| What Virtue There Is in Fire: Cultural Memory and the Lynching of Sam Hose Subjects: Hose Sam d. 1899; Coweta County (Ga.) -- Race relations -- History; Lynching -- Georgia -- Coweta County -- History -- 19th century; African Americans -- Crimes against -- Georgia -- Coweta County -- History; Murder -- Georgia -- Coweta County -- Histor; The 1899 lynching of Sam Hose in Newnan, Georgia, was one of the earliest and most gruesome events in a tragic chapter of U.S. history. Hose was a black laborer accused of killing Alfred Cranford, a white farmer, and raping his wife. The national media closely followed the manhunt and Hose's capture. An armed mob intercepted Hose's Atlanta-bound train and took the prisoner back to Newnan. There, in front of a large gathering on a Sunday afternoon, Hose was mutilated and set on fire. His body was dismembered and pieces of it were kept by souvenir hunters. EDWIN T. ARNOLD is a professor of English at Appalachian State University. He is the author or editor of nine books on southern literature and culture and is editor of the Faulkner Journal . |