Taylor Bryant
Taylor Bryant, a Black man, was hanged at Monroe in Walton County, Georgia, on October 19, 1883, before a large crowd, as a congregation sang 'A charge to keep I have' and his pastor, S. Ham, prayed with him. According to a newspaper report, he said on the gallows that he was ready to go and that Jesus had given him peace, and the Savannah Morning News reported that he denied guilt to the end. The Savannah paper said Sheriff Ammons placed the cap, the trigger was sprung before the crowd expected it, and the fall did not break his neck. A telegraph account in The Daily Dispatch instead described him falling about two and a half feet and writhing for ten minutes before death came after about twenty-one minutes, so the two accounts differ on how he died.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: newspaper telegraph report of the hanging.