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Background
[edit]Jane Elkins was the first female slave to be hanged in Texas. She was also the first person hanged for homicide in Dallas County.[1] Contrary to the significance of this, there is not much information to be found about her life. This is accredited to the fact that Texas is not proud of their history filled with slave culture. Jane was charged with the murder of her master Andrew C. Wisdom. [2] Jane was hired out by her mistress to a widow in a time in which female slaves had other “duties” besides general housekeeping and children rearing. [3] “Jane Elkins had no defense attorney against an all-male, white, southern jury during a time of rising sectional tensions over slavery.” [4] The judge who presided over Jane’s trial was Judge John H. Reagan, who was a soon to be U.S. congressman.[5] He apparently saw no need for Jane to have a defense attorney. [6] Jane pleaded not guilty at the trial, which leads some to believe that it may not have even been her who killed her master. [7] The sheriff who was present at Jane’s hearing and presided her hanging was Trezevant Calhoun Hawpe (1820-1863). [8]
Details of the Hanging and Murder Charge
[edit]Jane Elkins was hanged for the murder of her temporary owner, Mr. Wisdom, who had hired her to take care of his children and keep his home. Jane was hanged in the center of Dallas in June of 1853. [9] It is recorded that Jane murdered Mr. Wisdom by splitting his head open with an ax while he was asleep at either Farmers Branch or Cedar Springs (sources point to either). [10]
Jane was convicted on May 16, 1853 and was hanged two weeks later.
The 1992 publication of WPA Dallas Guide and History states, “It was in 1853 that the first legal execution took place in the county. This was the hanging of Jane Elkins, a slave who had murdered a man named Wisdom at Farmers Branch. After a trial before Judge John H. Reagan, most notable jurist of his time, the woman was hanged May 27, 1853.”[11]
The 1892 publication of Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas quotes seventy-one year old W.P. Overton, “The first legal hanging was in 1853 or 1854. A negress was executed for knocking a man in the head with an ax at Cedar Springs. He had hired her and she murdered him while he was asleep. I can’t recall their names.” [12]
Possible motives include but are not limited to psychosis, reaction to physical or sexual assault, or simply no longer being able to bear the injustice of slavery. [13] The trial record indicates the Jane was worth $700, and her owners did not object to her hanging. Several hundred persons witnessed Jane’s hanging, including many who travelled specifically for the purpose of seeing her die on the gallows. Her body was later resurfaced for the purpose of serving as a medical cadaver. [14]
Pieces of the Court Records
[edit]“State of Texas vs. Jane, a Slave”
May 16, 1853
“We the jury find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree. We further find that the defendant is a slave of the value of seven hundred dollars and that the owner of the defendant has done nothing to evade or defeat the execution of the law upon said defendant. (signed) D. R. Cameron, foreman.”
May 17, 1853
“… And it being demanded of said Jane if she had anything to say why judgment and sentence of death should not there be passed upon her and the said Jane saying nothing thereto: It is therefore ordered adjudged and decreed by the court that the sheriff of Dallas County keep the said Jane in close confinement in the common jail of Dallas County until Friday the 27th of the present month of May, and that…between the hours of eleven o’clock A.M. and three o’clock P.M the sheriff…take said Jane from the common jail of said country and convey her to a gallows erected for that purpose and there…hang the said Jane by the neck until she is dead…” [15]
Modern Tributes
[edit]“The Ballad of Jane Elkins” written by Anyika McMillan-Herod and put on by Teatro Dallas is a tribute to Jane and illustrates her coming back from the dead to tell her story right before her execution. The trial transcript states that Jane did not speak during the duration of her trial, therefore, the play attempts to fill in the gaps of Jane’s feelings during this time period of history. [16]
Myths Debunked
[edit]The information that Chipita (or Chepita) Rodriguez was the only woman legally hanged in Texas is false. Chipita was a sentenced murderer who was “launched into legend from a South Texas tree limb on November 13, 1863.” Despite several Texas history books giving Chipita the title of the only woman ever legally hanged in Texas, this count proves to be false, and ignores Jane’s hanging 10 years prior. [17]
1. Baker, Terry. Hangings and Lynchings in Dallas County, Texas: 1853 to 1920. Eakin Press, 2016. 2. Biffle, Kent. A Month of Sundays. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1993.
3. Enstam, Elizabeth York. Women and the Creation of Urban Life: Dallas, Texas, 1843- 1920. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1998.
4. Hitt, Dick. History of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. PDF. 1982.
5. Lane, Jim. ""The Ballad of Jane Elkins," Texas Slave Woman Hanged." People's World. October/November, 2014. Accessed April 13, 2016. http://peoplesworld.org/the-ballad-of-jane-elkins-texas-slave-woman-hanged.
6. James M. Davidon, “‘Resurrection Men’ in Dallas: the Illegal Use of Black Bodies as Medical Cadavers (1900-1907),” International Journal of Historical Archeology Vol. 11 No. 3 (2007)L 193-220.
7. McLeRoy, Sherrie S. Texas Women First: Leading Ladies of Lone Star History. History Press, 2015.
8. Phillips, Joseph Michael. The Fire This Time: The Battle Over Racial, Regional and Religious Identities in Dallas, Texas, 1860-1990. PhD diss., The University of Texas at Austin, 2002. 2002.
9. "Trezevant Calhoun Hawpe: Person, Pictures and Information - Fold3.com." Fold3. Accessed April 13, 2016. https://www.fold3.com/page/282783150_trezevant_calhoun_hawpe/.