Blacks burned at the Stake in 19th Century America

From, 'American Slavery as it is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses' by Theodore D. Weld
What is related here is but one of hundreds of documented incidents throughout the south.

Page 156, column 2, ' Objections Considered -- Public Opinion'
Testimony of B. Coleman & Jas. Jones

On the 28th of April 1836, in the eny of St. Louis Missouri, a black ma, named McIntosh who had stabbed an officer, that had arrested him, was seized by the multitude, fastened to a tree in the midst of the ity, wood piled around him, and in open day and in the presence of an immense throng of citizens, he was burned to death. the Alton (Ill.) Telegraph, in it's account of the scene says;


"all was silent as death while the executioners were piling
wood around their victim. he said not a word, until feeling
that the flames had seized him. He then uttered an awful
howl, attempting to sing and pray, then hung his head,
and suffered in silence, except in the following instance:
--After the flames had surrounded their prey, his eyes
burnt out of his head, and his mouth seemingly parched
to a cinder, someone in the crowd, more compassionate
than the rest, proposed to put an end to his misery by
shooting him, when it was replied, 'that would be of no
use, since he was already out of pain' 'No, no,' said the
wretch, ' I am not, I am suffering as much as ever ; shoot
me, shoot me.' 'No, no,' said one of the fiends who was
standing about the sacrifice they were roasting, 'he shall
not be shot. I would sooner slacken the fire, if that would
increase his misery; ' and the man who said this was, as
we understand, an officer of justice!'

The St. Louis correspondent of a New York paper adds,

"The shrieks and groans of the victim were loud and
piercing, and to observe one limb after another drop into
the fire was awful indeed. He was about fifteen minutes
in dying. I visited the place this morning, and saw his
body, or the remains of it, at the place of execution. He
was burnt to a crump. His legs and arms were gone, and
only a part of his head and body were left."