Died in jail or a lockup
Nathan Willis
Nathan Willis, a Black man who lived near Town Creek in Brunswick County, North Carolina, was in the custody of the sheriff when a mob of local farmers took him on Thanksgiving night, November 25, 1897. According to a Wilmington dispatch, the mob carried him into the woods, chained him between two pine trees and burned him to death. A Columbia, S.C. dispatch of the same date said he was lodged in jail, while the Wilmington account says he was taken from the sheriff. Whether the sheriff resisted the mob or handed him over is not stated in the accounts.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched
Reported by: news dispatch datelined Wilmington, N.C. (reporters); Richmond Dispatch, reporting from Wilmington, N.C. (reporters).