Isaac Kemp
MSA SC 3520-13741
Lynched in Princess Anne, June 8, 1894
Biography:
Isaac Kemp, a berry picker from Virginia, and employed by Frank Barnes
of Somerset County, Maryland, was killed on Friday, June 8, 1894 by a mob
of about 150 white men in Princess Anne, Maryland. Kemp was with
a group of about a dozen blacks that had received pay for their work by
Mr. Barnes when they arrived at a country store owned by Charles Miller
located in the Dublin district about 7 miles north of Pocomoke City.
At around 9:00pm that evening, the group purchased
whiskey, the black workers became unruly and began knocking displays over
in the store. Constable Ned Carver, at the proprietor's request,
asked the group to quell their destructive behavior, stating that the group
could either leave of be arrested. One drunken member of the group
said "We'll come as we --- please!" At this moment, a fight broke
out between Isaac Kemp and Constable Carver. Pushed outside of the
store, the fight continued with the addition of Mr. Frank McCready, Constable
Carver's brother, coming to the aid of his brethren. As the fight
escalated, Carver and McCready were beaten over the head with clubs and
empty beer bottles. Battered and bloody, the two men were punished
within an inch of their lives, but the fight continued, and for a moment
stopped with Constable Carver and Mr. McCready nearly dead. Unsatisfied,
Isaac Kemp ran over the Carver, and with a razor, cut and sliced the constable
on his face and legs, killing Ned Carver.
With the store destroyed, and Carver and McCready
left on the ground, the group fled the scene. Mr. C.A. Veasy attempted
to clean up the two men, and ran to Dr. Dashielle for medical treatment.
Once the doctor got to the victims, McCready was badly hurt, but alive.
As for Constable Carver, Dr. Dashielle said that there was nothing he could
do to save him. Ned Carver was 32 years old and left behind one child.
Within 2 hours, 10 of the 12 men were arrested and
placed in the Princess Anne jailhouse on Main St. The other 2 men
apparently left the store as the men began to fight, and were picked up
in Pocomoke City, arrested, and placed in jail there. Early in the
morning hours of Thursday, June 7, a group of about 75 men approached the
Princess Anne jail, explaining to Deputy Dryden that they had a prisoner
for him to arraign (the other 75 men were placed on guard). Once
the jailer opened the door, the mob rushed the doors, tricking the officer
into letting them in. Officer Dryden refused to give the mob the
keys to the jail cell, and the group began to use a battering ram to open
the door. Forced to hand the keys over at gunpoint, Officer Dryden
could do nothing but watch as the angry men found the supposed ringleader,
Isaac Kemp. One of the other men, John Handy, confessed that Kemp
was not only the lone person drinking, but also that he was the only one
to hit Constable Carver with the bottle. Satisfied that the mob had
found their guilty party, Kemp was riddled with about 50 bullets into his
body, killing Carver's murderer.
Afraid that the mob would return for the other men,
Officer Dryden requested a clandestine removal of the group to a jail in
Salisbury, Maryland, about 15 miles north of Princess Anne. However,
when the mob returned to the jail for the others and realized that they
had been transferred, a request to send a train for 100 men to take them
to Salisbury was denied. In Salisbury, word had gotten out that the
men were there, and tensions between the whites who wished to lynch them,
and the armed blacks in the town who vowed to protect the prisoners, created
a problem. So another secret transfer of the 10 blacks from Virginia
was made, taking them to murderers row in Baltimore City, and leaving the
chaos behind on the Eastern Shore. Once tensions seemed to be under
control, and the guilty parties were facing trial, Constable Ned Carver's
body was buried in Rehoboth, Delaware.
Link
to Lynching Profile Questionnaire
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