The Lynching of Ben Howard

In December 1864, Ben Howard watched as U.S. soldiers pillaged his slaveowner’s plantation in Liberty County, Georgia, torn between feelings of fear as the soldiers took everything there was to eat, and joy at now being free.

In August 1892, Ben Howard lay dying on Sandy Run Road in Liberty County, lynched by two young white men.

How did he get there?

Howard was born about 1845, held in slavery by Joseph LeConte on the Syphax Plantation in Liberty County, near Barrington Ferry Road and Sandy Run Road. Joseph LeConte had inherited Syphax Plantation from his father Louis LeConte’s estate in the early 1840s. Howard became a free man when a portion of Sherman’s Army, commanded by General Kilpatrick, passed through Liberty County in December 1864.

After the war ended, Howard continued to live in the same area, like many of the other people enslaved on the LeConte plantations. He farmed, and started a large family with his wife, Priscilla Jones, with at least eight children. Howard also began the encounters with the law that would eventually lead to his murder.

In 1881, Howard swore out a warrant for the arrest of neighbor and former fellow enslaved man Aberdeen LeCounte for threatening him with a shotgun. Samuel A. McIver, also formerly enslaved, had become a Justice of the Peace, and signed the warrant. The outcome of that case is not known.

In 1882, a grand jury heard testimony against Howard in an alleged arson case. Witnesses in the case were local white landowner James Townsend, Charles Richardson, and Silvey Jones, who lived near Howard. Howard was accused of setting fire to Townsend’s rice house and commissary.

Charles Jenkins, Howard’s nephew by marriage, said that Howard had left the Woodland plantation that evening to go to his sister’s house. Howard’s sister Rachel and her husband Titus Alvin [also spelled Albian] both testified that Ben Howard was at their house that evening from about dusk to about midnight. Jenkins said he saw the fire about 11 p.m. and that Ben, who had just returned from his sister’s, went with him to see what was happening. When they got there, Jenkins said, the commissary had burned down and the rice house was on fire. Joe Jones, Howard’s brother-in-law, also said that he had started toward the fire with Ben, but that he had turned back to get his pants.

However, Silvey Jones told a different story. She testified that she had been planning to hire a horse from Ben Howard that evening when she saw the fire. When she went there, she saw Howard at the corner of the burning house. “When Ben Howard saw me he said ‘Oh God,’ and Peter Jenkins said, ‘We are done.’” Jones said that Ben Howard, Peter Jenkins, Charles Jenkins, and two others were there, and she was afraid and went home. She said Howard later came to her house and offered to pay her not to tell. She testified that her brother was John Lambert, and that the Varnedoe place was about a mile from the burned commissary house. She said she had seen Townsend in Riceboro after the fire but that she did not tell him what she saw; she only told her mother.

Peter Jenkins, for his part, said that John Lambert had told him he had done it, and that he had told Howard’s attorney, Judge John L. Harden, that, but alleged that John Lambert had later confronted him at gunpoint and demanded that he take back what he said. Doctor Ladson testified that John Ladson had told him on a Thursday that he was going to burn down Townsend’s house because Townsend had accused him of killing his cattle, and then the Saturday of the following week told him that he had done it. [NOTE: It is possible that the note-taker mistakenly wrote “John Ladson” but meant “John Lambert.”

Both John Lambert and Ben Howard were brought before the grand jury in the November 1882 session. John Lambert was indicted, and the charges against Howard were dropped. Lambert was later convicted of the arson.

In May 1885, Howard and his relatives Titus Alvin and Scipio Alvin were indicted by a grand jury and convicted of simple larceny for stealing three hogs worth $9 belonging to Francis B. Middleton on December 27, 1884. Townsend served on the grand jury. John L. Harden and W.A. Way, who appear frequently in court records of the time as defense attorneys for African American defendants, were the defense attorneys. Howard served two years in prison for the crime.

Whatever the root cause of the tension between Townsend and Howard, it came to a head in August 1892. On August 11, the Savannah Morning News reported that James Townsend, “a well known citizen of this county,” had been shot at his commissary in Jonesville that Tuesday night: four buckshot in his left side and two in the left leg. The newspaper added, “Several negroes are under suspicion and it is probable that the perpetrator will be speedily discovered…the people are highly incensed against the offender.” The inflammatory headline read “A Citizen of Jonesville Probably Fatally Wounded.” However, on August 17, the newspaper reported that Townsend was rapidly improving and that his doctors thought he would be able to leave his bed that week. His son, W.C. Townsend of Lake Butler, Florida, was by his side.

Late on the evening of August 22, policeman A.J. Delk, with two others, arrested Howard for allegedly shooting Townsend. Delk later reported that as they were taking Howard to jail in Hinesville, when they reached Sandy Run Road a group of men appeared and told them to leave, which they did immediately. Delk said it was dark and he could not tell if the men who stopped them were black or white. Howard’s body was found later “riddled with bullets.”

Liberty County probate judge J. Sloeman Ashmore wrote an account of the lynching to Georgia Governor Northen, a Democrat, who was mounting an anti-lynching campaign amidst a fierce re-election battle against the Populist Party candidate. Both parties were attempting to attract the substantial African American vote.

Ashmore said that about two weeks before Townsend was shot, a yoke of oxen had been stolen from him and sold in Savannah “by a colored man named Joe Myers.” Townsend, Ashmore said, had thought that “several other colored men were implicated in the theft and probably said so.” Ashmore appeared to suspect that the police might have been complicit in the lynching, noting that the constable who had arrested Howard had been taking a “circuitous” route with him to Hinesville. Ashmore, who was an elected official, had no real involvement with the case and noted that he was not writing officially.

The Liberty County African American community was outraged by Howard’s murder, and hundreds attended his funeral, according to the Savannah Morning News, which predicted, however, that it was unlikely there would be any open demonstrations.

Shortly after the lynching, two young white men, Tom Long and John Leonard, were arrested by Liberty County Sheriff Smith. There was supposed to have been a preliminary hearing starting at 9 a.m. on August 26 in Liberty County before Justices of the Peace A.S. Quarterman and F.M. Hughes, but by 3 p.m. the prosecution’s witness still had not appeared. Col. Way from Savannah appeared around 3 p.m. and took charge of the defense. At 5 p.m. the prosecution’s witness showed up, and “negroes commenced pouring in from every side and began holding secret consultations among themselves.” Col. Edward P. Miller and Judge Harden, who had previously represented Howard, also appeared then, and Col. Miller busied himself trying to calm the crowd. When the case finally began, the prosecution’s witness claimed he was still not ready, as there were other witnesses he had failed to summon.

Long and Leonard were bound over to the Liberty County Superior Court on $1000 bond each, as the coroner’s inquest had charged them with being accessories to the crime. The Savannnah Morning News commented that there had been some excitement during the day, “but everything passed off quietly.”

In late November, Long and Leonard were indicted for murder by a Liberty County grand jury and released on $5000 bond each. The case made the national news, with the Pittsburgh Dispatch commenting on November 20 that there was much interest in the case because of Governor Northen’s anti-lynching campaigning and because a “negro convention” had just ended in Atlanta and had called for punishment in such cases. The Dispatch’s account of the case had different, and presumably mistaken, details: “In it the very points at issue are unsolvable. James Townsend, a wealthy farmer of wide family connections, while riding through the Camel swamp to the country site, was shot from his horse by some concealed person. His dead body was found in the road. A negro, Ben Howard, who had a grudge against the family, was run down as being the guilty party.” The newspaper also alleged that Howard had been hanged, rather than shot, by a masked mob. Of course, Townsend did not die, and the newspaper may have described the lynching as a hanging because that was the popular image of lynching.

By May 1893, the trial was not yet underway, as the state had announced it was still not ready to prosecute its case. No further records were found.

Sources:

On Nov 22 1882 grand jury indicted John Lambert for the James Townsend arson case, and returned a “no bill” against Ben Howard, with Seaborn B. Rustin as the prosecutor in that case.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49SH-Z?i=590&cat=332384

John Lambert case https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49MR-R?i=592&cat=332384

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-41V3?i=593&cat=332384

Found guilty

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49MB-P?i=596&cat=332384

Went to the Supreme Court which upheld the guilty verdict : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49S3-D?i=634&cat=332384

About forfeiting bond

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-492D-J?i=12&cat=332384

Doctor Ladson vs. James Townsend: Appeal from county court – dismissed – plaintiff to pay all costs https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-4991-T?i=622&cat=332384

To be resumed: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-41GL?i=628&cat=332384

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49MF-C?i=638&cat=332384

Case was dismissed and Doctor Ladson ordered to pay all costs: