Sign-In
Cart
The Isaiah Fountain Case
Hardcover
Series: 1
Black American StudiesRegional: Middle AtlanticTrue Crime
ISBN13: 9781735995793
Publisher: Secant Publishing LLC
Published: Oct 18 2022
Pages: 326
Weight: 1.36
Height: 1.09 Width: 6.35 Depth: 9.27
Language: English
The Isaiah Fountain Case: Outrage and Jim Crow Justice on Maryland's Eastern Shore is a riveting account of racial injustice in Talbot County, painstakingly pieced together from the headlines and court records of a century ago.
In the wake of World War One and the Spanish flu pandemic, economic and racial tensions flared across the country. The Eastern Shore of Maryland was not immune.
In April 1919, a successful Black farmer named Isaiah Fountain set out by foot from his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, to Easton, Maryland, the county seat of Talbot County, in search of his missing wife. He had dispatched her on their wagon to withdraw money from their bank in Easton, but she failed to return.
Finding she had made the withdrawal as planned, but had then left their horse and wagon behind in Easton, he suspected she had headed north to her parents' home in Camden, New Jersey.
The next day, he bought a train ticket and followed her. Happily, when he reached Camden, she agreed to return home in a week. Unhappily, the timing of this domestic spat - precipitating his trip out of town - was about to kindle the most dire and vengeful suspicions in Talbot County, becoming a living nightmare for Isaiah.
A teenage White girl who also lived near Trappe reported having been raped by a Black man on the same afternoon that Fountain was in Easton searching for his wife.
These coincidences set off a catastrophic chain of events for a man who was almost certainly innocent: a hurried investigation, arrest, trial, 9-minute deliberation by an all-White jury, conviction, appeals, retrial, second conviction, and hanging.
Along the way Fountain narrowly avoided being lynched by angry mobs and unbelievably, escaped twice from custody, evading massive manhunts before being recaptured.
Unfortunately, not even three unimpeachable White witnesses who testified that Fountain was in Easton at the time the rape occurred could save him.
In July 1920, Isaiah Fountain earned the bitter distinction of becoming the last person to be legally executed on the Eastern Shore - on a custom-built gallows inside the Talbot County jail.
In telling this harrowing story for the first time at book length, Koper also chronicles a secondary story line - a media war between Easton and Baltimore newspapers, which saw the case very differently from each other and blazed away with one accusatory salvo after another.
Also in
Black American Studies
In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Iton, Richard
Paperback
Nothing But Love in God's Water: Volume 1: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement
Darden, Robert
Hardcover
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
Degruy, Joy a.
Paperback
When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy
Montgomery, Beronda L.
Hardcover
Decoding the Devil: Black Women Codebreakers and the Secret War Against Stalin's Bomb
Valentine, Sarah
Hardcover
Sacred Pampering Principles: An African-American Woman's Guide to Self-Care and Inner Renewal
Gandy, Debrena Jackson
Paperback
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Smith, Clint
Paperback
Nature Knows No Color-Line: Research into the Negro Ancestry in the White Race
Rogers, J. a.
Paperback
The Instigators: How Black Women Have Been Essential to American Democracy (and What We Can Learn from Them)
Omara, Atima
Hardcover
The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within Us Slave Culture
Woodard, Vincent
Paperback
A Terrible Strength: The Hidden Crisis of the Black Womb and Your Survival Guide to Healing
Doll, Kemi, MD Mscr
Hardcover
Redeem a Nation: The Century-Long Battle to Restore the Soul of America
Solomon-Simmons, Damario
Hardcover
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Revised Edition: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
Degruy, Joy a.
Hardcover
A Second Sight: How the Wonder and Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom
Jackson, Sarah J.
Hardcover
African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama's Renowned Tuskegee Institute
Tillery, Carolyn Q.
Hardcover
The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction Through Black Lives Matter
Allen, Sylvester, Jr.
Boggs, Belle
Hardcover
The People Can Fly: American Promise, Black Prodigies, and the Greatest Miracle of All Time
Bennett, Joshua
Hardcover
The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving
Williams, Michelle A.
Hardcover
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Cobb, Charles E., Jr.
Paperback
Mindful Meditations for Black Men: Restorative Practices to Soothe Mind, Body, and Spirit
Caraballo, Jor-El
Hardcover
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
Haas, Jeffrey
Paperback
A High Price for Freedom: Raising Hidden Voices from the African American Past
Ford, Clyde W.
Hardcover
Black Film: A History of Black Representation and Participation in the Movies
Walker, David F.
Hardcover
Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership
Baker, Brea
Hardcover
Self-Care for Black Women: 150 Ways to Radically Accept & Prioritize Your Mind, Body, & Soul
Adeeyo, Oludara
Hardcover
Africulture: How the Principles, Practices, Plants, and People of African Descent Have Shaped American Agriculture
Carter, Michael, Jr.
Hardcover
How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories: Notes from a Frustrated Black Psychologist
Lassiter, Jonathan
Hardcover
Stories in the Seams: A People's History of Black Quilts and Their Makers
Plummer, Sharbreon
Hardcover
The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable
Squires, Delano
Hardcover
Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans
Sampson, Robert J.
Hardcover
Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
Martin, Waldo E., Jr.
Bloom, Joshua
Paperback
The Valley of the Dry Bones: The Conditions That Face Black People in America Today
Windsor, Rudolph R.
Paperback
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing
Degruy, Joy Angela
Paperback
Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa's Historic Greenwood District
Johnson, Hannibal B.
Paperback
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Smith, Clint
Hardcover
Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s
Fayer, Steve
Hampton, Henry
Paperback
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
Twitty, Michael W.
Paperback
The Spirit of a Man: A Vision of Transformation for Black Men and the Women Who Love Them
Vanzant, Iyanla
Paperback
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race
Tatum, Beverly Daniel
Paperback
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture
Brown, Sherronda J.
Paperback
White Evangelical Racism, Second Edition: The Politics of Morality in America
Butler, Anthea
Paperback
Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice: A Guide to Success for Black Americans
Kimbro, Dennis
Hill, Napoleon
Paperback
Contempt of Court: The Turn-Of-The-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism
Curriden, Mark
Phillips, Leroy
Paperback
W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America
The W. E. B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachuset
Hardcover
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
King, Gilbert
Paperback
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Baptist, Edward E.
Paperback
Historically Black Phrases: From I Ain't One of Your Lil' Friends to Who All Gon' Be There?
Hill, Jarrett
Anderson, Tre'vell
Hardcover
Never Wear Red Lipstick: 8 Lies That Stop Black Women from Succeeding in Life and Business
Dunham Burton Phd, Karmetria
Hardcover
Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans
Bridges, Khiara
Hardcover
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
Penniman, Leah
Paperback
I Have a Dream - Special Anniversary Edition: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Paperback
Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History
Sides, Hampton
Paperback
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: Nina Simone, Langston Hughes, and the Birth of Black Power
Miller, W. Jason
Hardcover
Nature Knows No Color-Line: Research into the Negro Ancestry in the White Race
Rogers, J. a.
Hardcover
Slavery by Another Name (Pulitzer Prize Winner): The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Blackmon, Douglas A.
Paperback
Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal
Love, Bettina L.
Paperback