February 20, 1871
In what has come to be called the Walker County Rebellion, the Texas governor imposed martial law on Walker County with the authority to try citizens before a military tribunal. It started the previous December when a freedman, Sam Jenkins, testified against several whites in a case of assault; his corpse appeared along a road outside Huntsville several days later. Four whites were charged in his murder and, when three were found guilty, gunfire erupted in the courtroom. In the trials that followed ten citizens, including the sheriff, faced charges, resulting in seven convictions.
