Seminole Burning Trial, 1899-05

Item — Box: 1, item: 6

Identifier: 2011.020.6

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

A cabinet card depicting the interior of the courtroom in which the Seminole Burning trial was held. 'The prisoner could only be tried for kidnapping and conspiracy but received a twenty-five year sentence for the murder of two innocent Seminoles.'

Dates

Creation: 1899-05

Access

This material is open for research use by any registered reader.

Biographical / Historical

The Seminole Burning case involved murder and execution of two Seminole men; Lincoln McGeisey and Palmer Sampson, as part of the torture and murder of a larger group of Seminole men as a white community was seeking revenge for the murder of Mary Leard of Maud, Oklahoma in January 1898. While the rest of the killings were handled as normal lynchings, because these two men were dragged from the Seminole Nation in Indian Territory to Pottawatomie County in Oklahoma Territory, it became a federal case.