The Arrest, Trial and Conviction of John Wesley Barnett for the Alleged Attempted Rape of Marietta Hayes in June of 1899.

Subject

The Law, Crime and Punishment

Description

A series of 1899 Florence and Tuscumbia newspaper articles reporting on the alleged rape of white teenager Marietta Hayes by sixteen-nineteen year-old African-American John Wesley "Wesley" Barnett some seven miles north of Florence near Little Cypress Creek, where Cloverdale Road crosses it.

Young Barnett accosted Miss Hayes on Thursday morning about 9 am, as she was out picking blackberries a half-mile from her home; when the girl screamed Barnett forcefully covered her mouth with his hand, bruising her mouth but not otherwise injuring her.

Hearing the girl's screams her mother ran to investigate and Barnett ran off but was tracked by Lauderdale Sheriff AD Carson and Deputy Price Abernathy to his father Emanuel Barnett's house on the Van Buskirk Place near Florence, some three miles from the scene of the alleged assault, though apparently Sheriff Carson had to threaten to shoot one of Barnett's brothers before Barnett could be apprehended.

As there was a large party of men in the neighborhood who had gone out searching for Barnett, Sheriff Carson had the boy transferred to the Colbert County jail in Tuscumbia hower Colbert County Sheriff Grisham, fearing a possible lynch mob in Tuscumbia, had the boy transferred to Russellville, in Franklin County, where he remained until his trial in December of 1899.

Barnett, who repeatedly insisted he only "meant to hug and kiss the young lady," was judged to be "an ignorant and almost half-witted youth," thus was only sentenced to six years in prison, a sentence judged "by those who have seen him to be commensurate with his understanding of the crime he committed in attempting rape," but which seems somewhat excessive now. His prison term was to have expired December 1, 1905 unless he got out early, that date being June 1, 1904. Unfortunately John Wesley Barnett died of dysentery on March 10, 1900 at the mines in Coalburg., in Jefferson County, AL, where he was sentenced to work.

Source

1-2; 11. Florence Times
3-5; 7-10; 12. Florence Herald
6. Tuscumbia North Alabamian

Publisher

3-10. Newspapers.com
1-2; 11. Bell & Howell Microfilm
13. Ancestry.com

Contributor

Lee Freeman

Rights

Images are available for educational and research purposes. This image may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without the express written consent of the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of the interested party to identify the copyright holder and receive permission.

Format

Jpeg

Language

English

Type

Still Images

Files

Lady Assaulted I FT Fri June 23 1899 p 1.jpg
Lady Assaulted II.jpg
A Dastardly Crime I FH Thu Jun 29 1899 p 1.jpg
A Dastardly Crime II Thu Jun 29 1899 p 1.jpg
A Dastardly Crime III Thu Jun 29 1899 p 1.jpg
Saved from the Mob NA Fri Jun 30 1899 p 5.jpg
Court in Session I FH Thu Nov 23 1899 p 5.jpg
Court in Session II FH Thu Nov 23 1899 p 5.jpg
The Circuit Court FH Thu Nov 30 1899 p 7.jpg
Sheriff Hall in Town w Barnett News About the City FH Thu Nov 30 1899 p 1.jpg
Circuit Court FT Fri Dec 1 1899 p 1.jpg
The Docket Finished FH Thu Dec 7 1899 p 1.jpg
John Wesley Barnett's Convict Record Alabama Convict Records 1886-1952 from Ancestry.jpg

Citation

“The Arrest, Trial and Conviction of John Wesley Barnett for the Alleged Attempted Rape of Marietta Hayes in June of 1899.,” Shoals Black History, accessed April 26, 2024, https://shoalsblackhistory.omeka.net/items/show/1099.