Lynched near Upper Marlboro, Prince George’s County, Maryland, on September 1, 1878
Biography:
Michael Green, an African-American worker, was lynched by a mob of men wearing masks, who broke into the jail at Upper Marlboro on September 1, 1878. Green was accused of assaulting Alice Sweeny of Prince George’s County. The Prince George’s County sheriff protected Green in the jail for the week prior to his lynching, as there were many threats from citizens eager to punish Green for his alleged “crime of an unusually aggravated character.”
The mob of men forcefully entered the jail on the evening of September 1, 1878, and took Green about a mile outside of Upper Marlboro to the corner of Queen Anne’s Road and Hills Lane, where a cherry tree stood. It was reported that Green struggled with the men and he confessed to the assault of Sweeny. After his alleged confession, the mob swung the rope over one of the overhanging branches and hanged him until he was dead.
Michael Green is buried outside the Upper Marlboro jail on the west lawn next to the body of Joseph Vermillion, also of Upper Marlboro, who was lynched in 1889, and Stephen Williams, who was lynched in 1894.
Source: MSA SC 3520-13788
MLTRC Prince George’s County Public Hearing, January 25, 2025
Michael Green was the third Black man lynched in Prince George’s County.
Mr. Green was a free Black man born in about 1848. He was a husband and father. He and his wife —Laura Rideout — had one child, Sophia Green, according to a family tree of his wife’s family. The couple married in 1872, when Mr. Green was 25 and his wife was 17, according to state marriage records.
It’s likely that Mr. Green’s family may have been tenant farmers. An 1850 federal census lists him and other family members as living in a white farmer’s household in Nottingham, in Prince George’s County. They may have been living with Rachel Curtin’s family because her forebears were enslavers of Mr. Green’s ancestors, according to a history of African Americans in the county by the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission.
Mr. Green is listed in the1870 census, as 22 years old and living in the county’s Marlboro district along with five other people with the same last name, four in their 20s and a 1-year-old child. Upper Marlboro was an important African American community during that time. After the Civil War, some Black freedmen bought land there, built a Methodist meeting house and established a school for Black children in 1867.
In 1871, Mr. Green had an account in the Freedman’s Bureau’s Bank, according to its records. And his child was born in about 1873, according to the federal 1880 census.
Now that you know something about Mr. Green, we can share what we know from newspaper accounts about the lynching of Mr. Green on September 1, 1878.
It’s impossible to know what really happened, given the incomplete and contradictory newspaper accounts of the time. White-owned newspapers often framed stories about lynchings to vilify Black victims and justify the lynchings.
All we really know is that Mr. Green was kidnapped by mob from a locked jail cell in Upper Marlboro, taken to a tree just outside town and lynched.
The story begins sometime in late August 1878. It follows a common pretext for lynching — a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman. In this story, it was 19-year-old Alice Sweeny. Newspapers described her as a “beautiful young woman of high social standing,” and mentioned she was engaged to be married in the fall.
Newspaper accounts don’t tell us when Miss Sweeny was assaulted or exactly where it happened. One said it occurred about 200 yards from her house — some miles from Marlboro — as she was going to the spring. Another simply said it happened in “an unfrequented place” as she was walking home after visiting friends. According to most accounts, Miss Sweeny was left unconscious by the attack but somehow made it back home.
The following day, Miss Sweeny identified Mr. Green as her assailant. That was all that was needed for him to be accused of the assault. The newspaper stories don’t provide any evidence or eyewitnesses connecting Mr. Green to the assault of Miss Sweeny.
There had been threats against Mr. Green and it was reported that Mr. Green had already survived one lynching attempt. Concerned for Mr. Green’s safety, the Prince George’s County sheriff kept him in the Upper Marlboro jail for a week before his lynching. But in the end, being in jail didn’t protect him.
Early on the morning on September 1, a mob of some 50 masked men that one newspaper said were “armed to the teeth” forcibly entered the jail and found their way to Mr. Green’s cell, according to the Washington Post. They broke down the cell door and dragged Mr. Green from his cell and took him about a mile outside of Upper Marlboro to a cherry tree in a wooded area.
Mr. Green reportedly struggled with the men and confessed to assaulting Miss Sweeny. After his alleged confession, the mob swung a rope over one of the tree’s branches and left him to die.
Michael Green was buried outside the Upper Marlboro jail on the west lawn.
The Washington Post declared, “The guilt of the prisoner was unquestionable,” and citizens thought he deserved punishment. But the paper added that no one thought that anyone would interfere with the normal process of law. Or that that Mr. Green would “be taken out of the hands of the legally-constituted authorities.”
Many newspapers such as the New Bloomfield Times in Pennsylvania concluded that lynching was “generally endorsed by the community.”
A jury of inquiry quickly reached the verdict that Mr. Green was “found hanged by parties unknown.” Authorities made little effort to identify those responsible for the lynching.
The only thing the jury recommended was strengthening the jail door, according to an undated hand-written note signed by Justice Henry Brooke and 11 other jury members.
The story ends here. But our work continues. We remain committed to learning more about Mr. Green, investigating what really happened and working to hold accountable those responsible for his brutal murder.