Lynching of Benjamin and Mollie French

The lynching of the Frenches of Warsaw took place in Warsaw, Gallatin County, Kentucky on May 3, 1876, between 1 am and 2 am on a Wednesday morning. Benjamin and Mollie French, African Americans, were lynched by a white mob for the murder of another African American, which was unusual for this period.[1] Lake Jones was an elderly black man who had faithfully served a white family named Howard, both before and after his emancipation from slavery.[2] The Frenches were accused of poisoning Lake Jones with arsenic and intending to steal his money.[3][4][5][6]

The Ku Klux Klan lynched the Frenches because, they said, Lake Jones was "the best nigger in the country."[1][7][8] The KKK broke into the jail, took the Frenches about a mile upstream of Warsaw, and hanged them both from a tree on J.H. McDaniels' (McDonnell's in another account) farm.[2][7]

  1. ^ a b Wright, George C. 1990. Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865–1940: Lynchings, Mob Rule, and "Legal Lynchings". pp. 98-99. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press
  2. ^ a b Cincinnati Commercial. May 5, 1876. "The Lynching of Lake Jones, Warsaw, Kentucky". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  3. ^ Segrave, Kerry. Lynchings of Women in the United States: The Recorded Cases, 1851-1946, p. 26
  4. ^ "Hung to the limb of a tree", Petersburg Index and Appeal. Virginia, May 6, 1876, p. 1.
  5. ^ "Crimes and casualties", Logansport Weekly Journal (Indiana), May 13, 1876
  6. ^ "Recorded Cases of Black Female Lynching Victims 1886-1957 in the United States", Africa World Newspaper
  7. ^ a b Cincinnati Enquirer. May 5, 1876. "A Bloody Night's Work at Warsaw, Ky." "French Lynching, Warsaw, Kentucky". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  8. ^ Frankfort Tri-Weekly Yeoman. May 11, 1876. "The Lynching of Lake Jones, Warsaw, Kentucky". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.