Charles Hurt

Newspaper reports of the lynching of Charles Hurt called it “the old story” of a “black brute” with a “hellish design” to violate a respectable white woman. On August 16, 1899, Nancy Battle, a 27 year old white woman who had lost her husband, Stephen Battle, only two months earlier, accused Hurt of attempting to assault her while she was washing her family’s clothes at her well. Allegedly, after a passing farmer prevented Hurt from assaulting Battle, Hurt returned to try again before being scared away by her screams.

That night, Marshal W.M. Thrasher of the city of Brantley pulled Hurt from his bed at his father’s house and arrested him for the attempted assault, despite Hurt’s denials of guilt. Witnesses, including Battle, identified Hurt as the assailant and he was locked in the Brantley guard house. Around midnight, an “infuriated” and “enraged” mob broke into the guard house, took Hurt to a nearby swamp, tied him to a tree, and shot him to death, “completely perforat[ing]” his body with lead. One account reported that Hurt’s father and brother “refused to have anything to do with the body,” so Hurt was buried in the swamp where he’d been shot. Claiming the bodies of lynching victims often proved difficult for the victims’ families, who could face violence from white members of the community who would have seen respectful treatment of the victim’s remains as endorsement of his alleged crimes. The inability to bury their family members with respect compounded the trauma of the lynching itself for black families and communities.