Stanly Has a Lynching: The Murder of Alexander Whitley: A Family Legacy Entangled in a Web of Fiction & Folklore.

By M. Lynette Hartsell

“Stanly Has A Lynching” examines the ways in which the media as well as religious, political and social institutions have used ballads, fiction and folklore tales for over a century to celebrate, rather than condemn, the brutal lynching of a white man, Alexander Whitley, in 1892. How men in a small town in North Carolina justified this act of murder as “Just Desert” -- before, during and after the event -- is exposed when facts, rather than fiction, are brought into focus. Through her research and analysis, Ms. Hartsell demonstrates how a family legacy was tainted by a fabricated folktale embedded in religious motif. Many newspaper accounts from the 1800’s help tell the story, conveying aspects of southern history and Lynch Culture not often found in textbooks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. Lynette Hartsell
• Release date: Oct 17, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732354111

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Hartsell

Copyright © 2018 M. Lynette Hartsell.

Interior Image Credit: Sue Sneddon for the Family Chart

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible

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ISBN: 978-1-7323541-0-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7323541-1-1 (e)

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1010 Lakeview Dr.

Cedar Grove, North Carolina, 27231

919-732-1277

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 09/11/2018

It seems a point of our frail human nature to take delight in witnessing the death of a fellow mortal. A hanging seems to possess a wonderful attraction and always draws a larger crowd than anything else, not excepting a circus.

Henry A. London

Murder by Bootjack

The News and Observer, Raleigh, NC

July 25, 1954

Author’s Note: Many of the newspaper articles that are the source material for my research use obsolete and nonstandard conventions in spelling and capitalization, and may include grammatical or other errors. In the interest of historical accuracy, I have retained such nonstandard usage.

For Mom

Edna Mae Barbee Hartsell

1912-2003

You were a fountain of strength flowing with unconditional love.

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©2018 Sue Sneddon

Primary Persons

Nelia (Nealie, Neelie, Neely, Mrs. Titus Barbee) Ann Whitley Barbee

1884–1959

Daughter of Alexander Whitley

Alexander (Alex, Aleck, Alec) Whitley

1861–1892

Daniel Burton (D. B.) Tucker

1856–1892

Judith (Judy) Irene Burroughs (Burris) Goldman

1871–1957

Half-sister of Alexander Whitley

Susannah Whitley

1825–1880

Mother of Alexander Whitley

J. Christian (J. C.) Burroughs (Burris) Jr.

1819–1901

Father of Alexander Whitley

Family Persons

Sophia Morton

1856–1908

Wife of Daniel Burton Tucker

Rachel Catherine Lowder Burroughs

1842–1894

Wife of J. C. Burroughs (Burris) Jr.

Sarah Elizabeth Springer Burroughs (Burris)

1858–1944

Sister of Alexander Whitley

George L. Whitley

1855–1925

Husband of Sarah Elizabeth Burris (Burroughs) Whitley

Frances (Frankie) Mary Honeycutt

1837–1915

Friend of J. C. Burroughs (Burris) Jr.

J. C. Burroughs Sr.

1790–1878

Father of J. C. Burroughs (Burris) Jr.

Edna Mae Barbee Hartsell

1912–2003

Daughter of Nelia Whitley Barbee

Granddaughter of Alexander Whitley

Audrey Dock Hartsell

1909–1995

Husband of Edna Mae Barbee

Mary Cagle Whitley

1858-1888

Wife of Alexander Whitley

Phillip Bud Cagle

1860-?

Brother of Mary Cagle Whitley

Non-Family Persons

I. W. Snuggs

Sheriff of Stanly County, 1892

S. J. Pemberton

Albemarle Attorney

Rev. E. P. Harrington

Composer of Lines Written on the Assassination of D. B. Tucker

Heath Thomas

Author of Alec Whitley: The Man and The Ballad

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - The Bones

Chapter 2 - Four Stories

Chapter 3 - Lines Written on the Assassination of D. B. Tucker

Chapter 4 - A Ballad and a Preacher

Chapter 5 - Daniel Burton Tucker

Chapter 6 - The Sermon

Chapter 7 - Just Desert

Chapter 8 - The Man from Mobile

Chapter 9 - Alec Whitley: The Man and the Ballad

Chapter 10 - Lynching, Politics, and Religion: 1861–1892

Chapter 11 - Migrations

Chapter 12 - Arkansas, 1892

Chapter 13 - Stanly County, 1892

Chapter 14 - The Politics of Protection

Chapter 15 - Lynchers and Newspaper Reports

Chapter 16 - J. C. Burroughs Jr.

Chapter 17 - The Truth

Selected Bibliography

Appendix

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Stanly Has a Lynching is a story about my family, the murder of my great-grandfather Alex Whitley, and how I came to know my ancestors. As I researched my history, I discovered the truth in the saying If you are born and raised in Stanly County, you are related to everybody in Stanly County. My family encompasses those nameless men who committed the murder, those who protected them, and the bystanders, complicit in their acquiescence and silence.

As I peeled back the layers of this story, more and more relatives emerged. Soon the family names I remembered from my childhood filled my research folders in more meaningful ways. My family tree embraced the names of not only Whitley, Barbee, and Hartsell, but also Burris, Honeycutt, Lowder, Tucker, Morton, and many others as the story of Alex Whitley unfolded. It became clear to me that this lynching was about all of us.

It seems that after a century of telling this tale, facts would be well settled, but they are not. The narrative embedded in my family history is significant because it is an example of how one event, a lynching, became a fulcrum used by influential men to further their political and social perspectives through the powerful medium of songs and stories.

I applied critical analysis to each piece of information I gathered about Alex and his lynching. Newspaper reports from the 1800s of his and other lynchings revealed underlying political and social issues and provided a broader historical context for this story. They are the foundation upon which I reconstructed and came to understand the lives not only of my family, but of the community I call home.

The pain suffered by my immediate family as a result of this brutal murder of one of their kin was but one thread in a vast blanket of misery prevalent in 1892. The cover-up of his murder was accomplished as an accommodation to men who stood as pillars of the community, whose virtue could not be challenged. Their words and actions were the accepted measure of moral norms.

A protective shield of silence was necessary to hide the perpetrators of this heinous crime. The fortress built by the stories and songs justifying the murder they committed soothed the collective conscience. They, not Alex, were portrayed as the victims, acting in defense against an evil being. Alexander Whitley was eradicated, and a character named Alec Whitley assumed his identity. In retrospect, the destruction of Alex was a simple act of necessity: Alec Whitley’s evil caused a mob to murder Alex Whitley.

It is too late for a true verdict on the innocence or guilt of Alex Whitley to be rendered. All of these people are dead, and nothing can change the past. But I believe it is important to recognize what actually happened and why it occurred. Once the shackles of silence are broken, and the mindless repetition of biased rhetoric ceases, an honest and thoughtful dialogue can evolve. Then families will no longer have to suffocate under the heavy cover of guilt and shame to maintain the protective, polite silence. The past does not need to define the future.

1

The Bones

I was not yet born when my Grandma dug up her daddy’s bones from beneath the red oak tree in Town Creek, where he had been murdered by a mob 39 years earlier, and had them re-interred in a Primitive Baptist Church cemetery. My fascination with the story about my great-grandfather began when I was a child musing over the snappy phrases on headstones during my family’s ritual of visiting dead relatives on Sunday afternoons. We rode across the county, in whatever second-hand car Dad had running, from our farm in Richfield to Oakboro, where he and Mom had been born and raised. Mom always insisted we stop at the church and visit Grandma’s grave.

Mom and Dad strolled around the cemetery, stopping at headstones and reciting the genealogical connections of our families, often interjecting their judgment on the character of the deceased. These walking tours among the dead Whitleys and Barbees provided a rich oral history of our family and their communities, and hinted at the deeper social issues that bound them together.

Our graveyard outings always wrapped up at the graves of Nelia, Titus, and Alex, with Mom telling the story of how Grandma Barbee dug up her daddy’s bones and put them in the ground: Right there beside of her, Mom would say, pointing to the adjacent headstones. Nelia died on March 15, 1957, at the age of 73 and was laid to rest between the two men she loved: her husband of 46 years, and her father, Alexander Whitley. BARBEE appears on a large granite headstone in the front row of the cemetery, tucked on a hillside and surrounded by towering oak trees. The names Nelia Ann Whitley Barbee and Titus F. Barbee are on the other side of the headstone with the words Gone but Not Forgotten.

A smaller marker bearing the name of Alexander Whitley stands to the left, with the simple caption Nelia chose to describe her daddy’s death: Not our will but thine be done. There is no explanation of why Grandma Barbee had the date of June 10, 1894, inscribed on Alex’s headstone, instead of the date of his murder: June 9, 1892.

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As I listened to the tale told in hushed voices, as if the souls of the dead still lingered to listen, my small fingers often traced Alexander Whitley in the cold granite. I wondered what it was like for Grandma after the mob killed her daddy, and how she got those bones moved.

My grandmother was only seven years old when her father was murdered. The aftermath of Alex Whitley’s murder was similar to that of other lynchings of the time; his family members continued to live in the community among those who marched with the mob to commit or condone the murder. Apparently, Grandma either could not or was not allowed to attend school. Whether she was sheltered to protect her from hearing stories of her father’s murder or from enduring insults by people in the community is unknown. Details of who cared for