The History…

October 18^th Charlotte Observer

“Reports From Statesville yesterday say that the excitement attending the events of circus day in that town has not near subsided, but on the contrary, has increased. Night before last he citizens of the town slept on their arms in anticipation of trouble from the negroes who had been making bloody threats.  The colored population are greatly incensed at the lynching of Campbell and threatened to retaliate by lynching the jailer, besides incendiarism. The citizens of the town prepared to defend their homes and all through Tuesday night were expecting an outbreak by the negroes. Though they maintained a menacing attitude throughout the night, they attempted no violence. Excitement still ran high in the town yesterday, and trouble is anticipated.”

Goldsboro paper  Oct 18 1883

“A dispatch from Statesville says: On Saturday night a white man named Rhyan was badly beaten by a negro, whose name is unknown. Bad feeling existed in the crowd and on Monday a white man named Redmond quarreled with a negro named Campbell, who fired three shots, killing Redmond instantly; the second bullet going through his heart. The first shot struck a bystander named Tom Ball, inflicting a painful wound. Campbell was arrested; but last night after midnight about 30 masked men took Campbell from jail and hanged him to a tree. They did their work so quietly that the occurrence was not known generally until Campbell’s body was found dangling to a tree about daylight. Everything is quiet now.”

October 19^th 1883 Statesville Record
“The Event of Tuesday Morning

Right thinking people, it seems to us can find no adequate apology for the lynching of the colored man, Charles Campbell at this place Tuesday morning. We have never known a case where there was so little excuse for this summary dealing. There are cases where lynch law can be tolerated, if not justified, but this was not one of them. Though the weight of testimony seems to go to establish the fact that in the fatal encounter between Redman and the negro, the latter was the aggressor, there is nothing to show who precipitated the original difficulty or what Cambell’s grievances might have been. But if it is asserted and proved that he was in the wrong throughout, we answer that this proof would furnish the best argument why he should have been left in the hands of the law. Granting again that the slayer was the aggressor, the murder was not committed deliberately in cold blood. It was not as if Redmond had been waylaid and shot or sneaked upon in the dark and stabbed in the back or his house invaded at midnight, and he murdered in his bed. The white man and the negro had gotten near enough upon a level to quarrel and to fight; in a subsequent fight growing out of this, one of them is killed. The case of the slayer should have been left to judicial investigation. So many complications surround the homicide that in no other way could the measure of guilt be accurately determined. But, deaf to all evidence in the prisoner’s favor, a band of lawless men invade the jail and usurping the functions of court and jury visit what they conceive to be justice upon a slayer who had probably not yet gotten sufficiently sober to speak an intelligent word on his own behalf. It was a disgraceful proceeding. It constitutes a blot on the name of our town, our county and our state, and we tell our people that if public opinion approves it as a precedent the time will come when no accused person will be safe from mob violence.”

Oct 19^th 1883 Statesville Landmark

“Bloodshed and Vengeance

Homicide and Lynch Law – A period of Debauchery and Lawlessness. Statesville has, within the past week, been the theater of events which, it is to be hoped, will never have a recurrence here. The circus which was advertised for Monday began to draw people to the town as early as Saturday. All day Sunday and Sunday night they were pouring in on horseback and in wagons. They came not only from this, but from a number of adjacent counties, and it was early observed that they came heated with whiskey, many of them riotous and disorderly when they reached the town.

All Sunday night the air was rent with drunken shouts and an occasional pistol shot foretold the bloody work of the following day. About 9:30 o’clock on the night in question a white man, named Kinn from Newton, a moulder (sic) in the foundry at that place became involved in a difficulty near the depot and was terribly beaten over the face and head with a bottle. His injuries were first thought to be fatal, but under surgical treatment he so far recovered so as to be able to start home Tuesday morning.

Monday morning at an early hour the town was throbbing with life. The streets were crowded and a grossly intoxicated man, even so early in the day was a frequent site, Numerous drunken and boisterous men rode in and followed the circus procession through the streets and the citizens were not unprepared for the events which followed. It was little of a surprise then when it was told around about 1 o’clock in the afternoon that “a man had been killed near the depot”. It was even so and the man was John Redman, of New Hope township of this county, the son of John W Redman, who was himself shot and killed on the 18^th of April last by his cousin HC Redman. The slayer in this case was a colored man, Charles Campbell of Taylorsville. Though this shooting took place in the midst of a large crowd, the full facts surrounding the case are exceedingly difficult to learn. As soon as he was appraised of the occurrence, Coroner Anderson summoned a jury composed of JC Anderson, JA Pierce, AF Bowie, AM Witherspoon, Max Lowenstein and WG Lewis, and proceeded to hold an inquest upon the body. The testimony he took was very conflicting. The occurrence took place at Redman’s wagon just north of McElwee’s tobacco factory on the right hand side of the street leading from town to the depot. (This would have been behind the current location of the Alamo Bar.)

Jacob H Moore testified that he was about 50 yards distant when he saw two flashes of a pistol and then heard the reports. He heard a woman scream and he ran to the spot. As he did so, Campbell ran past him and he caught him.

L D  Campbell testified that he and Redman went up to Charles Campbell and Redman struck the darkey, when the latter fired at the deceased and killed him. JK Lee heard a pistol shot and looking around saw Campbell aiming a revolver at Redman. The latter picked up a piece of wood and threw it at the negro, who shot twice or three times after that and then ran. Redman turned and ran about 15 feet and fell dead.

WG Smith was with Redman when he was shot. He testified that he saw Redman strike the negro with a stick and as soon as he was struck, the negro shot three times. As he shot the first time, John Redman ran and Campbell continued shooting.

Emmett Ayres was at his uncle’s stand when John Redman came up and said he was cut. In a half hour a negro came by and asked witness if he had seen anything of Redman, saying he intended to shoot the _______ ________ (using a very opprobrious epitaph) before night. The darkey then went on, and in 10 minutes witnesses heard pistol shots and ran in the direction from which they proceeded. He saw that Redman was dead and that the negro who had threatened to kill him was under arrest.

The body of the dead man was carried into the tobacco factory and Dr TE Anderson made an examination of it. He found a bullet hole between the 4^th and 5^th ribs 1.5” above and to the inside of the nipple and about 3” from the border of the sternum. Upon opening the chest cavity, he found that the heart and the aorta had been penetrated. The upper lobe of the lung of the left side had also been penetrated and death was instantaneous. As stated above the slayer was seized before he could get out of the crowd and turned over to the police who lodged him in jail. He was then very drunk. Before being locked up, he was examined and a revolver, a 5 shooter was found on his person; three of the chambers empty; and in addition to this, a razor, an old knife and three cartridges. He stated to the jailer that he had shot Redman but that Redman had first knocked him down. It is stated that the two had had a difficulty at Taylorsville some time ago, probably during the last court. It is certain that they had had an altercation and a fight on the morning of the day of the homicide, but the cause leading to this encounter cannot be ascertained with any certainty and we could fill or columns with rumors.

Young Redman’s mother was on the ground of the tragedy. Her demonstrations of grief over the dead body of her son were pitiful to behold. Within 6 months’ time, her husband and oldest son have died by violence. 

One of the shots which Campbell fired struck Mr Thomas Ball of Union Grove township in the pit of the stomach. Fortunately his position was such that  the ball cutting into the cavity made its way out without inflicting a very serious wound. There is a report that another of those shots struck a child and broke one of its limbs, but this cannot be traced to any authentic source. 

A coffin was secured for John Redman’s body and at 4 o’clock Tuesday morning his mother and brother started home with it. Three hours before this time at 1 o’clock there had been a tap at the jail door, and Mr RB Joyner, the jailer got up to see who was there. As he opened the door he was confronted by a crowd of men, about thirty in number, he thinks, one of who stepped forward and asked if he was the jailer. Receiving an affirmative answer, the speaker said “We want Campbell”. By this time there were two or three inside the door, and the jailer was told that if he resisted, they would soon ‘fix’ him. He endeavored to dissuade the crowd from its purpose, but several men stepped forward at the same time and demanded the keys. He got the keys and the man snatched them from him and ordered him to show them where the prisoner was. He went upstairs, the mob following. They opened the cage and ordered Campbell out. He came out and they put a rope around his neck and led him off, leaving as quietly as they had come. When leaving, they ordered the jailer not to follow them. he examined the faces of the men by the light of his lantern, but knew none of them. Some of them had handkerchiefs drawn over the lower part of their faces. Campbell seems to have gone to his death very resignedly. One of the remaining prisoners in the jail heard him say “God will settle with you all for this” but so far as is known, he ventured no further remonstrance. About 10 o’clock next morning the dead body of the murderer was discovered after a diligent search hanging from the limb of a tree in a skirt of woods not far from the residence of Mr JA Davis and near the Western NC Railroad, just beyond the corporate limits of the town. He had been hanged with a small well rope with a regulation hangman’s knot. His feet were about two feet from the ground. He had died of strangulation. The body was cut down and the coroner proceeded to hold an inquest, empaneling WE Anderson, JC Anderson, AM Witherspoon, JS Ramsey, RO Linster, and JW Laurence as a jury. The verdict was that death  had resulted from hanging. “the hanging being the work of a mob to us unknown”. The body was placed in a plain coffin and buried at the foot of the tree from which it had hung. The people learned of the lynching with surprise. Some mutterings had been heard the afternoon before, but few believed that lynch law was contemplated. Campbell was a mulatto, 22 or 23 years of age He bore, at home, we understand an average good character when sober, but was known to be violent when under the influence of liquor. The lynching caused a good deal of excitement and many of the colored people were full of indignation on account of it. In the first heat of passion, some of them made threats of which they have no doubt thought better. It would have been very unfortunate if they had added further violence to that which had already been committed, especially in view of the excellent conduct which has always distinguished the colored people of our town. 

To the record as above, we have to add the stabbing of Maldon Williams of New Hope township on or near the circus ground, Monday. He was cut to the hollow between the shoulder blade and the spinal column sustaining a very painful injury but one from which he will recover.

There were eleven cases for drunkenness and disorderly conduct before Mayor Van Pelt during the week ending the 17^th. These contributed $50.40 to the town treasury. The police seemed perfectly powerless to cope with the horde which held possession of the town for two or three days and nights else the arrests and fines would have been double what they were.

A meeting of colored citizens, to which the white were invited, was held at the court house last evening and a good many of both races attended. Prof. Dillard, colored made a very sensible and temperate speech, and introduced a preamble and resolutions calling upon the officers to ferret out Campbell’s lynchers. The preamble was ill-advised and unwarranted, alleging as facts things which have never been proved. It was, however, adopted. Several speeches were made. The general temper of the meeting  was good, but the preamble to the resolutions gives out such ideas as render it unfortunate that any meeting was held.”

Charlotte Democrat October 19^th 1883

“Circus Day in Statesville. On Monday was productive of more than unusual disorder, for the whiskey crowd indulged in numerous fights with fatal consequences. John Redman, a son of Mr. John Redman, who was murdered by his nephew last April, got into a difficulty with a negro man, named Campbell who killed Redman. Campbell was arrested and carried to jail. At night, Redman’s friends surrounded the jail and took the negro to the suburbs of town and hanged him. None of the citizens were aware of the lynching until the body was found the next morning. There were several fights, one white man was severely injured by a colored man and it is feared will prove fatal. The colored people are quite indignant at the lynching of Campbell and have threatened retaliation, and the excitement has caused the citizens to prepare for any attempt at violence.”

OCTOBER 20^th edition of the Statesville Landmark.

“THE MEETING THE NIGHT OF THE 18TH

We had time last week to make but brief references to the meeting which was held at the court house on the night preceding the day of our last issue. The proceedings of the day have been since been handed to us for publication. We would be entirely justifiable in withholding them since the meeting made no request that they be printed in this paper: we marked carefully at the time the wording of the last resolution as submitted to the meeting, and it was an instruction that the proceedings be sent to all the colored newspapers of the state. Nevertheless, for the gratification of a curiosity which exists in the community for the purpose of pointing out certain inaccuracies which can only be seen when the proceedings are published, and further still to afford opportunities for some comments, which seem to us to be pertinent, we give them place elsewhere in our columns.

It is not so much that the court house is represented as “crowded to the utmost capacity” — when in point of fact it was not half full; it is not so much as gentlemen who did not open their mouths are represented as making speeches—- not so much glaring inaccuracies as these are objected to, as the judicial like manner in which the preamble lays down as facts things which have not been proved and which cannot be proved. In one word the vital objection of the whole proceeding is that a public meeting should have assumed to lay before the public the facts in a knotty and complicated criminal case, and apportion to each, apparently with the greatest nicety the measure of guilt of the slayer and the slain. This preamble contravenes the facts adduced at the coroner’s request and recites as facts hitherto never heard of by persons who think they have been at some trouble to sift the case to the bottom. But that is not the thing. The error was in having undertaken to go into the facts as to the killing of Campbell. We conceive that that had nothing to do with the legitimate object of that meeting. If it had met and passed resolutions denouncing lynch-law in general and the lynching of Campbell in particular; if it had gone on and called, as it did, upon the officers of the law to vindicate the majority of that law by ferreting out and bringing to justice these lawless men, that would have been proper and right. But when a public meeting takes upon itself to try John Redman and find him guilty of an unprovoked and murderous attack upon Charles Campbell, whom it acquits of all blame, that is another thing. The real testimony is very conflicting; it has been impossible, thus far, to get at the full and actual facts; we have always suspected that the colored man had some reason for the furious passion that was upon him when he came upon the white man at the latter’s wagon; but that is not the point.

That upon which we insist is this: that if there is anything worse for the interests of society or for the cause of justice for lynch law, it is the holding of public meetings whether of white or colored men or both to render their verdict upon grave questions of law and facts in the absence of both law and evidence. The fact that both the parties to this difficulty were dead at the time of this meeting does not affect the merits of the proposition which we lay down. The next step in the direction which has been taken will be to hold a promiscuous court house meeting to pass upon the guilt or innocence of some party now in jail awaiting trial by the courts.

No man, white or colored, goes before us in the abhorrence of the crime by which Charles Campbell lost his life. By every consideration of justice and fair play he was entitled to have the facts in his case heard by a court and a jury. His taking off was barbarous – an act fit to be denounced – but sympathy in his behalf or against his lynchers is not to be excited by loose and unwarranted statements put forth by a thoughtless, promiscuous, irresponsible crowd.

This meeting lost sight of the legitimate object and overstepped the bounds within which it might properly have acted. Saying this we can still pardon much to the irritation of the moment, and as for our colored fellow citizens in general, we cordially commend them for their moderation which characterized their conduct and  their speech, last week, when they were laboring under great excitement, born in what they felt to have been a grave outrage visited upon one of their race.”

Charlotte Observer October 21^st 1883

“The Statesville Emeute (emeute means riot)

Public Meeting of the Colored People

Pursuant to a call of a number of leading colored men in Statesville, a public meeting was called at the court house Thursday morning Oct 14^th to consider the recent lynching of Campbell and to denounce the report that a threat had been made by the colored people that they intended to burn the town in retaliation. Quite a number of white citizens were invited and took part In the proceedings.

We have been asked to publish the following synopsis of the proceedings as furnished by the Secretary.

At 8 o’clock PM the court house was crowded to its utmost capacity with both white and colored citizens in response to a call made by Rev JA Gosling, Richardson and other colored citizens.

On motion, Jordan Chambers, colored was elected chairman and Rev C Dillard, a graduate of Howard University, Washington DC was requested to act as Secretary.

The meeting having been called to order C Dillard as requested to state the object of the meeting.

He said that it was not the purpose of the colored citizens of Statesville to raise an insurrection or to even foster a desire of retaliation, but to inaugurate a plan by which the murderers of Chas Campbell, colored may be bought to suffer the full penalty of the law, and the colored citizens were spurred on in this matter through malice toward none, but by a sense of right, by a love for peace and for the maintenance of justice before the law. He asked that the wrong might be redressed through the law, and for the perpetrators of that brutal act be bought before a court of Iredell County and tried by judge and jury. Dillard then closed with a strong appeal to all lovers of the law, to both white and colored to unite in bringing the case to light and thus protect the good name of our community.

On motion, JF Van Pelt, the mayor of the town, was introduced to the audience, who in a speech united in the condemnation of the murderers of Chas Campbell. The mayor believed the lynchers to have been residents of the country (sic) and that Statesville being innocent should not be charged with the crime.

Dr JJ Mott, being called upon to address the meeting, endorsed the remarks of his predecessors. 

He was followed by many of the white and colored citizens, viz: Lawyer Allison, Rev AS Billingsley, and Messrs. Gillespie, Caldwell, Richardson, Griffins and others.

C Dillard then offered the following resolutions, which after some discussion, were received and adopted.

Whereas, On last Monday,15^th instant, while a large and promiscuous crowd, many of whom were intoxicated, had gathered to witness a circus, there occurred a difficulty between John Redman, a white man and Charles Campbell a colored man which resulted in the death of the former: and

Whereas, Competent and reliable witnesses are ready to testify that the white man was the aggressor, having attacked the colored man with a fence rail and was dealing him heavy and repeated blows; and

Whereas, The colored man was arrested and incarcerated in the jail of Iredell county, and on the night of October 15^th, 1883, a body of men, without even being disguised, took said prisoner from the care and custody of the Sheriff of Iredell County, and the state of North Carolina, and without color of law, without trial by jury, that sacred right which the constitution of North Carolina guarantees to every man be him ever so humble – murdered him in a most inhuman and beastly manner; therefore.

Resolved, That is the sense of this meeting that we have assembled with malice to no man, but to humbly petition the solicitor and officers of justice to investigate and bring to justice the violators of law of decency and of the peace and well being of the state of North Carolina. We ask it in the name of justice, in the name of common decency and in the name of God. We call upon the white citizens of Statesville to witness the fact that as a race, we have been a law – abiding people and we appeal to you as honorable men, as representatives of the proud Anglo Saxon race, who glory in the fact that you have given mankind trial by jury to vindicate the good name and standing of our community.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be given to Solicitor Adams and to the Judge who is to preside at the next term of the court and that a copy be sent to the leading newspapers of the state.

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting are due and are hereby tendered to the Charlotte Observer for its fair and impartial report of this unfortunate occurrence.

The meeting then adjourned. Jordan Chambers, President C Dillard Secretary Statesville NC Oct. 19^th 1883”

From The Winston Leader Oct 23 1883

“From the Charlotte Observer we learned that Statesville had a lively day when Sells Circus was there. Fighting seems to have been the principal amusement. An account of which we condense from that paper which says the circus trouble began on Saturday night previous. A trouble arouse between a white man named Rhyne from Newton and an unknown negro, in which the negro beat Rhyne fatally, crushing in his forehead and face. Monday about noon a pistol duel took place between John Redman, white, and Chas Campbell, col. Redman fired twice at the negro, but missed him and the negro fired three times at Redman. The first bullet from the negro’s pistol entered the abdomen of an old man standing near by inflicting a serious wound. The second bullet entered the leg of a child being held in its mother’s arms, and the third took effect in Redman’s heart, killing him instantly. Campbell was arrested and carried to jail in the midst of excitement. That night Redman’s friends surrounded the jail and forced an entrance into Campbell’s sell (sic) and securing the prisoner took him to a tree on the western suburbs of the town and hanged him to a tree. So quietly was the lynching done that none of the citizens of that town were aware of anything until after sun up when the body was found dangling from a tree. Another dead negro was found under a pile of hay where the circus stood who was supposed to have been killed by a showman.”

10/26 1883 Statesville Record

“In his speech at the court house a week ago last night Mayor Van Pelt said that Statesville has a population of 3000 and 13 miles of streets….

A brother of Charles Campbell, the colored man who was lynched here on the night of the 15^th inst., came down last Saturday and moved the body to Taylorsville.”

The Charlotte Democrat Nov 2nd 1883

“The Late murder and Lynching at Statesville

It will be seen from the following statement of the Statesville  American a Republican paper, that the negro Campbell shot young Redman, white, without any provocation whatsoever, and that is what so exasperated Redman’s friends and caused them to hang Campbell forthwith. The American of the 20^th of October states the affair thus:

“Sells Bros’ Circus opened here Monday and attracted several thousand from this and adjacent counties, and as a consequence the use of much spirits was indulged in by many and not without legitimate results, a murder and lynching of the murderer. Near the pavilion, John Redman, son of John W Redman of this county who was killed some months since, got into a dispute with a colored boy from the vicinity of Taylorsville where Redman struck him with a rock and ran to his own wagon where was sitting his widowed mother. Another negro named Trott Campbell, also from Alexander, a companion took it upon himself to go in pursuit of Redman and drawing a pistol, shot him through the heart, dead in the presence of his mother and a number of bystanders. Of course, great excitement was the result and immediate lynching was only prevented by lodging the murderer in jail, where he remained till sometime during of the night when several hundred men appeared at the jail door and forcing the jailer to give up the key, took Campbell in charge and went to the woods near the WNC railroad where his body was found Tuesday morning suspended from a limb of a tree and lifeless.

The happening of this terrible tragedy in our place, though the parties were non-residents and from remote parts and could not have received countenance from any citizen and is deeply deplored. The murder of Redman was deemed without any provocation, as he had no dispute with Campbell who pursued and shot him dead, and it was this that incensed the hundreds who did the lynching to avenge the death of the murdered young man.”

A subsequent issue of the “American” says that the declarations made at a negro meeting in Statesville in regard to the unfortunate affair, are not sustained by the facts. The negro meeting denounced the murdered man, Redman and the lynchers, but had not a word to say about the murderer, Campbell.

Friday 11/9/1883 Statesville Record

“Proceedings County Commissioners

The board of county commissioners met on regular session at the court house last Monday, present MF Freeland, Chairman; J Hervey Stevenson, JA White, JY Templeton, and TJ Allison. Orders were made for the payment of $1.50 to each of the jurors who sat on the inquest over the body of the late Charles Campbell.”