Lynching of Samuel Bierfield
Lynching of Samuel Bierfield Samuel A. Bierfield (? - August 15, 1868) is believed to be the first Jew lynched in the United States. Bierfield and his African-American clerk, Lawrence Bowman, were confronted in Bierfield's store in Franklin, Tennessee and fatally shot on August 15, 1868 by a group of masked men. The killers were believed to belong to a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, which had emerged as an insurgent force in the state in 1866. Bierfield's murder was reported by both The New York Times and the Nashville Union and Dispatch. As was typical in such cases, no one was ever convicted of the crime. One man was arrested for Bierfield's murder but was released by the judge after seven witnesses provided an alibi for him. him The lynching followed months of increasing political violence locally the year before, including the July 1867 attacks on black Union League members in what was called the Franklin Riot. An estimated 25 to 30 blacks were wounded and t