Aug. 27, 2024

Rage and Ruin: The Rosewood Massacre

Show Notes
Transcript

Rage and Ruin: The Rosewood Massacre

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the forgotten tragedy of Rosewood, Florida. Once a thriving and peaceful community, Rosewood was torn apart in 1923 by a wave of racial violence sparked by a single accusation. The brutal events that followed left the town in ruins and its residents scattered, with their stories buried in the shadows of history. Join us as we explore the dark days of Rosewood, the lives lost, and the chilling reality of racial hatred that gripped Florida.

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Today, when most of us hear about the state of Florida,

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it almost always is quickly followed by some quirky story

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about someone acting incredibly and hilariously stupid. We're talking about Florida, man.

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But amidst that light and lively sensation, it can sometimes

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be difficult to remember that it hasn't always been the case.

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It wasn't that long ago, and for some people still

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within living memory, that Florida was a hotbed of radical

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and racist ideology that led to countless deaths. This was

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the case for Rosewood in the nineteen twenties, and it

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was a community that would never be the same again.

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In eighteen forty seven, settlers arrived in Rosewood to harvest

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cedar wood. Up sprouted two pencil mills, several turpentine mills,

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and a sawmill, and out of that grew a pocket

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of a civilization in the swampy Florida wilderness. Then followed farms,

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a post office, and even a train depot in a dock.

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This was the burgeoning beginnings of Rosewood and what promise

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to be a profitable, industrious community without racial segregation. This

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is the key thing to note, especially given the times

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racial tensions had eased a bit since the Civil War,

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even though they weren't gone entirely, and in hindsight, would

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never actually completely go away. But for the most part,

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Rosewood at this time was a happy place to live

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for anyone of any racial background. That was until about

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eighteen ninety, when the cedar trees began to run out.

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In response, many of their white residents of Rosewood moved

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to the nearby town of Sumner, and Rosewood became a

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predominantly black township. Two families emerged from Rosewood's population, both

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of them incredibly successful and both of them black. The

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Gohen family bought into the turpentine industry, but then they

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had to leave in order to avoid lawsuits from white competitors.

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That left the carriers, who had made their name and

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fortune in the logging industry and were now part of

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the Rosewood community. Nineteen fifteen was the peak for Rosewood,

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which saw its population rise to three hundred fift fifty

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five people, but in so many ways, it was also

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the beginning of the end. The turn of the twentieth

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century had seen an incredible rise in legislative racial segregation.

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It was now law that white and black people could

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not get on the same bus, let alone drink from

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the same water fountain, and tensions began to rise higher

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and higher. The state of Florida then created new criteria

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that citizens would have to meet in order to vote

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and cut off the growing strength of the black communities

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at their knees. By nineteen twenty, most of the three

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hundred forty four black population of Rosewood were unable to

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vote and were being controlled by the two hundred ninety

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four white residents of Sumner. Black residents could no longer

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run for office, had no legislative power, and weren't even

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allowed to be jurors. Ever, resilient, the people of Rosewood

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did what they could to look after themselves. They built

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three churches, a school, a Masonic hall, a new turpentine mill,

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and a sugar mill. They even had their own baseball

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team called the Rosewood Stars. They had two grocery stores,

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and about a dozen or so two story houses for

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the local residents. People had pianos and organs. They had

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time and money to paint their houses different colors, and

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one former resident recalled that there were Roses everywhere you walked.

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Rosewood needed to rely on Sumner for very few things,

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and that was a good thing. Lynchings were at an

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all time high in the South. What legislation couldn't take

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from the black communities. Supremacists were pilfering behind white masks

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and pointed hoods. And then things escalated even further with

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the looming threats of the First World War. Just when

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things looked like they were about to devolve into racial

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war with one wrong word, the US Army began arming

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civilians with weapons and sending them off the battle. All

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the radical white supremacists saw then was that the US

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government was giving weapons to despondent second tier citizens. Even

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the Germans sought to capitalize on the growing racial tensions

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and dropped propaganda pamphlets encouraging black American soldiers to turn

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on their white counterparts back home. Southern extremists were ever

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concerned about interracial relations, especially after witnessing these relations between

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black soldiers and European women during the war. They pulled

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rank and emphasize the importance of white women's purity. They

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made it a part of their culture that the very

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worst crime a white woman could commit would be to

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take a black lover, and the very worst crime a

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black man could commit would be to sexually assault a

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white Southern woman. These fears and concepts of sexual taboos

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reached their peak in the winter of nineteen twenty two.

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One of the first bursts of explosive and violent behavior

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came from Perry, Florida, when a group of white men

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stormed a black man's house after a school teacher had

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been found murdered. The man, Charles Wright, was dragged out

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into the streets and burned at the stake. The following day,

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two more black men were shot and hanged, and the

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school for black children, the Black Church, amusement hall, several homes,

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and even the Masonic lodge were all burned to the ground.

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And then, just a few weeks later, a woman in

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the predominantly white town of Sumner had a shocking story

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to tell. Fanny Taylor was a twenty two year old

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woman married with two young children. Her husband, James Taylor,

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was a millwright and would be up and out of

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the house before dawn every morning for work, leaving Fanny

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to look after the home and children. One morning in

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nineteen twenty three, Fanny's neighbor woke up to screaming, thinking

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that something was wrong. Her neighbor grabbed her rifle and

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rushed over, only to find Fanny on the floor. Fanny

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had been beaten, her face was bruised, and there were

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scuff marks on her notoriously cleaned floor. Fanny claimed that

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a black man had broken into her house after James

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had left for the day. He then had allegedly tried

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to rape her before beating her and running out the

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back door. The neighbor searched the house and didn't find

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anybody else except Fanny's infant child. Fanny Taylor had a

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mixed reputation around town at best, but rumors of her

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assault sparked a flame that would not easily be put out.

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Levy County Sheriff Robert Elias Walker rounded up some men

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and began searching the town, desperate to put the minds

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and hearts at ease and rid the streets of this

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violent criminal. But links to prominent names in the Rosewood

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community quickly threw up a different version of events, one

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that shone Fanny in a different light. Entirely working as

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a laundress for the tailors was Sarah Carrier, who would

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often bring her grandchildren Filhmina and Arnett Goens with her.

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The three of them had allegedly and collectively seen a

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white man entering and leaving the Tailor household on several occasions,

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and believed him to be Fanny's lover. If any one

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had beaten Fanny and left the house that day, it

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had been this man and no one else. Despite this

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new information, a mob continued to form in Sumner. News

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had broken about a black convict named Jesse Hunter who

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had escaped from a nearby chain gang, and with that,

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the white population began to arm themselves. Around four hundred

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men piled into Sumner from neighboring towns, many of them

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who were believed to have taken part of the k

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K K rally that had happened a few days before

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in Gainesville, Florida. It's believed that about a hundred men

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attended that rally, where they'd burned across and gathered under

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the banner reading first and always protect womanhood Sheriff Walker

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deputized some of these men, but with the sheer number

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of angry, armed and intoxication aid individuals in front of him,

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he must have known that things were going to turn

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ugly very fast. If he had any doubt about that,

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they would have been quickly set straight with what happened

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to Aaron. Carrier sniffer dogs lent to Sheriff Walker from

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a nearby convict camp, led over a one hundred men

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to Aaron's home in Rosewood. Believing that they had their man.

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The mob stormed the house, beat and roughed up Aaron outside,

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and then tied him to the back of a car.

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Aaron was then dragged all the way back to Sumner.

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Seeing this situation devolving, Sheriff Walker then changed strategy. Instead

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of trying to find Fanny's would be assailant, he began

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urging the black population to take cover and hide. The

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mob then grabbed a hold of the local blacksmith named

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Sam Carter. They believed that Sam helped Jesse Hunter escape

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and tortured him into confessing no Doubt, a false confession.

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Sam then took the mob out to the forest where

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he had allegedly left Jess. When no one could find him,

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one of the men turned around and shot Sam in

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the face. The mob then hung Sam's body from a

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tree to act as a warning to others. Sheriff Walker

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and the mill supervisor W. H. Pillsbury tried to subdue

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the crowd. Days later, the situation was only getting worse.

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Three days after the riot had begun, a mob stormed

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Sarah Carrier's house, where somewhere between fifteen to twenty five

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people were hiding. Many of those children. Sarah's son, Sylvester,

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was inside with his mother, and he was known to

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be a bit of a character, proud, determined, and an

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expert hunter. When Sylvester caught wind of what was happening

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in Rosewood, he set about trying to protect as many

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people as he possibly could. It's unclear who shot first,

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but some accounts say that Sylvester killed more than a

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couple wide assailants in a shootout that left the house

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riddled with bullet holes. Stand off lasted well into the

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following morning, when friends managed to approach the house and

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found both Sarah Carrier and Sylvester dead. The children were

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then hustled away to hide in a nearby marshland. They

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were quickly joined by other Rosewood residents who were fleeing

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the mob. Men had begun pouring kerosene on houses and

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setting fire to them, while others shot and killed those

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who tried to escape the flames. Allies escorted and smuggled

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women and children away, many of which had been helped

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by the white owners of Rosewood's second grocery store. John

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Wright and his wife married Joe a week later, and

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the official victim count was eight, but historians and eye

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witnesses claimed that that number was much higher and was

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probably something more like twenty seven. When Heywood Carrier returned

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to Rosewood from a hunting trip, he found that his wife, Sarah,

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his son Sylvester, and his brother James were among the dead.

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It said that the shock and the grief destroyed Haywood,

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who rarely spoke after that and died only about a

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year later. Residents of Rosewood fled and never returned. Those

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who did try to stay, like John and Mary Joe Wright,

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found themselves on very shaky ground. They were ostracized from

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the white community for helping the black residents escape, and

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things grew so sad that John was rumored to have

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kept a gun every room of his house. Mary died

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of cancer a few years later. John then took to

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drinking heavily and quickly followed his wife. That's ten minute

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murder for today, brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe

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that's my name. I'm the host of ten Minute Murder

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and thank you for taking the time to listen. If

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you're a new listener, make sure you hit subscribe before

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you go, and also follow ten minute Murder on social media.

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Links for that are in the show notes of this episode,

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or you can find it all at ten minute murder

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dot com. Do you have time for one quick email? Joe?

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Do you get much hate mail or people insulting you

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about anything? I can't imagine why you would, but some

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people just aren't right. Love the podcast. Kelly in North

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Carolina And Kelly, I mean, every once in a while

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it happens people aren't happy with something I say, or

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joke that I make, or you know, anything in between.

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But none of that really honestly affects me. I'm constantly

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doing the best I can. I make judgment calls about

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things sometimes and sometimes I'm wrong because I'm a person.

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I'm a human being that makes mistakes sometimes, so I

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don't really take criticism to heart that much. But I

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have been insulted pretty recently and it did affect me.

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And that was when my own child told me that

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I look like My favorite rapper is Kesha and That

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one got me. I wasn't expecting it, and to be transparent,

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I was probably at some point listening to Kesha singing

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along and then later on he hit with that, So yeah,

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it doesn't happen often, but he got me. All Right,

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that's gonna do it. That's your episode for today. Thank

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you so much for listening to ten Minute Murder

Rage and Ruin: The Rosewood Massacre

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