These charges so often reiterated, have had the effect of fastening the
odium upon the race of a peculiar propensity for this foul crime. The
Negro is thus forced to a defense of his good name, and this chapter will
be devoted to the history of some of the cases where assault upon white
women by Negroes is charged. He is not the aggressor in this fight, but
the situation demands that the facts be given, and they will speak for
themselves. Of the 1,115 Negro men, women and children hanged, shot and
roasted alive from January 1, 1882, to January 1, 1894, inclusive, only
348 of that number were charged with rape. Nearly 700 of these persons
were lynched for any other reason which could be manufactured by a mob
wishing to indulge in a lynching bee.


A WHITE WOMAN'S FALSEHOOD

The _Cleveland, Ohio, Gazette_, January 16, 1892, gives an account of one
of these cases of "rape."

Mrs. J.C. Underwood, the wife of a minister of Elyria, Ohio, accused an
Afro-American of rape. She told her husband that during his absence in
1888, stumping the state for the Prohibition Party, the man came to the
kitchen door, forced his way in the house and insulted her. She tried to
drive him out with a heavy poker, but he overpowered and chloroformed her,
and when she revived her clothing was torn and she was in a horrible
condition. She did not know the man, but could identify him. She
subsequently pointed out William Offett, a married man, who was arrested,
and, being in Ohio, was granted a trial.

The prisoner vehemently denied the charge of rape, but confessed he went
to Mrs. Underwood's residence at her invitation and was criminally