In October of 1905, the schooner Harry A. Berwind was intercepted off the coast of North Carolina. On board were four Black sailors, three of them alive and one dead. The survivors told conflicting stories – blaming each other for the murder of the ship’s four White officers, who had been shot and thrown into the sea. The men would be arrested and tried for murder in Wilmington (which had suffered deadly racial violence only a few years before) and an intense legal drama would follow, ultimately involving the Supreme Court and President Theodore Roosevelt. In the end, so many participants – from jurors to lawyers to participants – acted against type that justice had a fighting chance.
My guest is Charles Oldham, author of “Ship of Blood: Mutiny and Slaughter Aboard the Harry A. Berwind, and the Quest for Justice”. He shares details of this sensational yet largely forgotten story in American history.
More about the author’s work can be discovered here: charlesoldhamauthor.com
The Audible version of his book can be purchased here.
