1890-12-24
Hertford County, NC
Alleged offense: Murder
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age:
Legal intervention (in alleged offense):
Legal intervention (following lynching):
Mob size: 130
Mob members: Unrecorded
Alleged victim: Nep Adkins and Adkins’s mother
Household Status: Unrecorded
Occupation: Unrecorded
Kinch Freeman, an African American man, allegedly murdered Nep Atkins and Atkins’s mother–both white–in Bertie County on October 4, 1890. Authorities arrested Freeman after two months of running. Officers took Freeman to the jail at Winton in Hertford County on December 24, 1890. A masked mob organized and went to the jail that midnight. Three unmasked men went to the jailer’s house with a ruse. They presented a man with tied hands, claiming the man must be put in jail that night. When the jailer unlocked the doors the mob stormed the jail. The mob found Freeman chained to the floor. The mob hanged Freeman in his cell.
Documentation
Death certificate: None found
Census: None found
News coverage:
Location
Town: Winton, North Carolina
Latitude/Longitude: 36.396380, -76.932963
Rationale: Located lynching and abduction near site of historic courthouse and jail.
Additional Resources:
Researcher’s Note: