Library Guides: Lynchings on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore: Jenkins Showell, 1875

Biography

Jenkins Showell (d. 1876)
Executed on August 11, 1876 in Snow Hill, Maryland

Jenkins Showell was executed in Worcester County on August 11, 1876 in Snow Hill, Maryland. Showell was around 25 years old, and was suspected to have raped two women within two hours. Showell had been emancipated from slavery as an adolescent, and is speculated to have belonged to Lemuel Showell. Jenkins Showell had previously served time in penitentiaries for rape charges, as well as separate terms for attempted murder and robbery.

On the evening of November 26, 1875, Jenkins Showell was suspected to have raped and robbed an African American woman by the name of Margaret Purnell on the outskirts of Berlin, MD. He then invaded the home of Mrs. Sally Hadden, a pregnant white woman whose husband was away at work. Showell reportedly demanded money from Hadden, who complied with her robber. However, Showell then raped Mrs. Hadden upon only receiving a few copper coins. After Showell left, Hadden fled to the house of her father, who sounded alarm to his neighbors to form a posse. Showell was caught at his mother's house and taken to the jail in Berlin. The following day, he was transferred to the jail in Snow Hill for protection against a lynching threatened by Berlin townspeople.

Showell was tried in May of 1876, and found guilty on both counts of rape. Judge John R. Franklin reluctantly sentenced him to death in June. Showell never denied his rape of Purnell and Hadden, and fully confessed on the day of his execution. Two thousand people were estimated to have attended the hanging.