Died in jail or a lockup
Alexander Foote
Alexander Foote, a Black man, was held in the jail at Princeton, Mercer County, West Virginia, in April 1891. Newspaper accounts say that on the night of Saturday, April 11, a group of men from Bluefield demanded the keys from the sheriff, who gave them up, and that the group was led to Foote's cell. The men took him from the jail and hanged him from a tree behind the village schoolhouse. One paper reports that about forty men took part, while the other gives no number, and the accounts differ on other details.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: news reports.