HIS 114 19th Century US History
Focus Questions for A Murder in Virginia
Chapters 19-24, Afterword
Winter 2007 / Lai
Chapter 19 One Shall Be Taken
1. Explain the prosecution’s motion for a nolle prosequi.
2. Why does Pokey’s trial hinge on “two calculations of distance and time”?
3. Once freed, how does black Richmond greet Pokey? Why is she a celebrity?
4. How did John Mitchell lose his re-election as alderman? What tactics did
Democrats use to steal the election? Would this be consistent with Foner’s
description of Redeemers?
5. What is the significance of David James Thompson’s suit against the Richmond
Times for libel and defamation?
Chapter 20 Messages
1. How do the letters convey the personalities of the writers and the relationships
between people?
Chapter 21 Solomon’s Body
1. What are Solomon’s final words about the murderer of Lucy Pollard?
2. What happened to Solomon’s body after the hanging? Why was John Mitchell
arrested for abducting the body of Solomon Marable?
Chapter 22 Common Sense
1. Why did Judge Coleman order a new trial for Mary Abernathy?
2. Why did Lunenburg’s attorneys decide to drop Mary’s case?
3. Did Mary feel it was safe to return to Lunenburg? Why not?
4. Why were black churches eager to host Mary Abernathy and Pokey Barnes as
speakers?
5. Why didn’t Governor O’Ferrall review the pardon for Mary Barnes more quickly?
6. Why was the 1896 election so contentious?
7. How did O’Ferrall rationalize his Christmas Eve pardon of Mary Barnes?
8. How would you interpret Pokey’s adopted title, “C.S.”?
Chapter 23 The Pitcher to the Well
1. What changes occurred in Richmond and Virginia that undermined the realization
of Mitchell’s political ambitions and vision?
2. Why does Lebsock compare O’Ferrall’s political career to Mitchell’s?
3. What became of the Richmond Women’s League? Describe the range of
activities of the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (1908).
4. Why was it hard for Lebsock to find more historical evidence about what
happened to Mary Abernathy and Mary Barnes?
5. Explain Lebsock’s statement, “But the countryside probably provided a fuller
range of interracial interaction than Richmond, where segregation grew more
pronounced by the day” (314).
6. What kind of work was available to black women in Richmond?
Chapter 24 Who Killed Lucy Pollard?
1. Why does Lebsock believe that Herbert (J.H.H.) Thompson, David James
Thompson’s older brother may be the murderer?
2. Why would Cass Gregory try to persuade Solomon to name the wrong
perpetrator?
3. How did “chronic, acute” indebtedness likely influence what happened?
4. Why didn’t local officials seriously pursue a white suspect?
Afterword
1. Lebsock notes that the Lunenburg case was remarkable because it had: “a united
and highly mobilized African American citizenry, formidable African American
leadership, and a critical mass of whites and blacks who worked in concert to the
same end. At times they worked as equals. At times the whites were subordinate;
George Wise and his legal team, after all, worked for John Mitchell, Jr., And the
outcome: Black people, as a people, won this case” (336).
2. Lebsock asserts that for white supremacy to dominate, the memory of this case
needed to be erased. What is unusual was the decisions of key white men at
critical moments who transcended the prevailing race prejudice and “put their
highest priority on basic fairness and the rule of law” (339).