The Lula Sherman and Manse Waldrop Story. Pt I

Part I

This article is one I never thought I would write. Through the years of research I have done on African Americans and their 600-year-old journey through slavery and civil rights, this story stands isolated among my examinations. Folks this article is about a black mob who hunted down, strung up, and hung by his neck from the tallest tree they could find, without hesitation or fear, a gawd fearing all American one hundred percent, authentic blond haired blue eyed southern white man in the year of our Lord… One Thousand, Eight Hundred, Eighty-Seven in South (“Shoot That Nigra In The Private Parts Too Bo!!”) Carolina… and lived to talk about it. Now 1887 was just ten years removed from Reconstruction. Reconstruction ended when the US government pulled all the federal troops out of the southern states after the Civil War in what we call the Great Betrayal. It was a political shenanigan by Rutherford B. Hayes so that James Garfield would become president. Of course, after the federal troops left… that meant it was our very azz. Between 1865 and 1877, we were sitting at their bars drinking liquor with white women… looking at them in the eyeballs… eating chicken in the morning… and just basically doing whatever we wanted to do as free citizens of the United States. All of that came to an end after Reconstruction… Racist: “I can’t wait boy..” Black man: (Cutting up a confederate flag on the way to the outhouse… )“Wait for what?” Yep, it was going to be a tough ninety years for us.

Simply Ugly…

So this is only one of two confirmed hanging of a white man by a black mob before the 1900s. Although both cases are a rarity in a historic sense, the Manse Waldrop story stands out for a particular reason that we will expose a little later in the article. As for the other confirmation of blacks participating in the hanging of a white man deep in the south in the 1800s after the Civil War… well let’s just say… there was a reason for all those strange street names you saw down there… like… “Blackfeet Holla Road,” or “Higher Than That Lane,” or “Naw Nigra Circle”… in any event, the outcome for the other blacks involved in lynching a white man was extremely detrimental to their health… So back to Waldrops story… On the morning of December 26, 1887, Lula Sherman age 14, was at home watching her baby sister. She hears a knock on the door. Thinking it was either her neighbor or the landlord, she opens the door. However, it was neither her neighbor nor the landlord, but a strange white man with a long beard asking to speak to her father. Her father, Cato Sherman had taken advantage of the holidays to visit friends and wasn’t home. Lula’s mother had gone to a funeral. The white man insisted on waiting for her parents and Lula’s nervousness became fear. Once inside he raped her. So without getting into a lot of details, it was a violent rape, like the one you saw in “A Time To Kill”, with Samuel Jackson. Seeing the condition she was in, he gave her a handful of some pills and pushed some rags inside her to stop the bleeding. He then put on his jacket. grabbed his gun and left. When her mother returned from the funeral she noticed something was wrong with Lula but figured she was coming down with a cold or flu. Remember the man had drugged her before he left and Lula did not say what had happened. For three days Lula’s condition worsened and no amount of coaxing or commanding made Lula tell her mom what was wrong. On the third day, Lula’s fever begin to increase and she started experiencing convulsions. In desperation, her mom sent for the doctor who was located three miles away. While her other child ran to get the doctor, Lula told her mother what had happened. Unfortunately, it was too late by then, the shock of the assault, and the infection from the dirty rags and the dried blood inside her had done its work. Lula died about thirty minutes before the doctor arrived. The doctor examined Lula’s body and told her mother, “It is probable that she was ravished (raped), and possibly this is the cause of her death.” After Lula’s death, a coroner’s jury was seated. A coroner’s jury’s job is to determine the identity of the deceased and the cause of death. The jury usually consists of between 6 and 20 people. The jury investigating Lula’s death consisted of 14 men. The men on the jury were both black and white. After hearing testimony from both Lula’s parents and the doctor, the jury concluded that she was raped and the assault was the cause of her death. The only thing left to do for the jury was to decide who had committed the crime. They adjourned for the day.

We Got You Now…

Okay… so I need you guys to give me a second while I watch that scene… again… in “A Time To Kill,” where the rapists are coming down the stairs in the courthouse and a red-eyed, sweaty, Samuel Jackson pulls out the biggest machine gun I have ever seen… and shoots at everything moving in dat moe fikity… okay… now I feel better. I’ll watch it again a little bit later… So anyway, the next day they catch a break. Witnesses remember seeing a man fitting the description of the rapist in the area while Lula’s parents were gone. The case went “rope up,” when G.W. Miller, Sherman’s landlord, remembered a man named Manse Waldrop had stopped by that morning asking about renting property. He remembered him because he thought it was strange that Waldrop had a gun but no dog. Two other black men testified that they also saw Waldrop leaving around the time of the crime. Another black woman said she saw him cross her property through the creek headed in the direction of the Sherman’s place around the time of the crime. They had heard enough. They sent for Waldrop. Now earlier I said Waldrop was a blond-haired, blue-eyed caucasian, however, the only record of his appearance is that he was about 35 years old. I just wanted to say he was blond-haired, and blue-eyed because it’s an ugly story and I wanted to be ugly… so yeah… anywho… he was summoned to the general store where the coroner’s jury was being held. He got there just after Lula’s funeral. Besides the witnesses that saw him near the Sherman’s home, there was one witness that saw him “in” the Sherman’s home and that shat must of broke his tiny little heart. That witness was Lula’s sister! Remember Lula was at home watching her. Manse Waldrop was immediately arrested for the rape and murder of Lula Sherman. It was late evening when they finished.

Take That Road Outta Town…

Now we are talking about 1887 in South Carolina. If a black man would have raped a white child causing her death, then right after the eyewitness account, the only thing black folks would have seen is some smoke in the distance and heard a bunch of horses pulling up to the saloon… but since this was a white man, he was arrested. Now even before the coroner’s jury was convened, Cato Sherman, who was Lula’s father, and several other black men had already decided that they were going to hang that white man for that shat. As a matter of fact, a black man named Harrison Heyward said it in open court… well he didn’t actually say, “We “gonna” hang the faque outta him!!,” but he said something equally as dangerous… “We “ought to” hang the faque outta him!!” Now a black man using the word “hang” in a sentence when referring to a white man in 1887 in South Carolina, was to them really the same as actually hanging one. That shat could get you KILLED!! However, under these circumstances, most of the white men let it pass because of their anger and grief. I said “most” of them let it pass. Enter Gaylord Eaton. Eaton had been a part of the coroner’s jury and had had a couple of shots in him during the final investigation and questioning. After Waldrop was arrested, the sheriff asked Eaton if he would help him transport the prisoner to Pickens, which was like the county seat. While Eaton was getting Waldrop ready for transport, he started faquing with him… “That rope will break your neck….” He told him three different times, that he would tie the rope around Waldrop’s neck himself if he could get some Negroes to help him. He also told Waldrop that they were heading towards the jail in Pickens, but he would never get there! When Eaton and the Sheriff had gotten Waldrop situated to pick up the buggy for the trip to Pickens, Eaton secretly hid a rope underneath his coat, and off they went to telegraph the jail in Pickens that they were on their way.

This Gonna Hurt…

Meanwhile back at the store where the coroner’s jury had been held, the black men were discussing how to move forward. It wasn’t any doubt that they were going to make history… they were gonna hang that dude in the former Confederacy right under the stars and bars and they meant that shat! After all, they had heard Eaton, a white man threatening Waldrop right in front of them. They at least had one white man’s support. Rumors of the lynching had already been circulating and at least three people had tried to talk the Sheriff out of taking Waldrop to Pickens. One man even said he would keep Waldrop at his home under guard until the morning when it was light. Eaton told them he was eager to get going and started walking in the “dark” toward the livery stable but the sheriff told him to wait here (in the telegraph office) until he got back with the buggy. Folger, the telegraph clerk, suggested they head out Simms Mills Road since there was a reported mob on the main road. But mob or no mob, Eaton and the sheriff set out toward Pickens on the main road with Waldrop riding in the buggy alongside them. The farther they traveled, the more men they saw standing on the sides of the road. The sheriff seeing that they wouldn’t make it turned the buggy around and made a dash back to the safety of Central, the town they had just left. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it. After a few hundred yards the men caught up to the buggy and dragged Waldrop out and carried him over the hill. After a minute or two, the sheriff and Eaton heard several shots. So while this episode was playing out, Folger and a couple of other men had been heading in the direction of the sheriff and Eaton in their own buggy. When they arrived they saw Waldrop had been grazed by a bullet to his head but was still alive. They positioned themselves between Waldrop and the mob of angry black men. For a moment they thought that the lynching had been adverted. However, three or four men rushed past Folger and his boys and grabbed Waldrop. They then told Folger and the others to leave because they were going to get lynched anyway, whether they hung one white man or ten… okay they didn’t say that… after Folger and his boys were told to leave, they did. The next day they found Waldrop hanging from a tree beside the road.

Business As Usual…

On December 31, 1887, another coroner’s jury was impaneled, this time to determine the cause of death of Manse Waldrop. It was a lot of speculation about why on this occasion the local coroner was replaced as head of the investigation, but he was. Most likely because a black mob had hung a white beside the main road where everybody could see it and that shat could get real ugly real fast. The solicitor for the district, James L. Orr, Jr., arrived to take charge of the investigation. Within four days five black suspects were named and arrested for murder. They were Harrison Heyward, Cato Sherman, Bill Williams, Henry Bolton, and John Reese. The men were transferred to Pickens where they awaited trial. Eaton was also arrested, but for the lesser crime of accomplice to murder. Eaton was a man of means and had hired two of the best lawyers in town, Within a week he was out of jail on a five thousand dollar bond. The five black men were represented by R. W. Simpson of Pendleton, a prominent Confederate veteran, and attorney. Excuse me while I laugh my azz off. LOL!!! LOL!!! LOL!!!. Anyway, the case made headlines around the region and African Americans tried to help in any way they could. In Charleston, South Carolina, Samuel J. Lee a prominent African American attorney and once the state Speaker Of The House Of Representatives before Reconstruction, helped raised funds for the black defendants’ defense. Lee and the Charleston group even sent a black lawyer to Pickens, but after speaking with the defendants’ counsel, Confederate Colonel, R.W Simpson, he concluded that outside counsel was not needed. Simpson: “Yeah boy… you can go back and tell them fancy nigra’s in Charleston that you will be taking over the case… if you can get out of town alive….” So yeah, I guess he would tell them outside counsel was not needed. A grand jury convened in Pickens on January 16, 1888, with Judge Joseph J. Norton presiding over the Court of General Sessions.

Please check back tomorrow for Part II of The Lula Sherman and Manse Waldrop Story.

Thanks for reading ©Hill1News.

Ref: American Nineteenth Century History 6:3 (September 2005): 273- 293