Emma Hartsell [Laws F34]

DESCRIPTION: Emma Hartsell is found with her throat cut. Two blacks, Tom [Johnson] and Joe [Kiser], are accused of the crime and hanged from a dogwood tree. Even Joe's last request for a drink of water is refused
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: homicide execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 11, 1885 - Birth of Emma Hartsell to S. J. and E. G. Hartsell (source: her tombstone as reported by NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, p. 86)
May 29, 1898 - Rape and murder of Emma Hartsell. (So her tombstone; other sources imply a date of May 30). Joe Kiser and Tom Johnson are arrested, but -- despite protestations of innocence -- are lynched before they can be tried
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Laws F34, "Emma Hartsell"
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 296, "Emma Hartsell" (1 text plus 1 excerpt and mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 94, "Emma Hartsel" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 237-238, "Song of Emma Hartsell" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Jan A. Herlocker, "The Tragic Ballad of Miss Emma Hartsell," Vol. XXIII, No. 31 (Aug 1975), p. , "The Ballad of Emma Hartsell" (1 text, 1 tune; the article starts on p. 82)
DT 728, HARTSELL
ADDITIONAL: Bruce E. Baker, "North Carolina Lynching Ballads," essay in W. Fitzhugh Brundage, _Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South_, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, pp. 222-223, "Emma Hartsell" (1 text)
Roud #2272
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. J. V. Johnson (tune)
NOTES [628 words]: Based on the notes in Brown, it appears that the facts in this particular case can never be known. The notes comment that racial hatred was at a high pitch due to attempts to give Blacks the vote in North Carolina.
The known facts are that Hartsell was killed by having her throat cut, and the doctor believed she had been raped first. Kiser came to town to report finding the body, and was arrested. Johnson was arrested soon after, on what basis it is not clear -- possibly Kiser implicated them. It seems likely that Kiser was found by the mob that had been called up when Emma's parents came home and found her dead body. It is possible that he was found with blood on his clothes, which explains why he was accused of the crime.
That night, a mob attacked the jail, seized the prisoners, and lynched them. The cynic in me suspects that the actual murderer was probably a leader of the lynch mob.
Bruce E. Baker, "North Carolina Lynching Ballads," essay in W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South, University of North Carolina Press, 1997, pp. 219-245. gives details that make it an even uglier story, because Emma Hartsell was only a child -- a twelve-year-old girl (p. 221).
"On May 29, 1898, the Hartsell family went to church, leaving an infant daughter at home in Emma's care. When they returned around five o'clock, they found Emma dead on the kitchen floor, 'her head nearly severed from her body.' A local doctor examined the corpse and declared that she had been raped. A search party formed to hunt down the killed, and suspicion came to rest on two black men, Tom Johnson and Joe Kizer. When the sheriff placed them in the Concord jail around seven o'clock, the searc party followed him to the jail and demanded that he turn the prisoners over. The sheriff refused, and the mob assaulted the jail, knocking in the front door and seizing Johnson and Kizer. The mob took the pair down the Mt. Pleasant oad about a mile and a half out of town before finding a dogwood tree suitable for the hanging. A minister who had tried to convince the mob of two thousand people not to lynch Johnson and Kizer spoke to the prisoners, and then they were hanged. After the hanging, the mob fired several hundred rounds into the corpses. Spectators took souvenirs, including the rope, parts of the tree limbs, and various articles of clothing (but not body parts)" (pp. 221-222)
The piece is unusual in several regards. First, the meter has four feet in each line, rather than being in standard 4-3-4-3 meter. It has several specifics, but not eyewitness specifics; Baker thinks -- and I suspect he's right -- that it is probably based on newspaper accounts, possibly one not from the local paper (pp. 225-226). And the mention of the alleged rapists' race is mentioned only at the end. It's as if the writer adapted an existing piece, then asked himself at the end, "Gee, what did I forget to mention?"
The NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal article collects various local recollections of the event, including one from a younger member of the Hartsell family, but almost everything claimed by one source is contradicted by another, and some of the recollections may have been influenced by the song. The only things the accounts add that I haven't seen elsewhere are a copy of the text on her tombstone and the fact that Emma was beautiful and well-liked -- but, of course, that might be the typical glorification of a murdered person. In the end, the records of the case seem utterly inadequate. Didn't anyone even try to find out the truth?
Joyce C. Preslar, a cousin of the Hartsell family, tells me that Hartsell "is buried at Poplar Tent Road Cemetery off of Highway 601 through Concord, relatively near the Charlotte Motor Speedway." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: LF34

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