Executed
William Johnson
William Johnson, a Black man, was hanged at Monticello, Arkansas, in October 1883, according to a dispatch the Narragansett Herald printed on October 20. The dispatch says a large crowd, most of them Black, gathered for the execution. It reports that he went to the scaffold bravely and confessed, and that account is the paper's own. No other source in this record describes his family, his work, or what others said about him.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state
Reported by: Monticello (Ark.) dispatch (reporters).