Died in jail or a lockup
Name not reported
On the evening of February 18, 1881, a mob took five Black men from the jail in Springfield, Tennessee, and lynched them, according to a special dispatch in The Daily Gazette published the next day. The men are not named in the account, and nothing is said about their lives or families. The dispatch describes the mob seizing them from the jail, and it does not say whether the jailer or officers resisted, gave up the keys or handed the men over.
Cause of death, as reported: Taken from custody and lynched. A special dispatch reported that a mob forcibly took five men from the jail and lynched them.
Reported by: special dispatch.