James Bowens (c. 1872-1895)
MSA SC 3520-13745
Biography:
James Bowens, a twenty-three-year-old African American resident of Frederick, was lynched by an angry mob on November 17, 1895, after he attempted to rape and murder a local white girl the day before. Bowens had spent most of the day on Saturday, November 16 drinking with several of his friends. The men were drunk when they started for home on foot at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, along a road near a farm owned by a man named Hamilton Geisbert. Bowens went into Geisbert's house asking for something to eat, and there he encountered 22-year-old Lillie Long, an employee and resident of the Geisberts. Miss Long gave him some bread and meat, which he ate, and seeing that she was alone in the house, offered her a dollar and made "an indecent proposal." ("By A Maddened Mob," The Baltimore Sun, 18 November 1895). When she screamed and ran out of the house, Bowens chased her into the garden, knocked her down to the ground, cut her neck with a pair of scissors, and stabbed her in the chest several times. She screamed and fought Bowens, who tore her clothes off and threatened to kill her. Hamilton Geisbert and one of his sons were working in a cornfield near the house, heard her screaming and chased Bowens away. Several neighboring farmers joined in a pursuit of Bowens with rifles and shotguns. It was reported that if they had found him they would have killed him on the spot. Instead, Bowens was peacefully arrested after a short time, given a preliminary hearing before the county magistrate at the mayor's office and put in the Frederick County jail. Bail was set at $300 and another hearing was scheduled for Monday.
News of the assault on Lillie Long spread quickly throughout the county. Many Frederick County citizens had already been growing increasingly alarmed at the high number of assaults that had taken place in Frederick County over the previous several months, the assault on Miss Long being the fourth in six months. Early Saturday evening, a crowd of several hundred men gathered on the streets where they discussed the distressing trend and the possibility of lynching Bowens. At about 11:30 that night, a rumor started that Lillie had died from her wounds. Although the rumor was later proved false, it further enraged the men and prompted them to start out for the Frederick County jail to get Bowens. Armed with revolvers and knives, they broke into a blacksmith shop along the way and helped themselves to sledgehammers and crowbars before arriving at the jail at about 12:45 a.m. on November 17, 1895. The jail was more lightly guarded than usual because the sheriff, Lillie's uncle, was spending the night at his farm near Woodsboro. The deputy sheriff and his wife were present, however, but unable to stop the mob from smashing down four heavy doors and five big locks and breaking into Bowens' cell. The men took Bowens and led him to a tree in a privately-owned field about a half-mile outside of Frederick along Jefferson Pike. Bowens reportedly protested that he was innocent and begged not to be lynched while the crowd urged him to confess. When he refused, two Salvation Army men requested to pray with him. They each prayed for Bowens and then led him and the lynchers in a recitation of the Lord's Prayer. Another unidentified speaker addressed the crowd and asserted that the lynchers were "gathered not in a spirit of malice toward the colored race, but to set an example for the protection of homes and firesides and to teach the lesson that the women and children of Frederick county must be saved from the fear of assault." ("Lynched!" The Frederick News, 18 November 1895.) The lynchers hanged Bowens from the limb of the tree, then quietly disbursed. An autopsy later revealed that Bowens died of strangulation. The body was taken to the home of his father, Simon Bowens, on Locust Alley, and buried at 2 o'clock the next day at an African American cemetery north of Frederick.
Link to Lynching Profile Questionnaire
Return to James Bowens' Introductory Page
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