child was born in Fitchburg in 1873.\u00a0 From 1880 to at least 1900 he was an express messenger there.\u00a0 He died on November 3, 1915.<\/p>\n Here’s his Find-A-Grave entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Culled from:\u00a0Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost<\/a> and Antietam on the Web<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s Insolent Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Some lynchings took place for no other apparent reason than to bring down a black person who had managed to achieve a measure of economic success. Anthony Crawford, born of slave parents in 1865, had become a substantial landowner and farmer in Abbeville, South Carolina. He had twelve sons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-ghastly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13545,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540\/revisions\/13545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lynching Photo Du Jour<\/h3>\n
<\/a>
\nThe lynching of three African American males
\n<\/em>August 6, 1906, Salisbury, North Carolina<\/p>\nAndersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!<\/h3>\n