one or more of the family are said to have died, though that matter is not
stated definitely. It was suspected that the cause of their illness was
the existence of poison in the water, some miscreant having placed poison
in the well. Suspicion pointed to a colored man named Benjamin Jackson who
was at once arrested. With him also were arrested his wife and
mother-in-law and all were held on the same charge.

The matter came up for judicial investigation, but as might have been
expected, the white people concluded it was unnecessary to wait the result
of the investigation--that it was preferable to hang the accused first and
try him afterward. By this method of procedure, the desired result was
always obtained--the accused was hanged. Accordingly Benjamin Jackson was
taken from the officers by a crowd of about two hundred people, while the
inquest was being held, and hanged. After the killing of Jackson, the
inquest was continued to ascertain the possible connection of the other
persons charged with the crime. Against the wife and mother-in-law of the
unfortunate man there was not the slightest evidence and the coroner's
jury was fair enough to give them their liberty. They were declared
innocent and returned to their homes. But this did not protect the women
from the demands of the Christian white people of that section of the
country. In any other land and with any other people, the fact that these
two accused persons were women would have pleaded in their favor for
protection and fair play, but that had no weight with the Mississippi
Christians nor the further fact that a jury of white men had declared them
innocent. The hanging of one victim on an unproven charge did not begin to
satisfy the mob in its bloodthirsty demands and the result was that even
after the women had been discharged, they were at once taken in charge by
a mob, which hung them by the neck until they were dead.

Still the mob was not satisfied. During the coroner's investigation the