William Pitman

William Pitman (died May 12, 1775) was an American slave owner who was executed for murdering one of his own slaves. The case was one of the rare instances in the Americas in which a white person was executed for the murder of a black slave.

Early life Pitman had made several appearances in Virginia courts since the 1750s. "The evidences against William Pitman were his own son and daughter, by whom it appeared that their father, in the heat of passion, and when in liquor, had, for some trifling offence, tied his poor negro boy by the neck and heels, beat him most cruelly with a large grape vine, and then stamped him to death. This man has justly incurred the penalties of the law and we hear will certainly suffer; which ought to be a warning to others to treat their slaves with moderation, and not give way to unruly passions that may bring them to an ignominious death and involve their families in their unhappy fates." After the Virginia Governor's Council declined to intervene, Pitman was hanged in Williamsburg on May 12, 1775. The Gazette reported on the execution. "Pitman made some resistance, but was soon overpowered; he behaved with decency at the place of execution, and attributed his unhappy fate to be the effect of intemperate drinking."