On January 1, 1923, in Sumner, Florida, a young, married white woman named Fannie Taylor claimed she had been assaulted by Jesse Hunter, a black fugitive from a prison chain gang. Though there was no evidence against Hunter, local white men launched a manhunt in Rosewood, a nearby town of about 200 black people. On January 2nd, a mob of white men kidnapped, tortured, and lynched Sam Carter, a black craftsman from Rosewood, on suspicion that he had helped Jesse Hunter escape.