Executed
Robert Butler
Robert Butler, a Black man, was held in the Caldwell Parish jail in Columbia, Louisiana, and was executed there on May 4, 1883. According to a correspondent for the Picayune, he was taken from the jail to a scaffold beside the courthouse, where he spoke to the crowd and prayed. The correspondent wrote that he said he was prepared to die, read the Bible in jail, and faced death bravely, and that he died of strangulation about twenty-three minutes later. His brothers received his body for burial, and it was dressed in a black suit provided by white citizens of the town.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: newspaper correspondent (Special to the Picayune) (reporters).