REMEMBRANCE
In Memory of Aaron, Anthony and Randall
Anthony and Randall, two Black men, and Aaron, a boy of about 15, were enslaved by white settlers who exploited the labor and lives of Black families to transform Richland Township, near Elkins, from a Native American hunting ground and territorial wilderness into an agricultural center to reap economic gains for white people in 1856. James Boone and David Williams and their families were the enslavers who with their friends and neighbors victimized the three through the brutality of bondage and racial terror.
In 1856, Aaron and Anthony were forced to live in slave quarters that likely once stood along this tree-lined creek.
The creek runs along the edge of property held by the Boone family, Aaron and Anthony’s enslavers, located in Richland Township, near present-day Elkins, Arkansas.
Randall was enslaved by the Williams family, who owned property in the same community.
(Photo provided by Margaret Holcomb, 2019)
American slavery is a cruel system of dehumanization that denied Black families their birthright to freedom and personhood, and buried the true stories of their lives as they would have told them. Local oral history contends that, on May 29, 1856, James Boone attempted to sexually assault an enslaved Black woman who fatally assaulted him in self-defense. The Boone family then implicated Aaron, Anthony, and Randall in Boone’s death. Slavery in Washington County, as elsewhere, devalued the lives of Black people resulting in violence, including sexual assaults and lynchings for which hundreds of white perpetrators were never held accountable. A narrative created by enslavers to perpetuate white supremacy replaced the truth of Aaron, Anthony and Randall and stands as the only written information available about the boy and two men. Their names entered the written record when the three were falsely accused of and arrested for murdering James Boone in what the white record refers to as a “robbery attempt” on the night of May 29, 1856. The case against them was based on hearsay propagated by white enslavers in an effort to conceal their own misdeeds.
In the early plat map of Fayetteville (above), the courthouse where the grand jury and trials for Randall, Aaron, and Anthony were held was located in block 27 (now the historic Square).
The jail that housed the two men and teenager from June 13, 1856 until their deaths was located in section 2 of block 42 (now the corner of Rock and Archibald Yell Boulevard).
(Plat Map, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1834. Washington County Archive)
On July 7, 1856, a white mob from present-day Elkins, AR kidnapped and lynched Aaron and Anthony. They were put on trial at the Washington County Courthouse in the death of a white man, James Boone, who enslaved them. Anthony was proven innocent, Aaron was released due to lack of evidence. Disregarding the rule of law, a mob led by Boone’s sons reacted violently, lynching Anthony and Aaron near the jail, most likely on the estate of Archibald Yell, the deceased former governor of Arkansas. Randall, a third accused enslaved person whom an all-white jury found guilty, contested his verdict but was refused a retrial. Like lynchings, court-ordered executions- with mobs standing by- did not require reliable findings of guilt. Randall was hanged by the state on August 1, 1856, likely on Gallows Hill, which is now within the Fayetteville National Cemetery next to Oaks Cemetery.
Aaron and Anthony were lynched on July 7, 1856, on or near the “Old Yell Place.”
The Archibald Yell property, known as Waxhaws, included this home (pictured) that was constructed by Yell (1797 - 1847) between 1835 - 1836.
The home stood on what is now called South College Avenue. It was razed in the 1960’s. The property is now owned by the City of Fayetteville, and is adjacent to the Senior Center.
(Photo by Lester Jones, c.1934, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division HABSARK,72-FAYVI.V,1-),
Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print)
Randall was executed by the state of Arkansas on August 1, 1856, most likely on Gallows Hill, now the location of the flagpole in the National Cemetery in Fayetteville, Arkansas (pictured).
Gallows Hill was used for state hangings beginning in 1845. The National Cemetery was established after the Civil War.
(Photo provided by Margaret Holcomb, 2019)
Burial records for Aaron, Anthony, and Randall are likely nonexistent. However, Oaks Cemetery, a historical Black cemetery, is the site of veneration to honor their memories and restore their humanity.
Oaks Cemetery was established in 1867 by formerly enslaved people and is the first planned Black cemetery in Washington county. In 2014 it was listed as an historic site in the Arkansas Register of Historic Places. (Photo provided by Valandra, 2020)
