Chapter II: Tortured and Burned Alive

The burning of Samuel Hose, or, to give his right name, Samuel Wilkes, gave to the United States the distinction of having burned alive seven human beings during the past ten years. The details of this deed of unspeakable barbarism have shocked the civilized world, for it is conceded universally that no other nation on earth, civilized or savage, has put to death any human being with such atrocious cruelty as that inflicted upon Samuel Hose by the Christian white people of Georgia.

The charge is generally made that lynch law is condemned by the best white people of the South, and that lynching is the work of the lowest and lawless class. Those who seek the truth know the fact to be, that all classes are equally guilty, for what the one class does the other encourages, excuses and condones.

This was clearly shown in the burning of Hose. This awful deed was suggested, encouraged and made possible by the daily press of Atlanta, Georgia, until the burning actually occurred, and then it immediately condoned the burning by a hysterical plea to “consider the facts.”

Samuel Hose killed Alfred Cranford Wednesday afternoon, April 12, 1899, in a dispute over wages due Hose. The dispatch which announced the killing of Cranford stated that Hose had assaulted Mrs. Cranford and that bloodhounds had been put on his track.

The next day the Atlanta Constitution, in glaring double headlines, predicted a lynching and suggested burning at the stake. This it repeated in the body of the dispatch in the following language:

“When Hose is caught he will either be lynched and his body riddled with bullets or he will be burned at the stake.” And further in the same issue the Constitution suggests torture in these words: “There have been whisperings of burning at the stake and of torturing the fellow, and so great is the excitement, and so high the indignation, that this is among the possibilities.”

In the issue of the 15th, in another double-column display heading, the Constitution announces: “Negro will probably be burned,” and in the body of the dispatch burning and torture is confidently predicted in these words:

“Several modes of death have been suggested for him, but it seems to be the universal opinion that he will be burned at the stake and probably tortured before burned.”

The next day, April 16th, the double-column head still does its inflammatory work. Never a word for law and order, but daily encouragement for burning. The headlines read: “Excitement still continues intense, and it is openly declared that if Sam Hose is brought in alive he will be burned,” and in the dispatch it is said:

“The residents have shown no disposition to abandon the search in the immediate neighborhood of Palmetto; their ardor has in no degree cooled, and if Sam Hose is brought here by his captors he will be publicly burned at the stake as an example to members of his race who are said to have been causing the residents of this vicinity trouble for some time.”

On the 19th the Constitution assures the public that interest in the pursuit of Hose does not lag, and in proof of the zeal of the pursuers said:

“‘If Hose is on earth I’ll never rest easy until he’s caught and burned alive. And that’s the way all of us feel,’ said one of them last night.”

Clark Howell, editor, and W. A. Hemphill, business manager, of the Constitution, had offered through their paper a reward of five hundred dollars for the arrest of the fugitive. This reward, together with the persistent suggestion that the Negro be burned as soon as caught, make it plain as day that the purpose to burn Hose at the stake was formed by the leading citizens of Georgia. The Constitution offered the reward to capture him, and then day after day suggested and predicted that he be burned when caught. The Chicago anarchists were hanged, not because they threw the bomb, but because they incited to that act the unknown man who did throw it. Pity that the same law cannot be carried into force in Georgia!

Hose was caught Saturday night, April 23, and let the Constitution tell the story of his torture and death.

From the issue of April 24th the following account is condensed:

Newman, Ga., April 23.--(Special.)--Sam Hose, the Negro murderer of
Alfred Cranford and the assailant of Cranford’s wife, was burned at
the stake one mile and a quarter from this place this afternoon at
2:30 o’clock. Fully 2,000 people surrounded the small sapling to
which he was fastened and watched the flames eat away his flesh,
saw his body mutilated by knives and witnessed the contortions of
his body in his extreme agony.

Such suffering has seldom been witnessed, and through it all the
Negro uttered hardly a cry. During the contortions of his body
several blood vessels bursted. The spot selected was an ideal one
for such an affair, and the stake was in full view of those who
stood about and with unfeigned satisfaction saw the Negro meet his
death and saw him tortured before the flames killed him.

A few smoldering ashes scattered about the place, a blackened
stake, are all that is left to tell the story. Not even the bones
of the Negro were left in the place, but were eagerly snatched by a
crowd of people drawn here from all directions, who almost fought
over the burning body of the man, carving it with knives and
seeking souvenirs of the occurrence.

Preparations for the execution were not necessarily elaborate, and
it required only a few minutes to arrange to make Sam Hose pay the
penalty of his crime. To the sapling Sam Hose was tied, and he
watched the cool, determined men who went about arranging to burn
him.

First he was made to remove his clothing, and when the flames began
to eat into his body it was almost nude. Before the fire was
lighted his left ear was severed from his body. Then his right ear
was cut away. During this proceeding he uttered not a groan. Other
portions of his body were mutilated by the knives of those who
gathered about him, but he was not wounded to such an extent that
he was not fully conscious and could feel the excruciating pain.
Oil was poured over the wood that was placed about him and this was
ignited.

The scene that followed is one that never will be forgotten by
those who saw it, and while Sam Hose writhed and performed
contortions in his agony, many of those present turned away from
the sickening sight, and others could hardly look at it. Not a
sound but the crackling of the flames broke the stillness of the
place, and the situation grew more sickening as it proceeded.

The stake bent under the strains of the Negro in his agony and his
sufferings cannot be described, although he uttered not a sound.
After his ears had been cut off he was asked about the crime, and
then it was he made a full confession. At one juncture, before the
flames had begun to get in their work well, the fastenings that
held him to the stake broke and he fell forward partially out of
the fire.

He writhed in agony and his sufferings can be imagined when it is
said that several blood vessels burst during the contortions of his
body. When he fell from the stake he was kicked back and the flames
renewed. Then it was that the flames consumed his body and in a few
minutes only a few bones and a small part of the body was all that
was left of Sam Hose.

One of the most sickening sights of the day was the eagerness with
which the people grabbed after souvenirs, and they almost fought
over the ashes of the dead criminal. Large pieces of his flesh were
carried away, and persons were seen walking through the streets
carrying bones in their hands.

When all the larger bones, together with the flesh, had been
carried away by the early comers, others scraped in the ashes, and
for a great length of time a crowd was about the place scraping in
the ashes. Not even the stake to which the Negro was tied when
burned was left, but it was promptly chopped down and carried away
as the largest souvenir of the burning.