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Manly McCauley
Manly McCauley was an 18-year-old Black man who lived and worked on Milton and Maggie Brewer's farm a few miles west of Chapel Hill, in the area where he was born. A mob of white men seized him on October 30, 1898, and lynched him; his body was found near today's Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road.
Source: James Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Manly McCauley
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Manly McCauley. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Manly McCauley’s life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Storylines this person is part of, earliest first. Each has its own page.
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
- Manly McCauley and Maggie Brewer leave the Brewer farm west of Chapel Hill On a Wednesday afternoon Maggie Brewer, wife of the farmer Milton Brewer, left the family farm four miles west of Chapel Hill with Manly McCauley, an eighteen-year-old Black farmhand who had worked there about a year. A posse of eighteen men led by her husband set out after them on Friday and overtook the pair beyond Jonesboro. People: Manly McCauleyDigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), November 17, 1898, page 5
- Manly McCauley is lynched near Carrboro Manly McCauley, an 18-year-old Black farmhand, left Milton Brewer's farm west of Chapel Hill with Brewer's wife on October 26, 1898. A posse caught them beyond Jonesboro, and on the way back masked men took McCauley from the officer holding him and hanged him. His body was found on November 6, about three miles west of Chapel Hill. People: Manly McCauleyJames Madison University, Memorializing Racial Terror: The Lynching of Manly McCauley
- Manly McCauley's body is found hanging from a tree three miles west of Chapel Hill A farmer, Thomas Myrick, found McCauley's body hanging from a bent dogwood beside the public road some three miles west of Chapel Hill, a week after masked men had taken him from the officer bringing him back. Coroner Jordan was telegraphed to hold an inquest. People: Manly McCauleyDigitalNC: Charlotte Daily Observer, November 8, 1898, page 4
- Jesse King, the officer who held McCauley, is tried and acquitted at Hillsborough King, returning alone to Chapel Hill with his prisoner, was met by masked men who overpowered him and hanged McCauley from a dogwood. Tried at Hillsboro for permitting the prisoner to be taken from him by the mob, he was acquitted; the News and Observer used the trial to confirm that the lynching had in fact happened. People: Manly McCauleyDigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), November 17, 1898, page 5
- Carrboro unveils a marker honoring Manly McCauley On February 18, 2024, the Town of Carrboro, the Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition and the Equal Justice Initiative unveiled a historical marker beside Carrboro Town Hall for Manly McCauley. McCauley, an 18-year-old Black farmhand, was lynched by a white mob in 1898 near Hatch Road and Old Greensboro Road, west of Carrboro. People: Manly McCauleyChapelboro: Carrboro, Remembrance Coalition Unveil Marker to Manly McCauley 125 Years After His Lynching
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Books about Manly McCauley
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- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
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Research sources
Additional research sources
Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.
- Background context: A mob lynched Manly McCauley in 1898 – Sunday, Carrboro memorializes him The Local Reporter
- Background context: Equal Justice Initiative: Lynching in America, North Carolina Equal Justice Initiative Documented racial-terror lynchings by county, with the report behind the county’s 2022 resolution
- Read contemporary evidence: DigitalNC newspapers: 2 Orange County pages naming Manly McCauley DigitalNC Searchable pages from historic Orange County newspapers
- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Manly McCauley NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Ask locally: Local History Help Hours and request form OCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
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