Certainly, he could be certain that
an attempt to lynch the prisoners
would be made.

Also, if he was a member of the Klan,
( or White Caps as they were often
called at that time)which is likely, since since he seemed so
eager to see the “hanging,” and also
because it might have been detrimental
for him NOT to have been a member,
in which case,
he would have rec’d word from fellow
members that the mob was planning
to storm the jail that night -
the first night of the trial or
the day of the indictment (true bill).

The manner in which lynchings were
carried out were so scripted, in a
sense, that there were predictable
steps in
the ritual, common to them all.

If you read the book (which you can
get at any NC Library through loan
or otherwise), you will see one very
detailed comparison to the March,
1906 Chattanooga lynching, as an
example.

As for my resume. Here is some of it.
I have an English/History degree
from the University of N.C. I
completed
graduate courses in drama and art at
the same university. I completed
more than a year of a 2-year
program in commercial art/ad design
where I learned about the subtleties
of visual propaganda (like that used
to convince good whites to hate and
torture blacks and like that used
to sell fluoride to community water
facilities and to sell potentially
fatal drugs to the general population
and so forth.
I worked as a managing editor of
a publisher of children’s educational
materials until I became poisoned
by the work environment, which led
me to research for the next 20
years the topic of environmental
health and clinical ecology.
I completed graduate courses in public
health at the University of NC at
Chapel Hill, and because of my
husband’s death from agent orange, I
researched the adverse health effects
of dioxin exposure.
While a student at UNC-Ch I conducted
a survey of pesticides used in
N.C. Colleges and publicized the
results on a webpage. I also was
invited several times to speak to
UNC classes about
my research on toxic exposures.

In between doing research on
environmental toxins and
trying to heal from a disability
caused by my own
exposures, I earned several
artistic awards for my paintings of
Outer
Banks scenes. I was one of the
featured artists in Outer Banks Magazine
several years ago.

About ten years ago, I discontinued painting, for the most
part,when I
began doing some family history work
and stumbled upon the story of my
relatives’ ax murder, which led me
to the 1906 report of the “so-called”
state’s investigation and to question
the guilt of those who were lynched.

For the next five years I spent
most of my time collecting news
articles
and oral history on this topic, and
after that I spent all my free time,
while working as a nutrition
specialist for a Federal child
food program, researching this case
and reading books on the subject.

During this time I was mentored by
one of the (if not THE) leading
historian on
the South, Yale Professor, Glenda
Gilmore, who read and edited my first
draft of the book and wrote a
brief summary for the back cover.

All I report in the book is based on
everything I could find out, either
written or oral about the story.
All of the news articles I quote or
paraphrase are cited, so than anyone
may find them on microfilm (your
local library can order most) and
read for themselves the volume of
info available on the case.

Additionally, I include and focus on
recent historical events that
colored the reporting and perception
of the ax murders, and I ask readers
to always consider the source,
which is exactly what you are correctly
doing by questioning my capabilities.

Is there anything else you would like
to know?

I’m sorry I am just now replying.
My daughter had a terrible accident
that has taken most of my time
recently and I was totally unaware
that you had posted.

Thanks for asking.

Incidentally, I am proud of the response to my book and reviews (pasted below), posted by reputable writers/educators, Tex Wood and Rob Neufeld. I am hoping that these reviews, the integrity of my research, and the positive response from the general public will begin to break down some of the barriers the book faces as a “self-published” work.

Below are Wood’s review and a link to Neufeld’s at Asheville Citizen-Times’ . Also see professor Glenda Gilmore’s, found on the back cover.

Posted on February 27, 2008.

Professor George Tex Wood of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College has provided a review of “A Game Called Salisbury”, the new book by Susan Barringer Wells:

“…Faulknerian in its revelations and observations of human nature, clearly spotlighting the question of real responsibility not just for active human evil, but also for spawning its activity. Those PEOPLE in the media (not some amorphous Media) are held to account. I doubt they’ll appreciate seeing that fact bared, so I doubt we’ll see many reviews of this thorough indictment. Wells shows us that lynchings were (and are) the tip of the iceburg, the cruel result of calculated manipulation of our base human natures and our cowardliness in not confronting evil when we see it, either now or then.
While this book lacks Twain’s humor, it rivals his incisiveness.”

http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880215129&template=printart
CITIZEN-TIMES.com
Author does dogged detective work about a family murder

Rob Neufeld
Columnist
February 17, 2008 12:15 am

“One of the most chilling recent books about local history comes to our eyes via self-publication. In “A Game Called Salisbury” (Infinity Publishing), Susan Barringer Wells presents the story of a series of murders and retributive lynchings that had taken place within her family a century ago.

The book is exhaustively researched and compellingly related. To be passionate about a subject is one thing; to tell the story in a fresh and focused way, as Wells does, is a rarer achievement.”