HAMPTON -- 1912 was the last time a female was executed in Virginia -- when 17-year-old Virginia Christian died in the electric chair.
Christian, an African-American, got into an argument with her white boss, Ida Virginia Belote, in Hampton.
"Blacks knew if they stepped beyond their expected place in southern society, they could be punished and punished very quickly," said Michael Cobb, historian at the Hampton Museum, as he related the times under Jim Crow laws.
An account of the killing in the New York Times stated "the girl became enraged and felled Mrs. Belote with a poker. Then she pounded her head with a cuspidor and forced a towel down her throat."
Christian was arrested, put on trial and sentenced to death. Then Governor William Hodges Mann was inundated with requests to change the penalty; even Christian's mother appealed to the governor but to no avail.
Christian was executed on August 16, 1912.
On Thursday, September 23, 41-year-old Teresa Lewis will be put to death in Virginia.
She was sentenced for providing sex and money to two men to kill her husband and stepson.
