Died in jail or a lockup
One of 7 people whose names were not reported
A Black man was one of three men held in the jail at Charleston, Indiana, when a mob came for them, according to an Indianapolis dispatch printed in the Shenandoah Herald. About 150 men in disguise took the three from the jail around two in the morning on November 17, 1871, and hanged them from a tree about half a mile from town. The mob, not any court or officer, carried out the killings.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. The 1871 newspaper report says about seventy masked men demanded the keys from the jailer and sheriff, who refused, then broke open the jail doors and hanged the three men from trees outside town.
Reported by: the 1871 newspaper report of the Charlestown jail mob (reporters).