School shootings are not something new in the United States. In fact, the first school shooting took place in the mid-1800s. But that wasn’t the first known mass killing to take place in a school on this country’s soil.
The Enoch Brown school massacre was the first known mass killing incident on July 26, 1764, though it did not involve any guns. The Brown school was located in Greencastle, PA. The brutal attack took place during Pontiac’s Rebellion in the 1760s. The rebellion was the result of the Native American tribes forming alliances to retaliate against the merciless actions of colonial settlers who were claiming Native American territory.
During the rebellion, four native warriors clubbed the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and nine pupils to death before scalping them. Some accounts of the incident claim Brown had been shot before being clubbed and scalped, but those claims cannot be verified. A park and monument were created on the site of the massacre nearly a hundred years after the incident to remind those who visit how brutal life had been during pioneer times.
Some argue the first school shooting happened in Louisville, KY in 1853 when Matthews F. Ward shot his brother’s teacher, William Butler at the Louisville School. The case became a news sensation throughout the country, and it all started with a student eating chestnuts in class.
The teacher, William Butler, confronted William Ward about eating in class and young Ward denied it, according to accounts of the incident. Butler accused Ward of lying and administered a whipping on the student, which was a severe form of punishment, but not uncommon back then. The next day, Matthews Ward accompanied his younger brother to school and confronted Butler. The pair scuffled briefly before Ward drew his pistol and shot the schoolteacher in the chest. Butler died hours later from his gunshot wound.
During the trial, Ward’s attorneys portrayed Butler as an overly strict educator who often used abusive punishments to maintain order and that Ward shot the teacher in self-defense after Butler struck him. Prosecutors, on the other hand, claimed Ward had a history of violence and threatening teachers. They argued that Ward had bought two pistols on the morning of the shooting from a local gun store and had fully intended to shoot Butler.
Nearly six months after the shooting, Matthews Ward was found not guilty by a jury of his peers. The case and the verdict divided the town, and indeed, the entire nation in the years leading up to the Civil War.
Northern states employed legal precedence derived from British Common Law, which prohibited traveling while armed in populated areas. By contrast, under Kentucky law, which was similar to the laws in many southern states, Ward had a right to carry a firearm. The case sparked one of the country’s first debates over gun control.
Oddly enough, nearly 170 years after the Butler shooting, we now live in an era when school shootings are sadly commonplace. Since the 1970s, when these heinous occurrences were still considered extremely rare, there have been approximately 2,060 school shootings. After each tragedy, the debate continues anew. Both sides agree that “something must be done” to stop the school shootings, but little agreement can be reached on what that something is.
Until we figure out as a society how to end the violence on school grounds, all we can do is prepare for the worst.
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