Charles Winters
John Hirst
John Middleton
Thomas Bradley

1865-07-20
Duplin County, NC

Alleged offense: None
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Legal intervention (in alleged offense): Yes
Legal intervention (following lynching): Yes
Mob size: 7
Mob members: Jacob Brill; Daniel Cobb; A.G. Moseley; H. Williams; B. Best; N. Frederick; Captain J.N. Stallings; B.C. Williams; Lieutenant Luther Lofton; William Pearson; William Hirst; Hill.
Alleged victim: N/A
Household Status: Unknown
Occupation: Farm laborer

Charles Winters, John Hirst, John Middleton, and Thomas Bradley were killed as part of an infamous Duplin County lynching in 1865. Amid the transition from military to civilian governance after the Civil War, these men were killed. According to a report from Captain Edwin Latimer of the federal army, Thomas Bradley was killed in response to a request to have his wife moved to the same plantation he was working on. The cause for the killing of the other three victims of this mass lynching—Charles Winters, John Hirst, and John Middleton—is unknown. Speculation at the time suggested that their deaths, and the attempted lynching of a man named Wiley the next day, were part of an attempt to get each of the five men to leave the plantation they were working on without taking their share of the crop they had worked.

Documentation

Death certificate: None found
Census: None found

News coverage:  

Six Negroes Killed

The Duplin County Negro Murder Case

Full Exposition of the Duplin County Negro Murder Case

The Duplin County Negro Murder Case cont’d

Location

Town: Warsaw, North Carolina
Latitude/Longitude: 34.999359, -78.090857
Rationale: Nearest community to reported site

 

Additional Resources:

 

Researcher’s Note: