Mrs. J.C.  Underwood, the wife of a minister of Elyria, Ohio, accused an Afro-American of rape.  She told her husband that during his absence in 1888, stumping the state for the Prohibition Party, the man came to the kitchen door, forced his way in the house and insulted her.  She tried to drive him out with a heavy poker, but he overpowered and chloroformed her, and when she revived her clothing was torn and she was in a horrible condition.  She did not know the man, but could identify him.  She subsequently pointed out William Offett, a married man, who was arrested, and, being in Ohio, was granted a trial.

The prisoner vehemently denied the charge of rape, but confessed he went to Mrs. Underwood’s residence at her invitation and was criminally intimate with her at her request.  This availed him nothing against the sworn testimony of a minister’s wife, a lady of the highest respectability.  He was found guilty, and entered the penitentiary, December 14, 1888, for fifteen years.  Sometime afterwards the woman’s remorse led her to confess to her husband that the man was innocent.  These are her words:  “I met Offett at the postoffice.  It was raining.  He was polite to me, and as I had several bundles in my arms he offered to carry them home for me, which he did.  He had a strange fascination for me, and I invited him to call on me.  He called, bringing chestnuts and candy for the children.  By this means we got them to leave us alone in the room.  Then I sat on his lap.  He made a proposal to me and I readily consented.  Why I did so I do not know, but that I did is true.  He visited me several times after that and each time I was indiscreet.  I did not care after the first time.  In fact I could not have resisted, and had no desire to resist.”

When asked by her husband why she told him she had been outraged, she said:  “I had several reasons for telling you.  One was the neighbors saw the fellow here, another was, I was afraid I had contracted a loathsome disease, and still another was that I feared I might give birth to a Negro baby.  I hoped to save my reputation by telling you a deliberate lie.”  Her husband, horrified by the confession, had Offett, who had already served four years, released and secured a divorce.

There have been many such cases throughout the South, with the difference that the Southern white men in insensate fury wreak their vengeance without intervention of law upon the Negro who consorts with their women.

TRIED TO MANUFACTURE AN OUTRAGE

The Memphis (Tenn.) Ledger, of June 8, 1892, has the following: