GENERAL WILLIAM TALIAFERRO ARRIVED AT THE JAIL shortly after 10:30 on the morning of December 16, leading a contingent of two dozen troops. The armed men formed a hollow square as the jailor and county sheriff led Green and Copeland out of their cells and down the jailhouse steps. An open wagon pulled into the square, carrying two rough poplar caskets. With their arms tied behind their backs, Green and Copeland were helped onto the wagon and seated on their coffins. The two prisoners appeared frightened and downcast, and “wore none of that calm and cheerful spirit evinced by Brown under similar circumstances.” Soon the grim parade was under way. Reverend Leech walked slowly behind the wagon, with riflemen flanking the procession as it passed through the streets of Charlestown. It took only five or ten minutes to arrive at the hanging ground, where the condemned men were escorted up the scaffold steps. Copeland stood calm and silent on the gallows, but Green appeared to shiver while praying out loud.

After yet another minister delivered an obligatory prayer, Copeland attempted to step forward to speak to the crowd. It was common in the nineteenth century for condemned men to be allowed a final address, so Copeland reasonably expected to make one last denunciation of slavery. But that routine privilege could not be extended to a black insurrectionist in Virginia. The hangman literally choked off Copeland's speech, abruptly pulling a hood down over his head and tightening the rope around his neck. Copeland did not struggle but instead appeared to endure the ultimate indignity with “firm and unwavering fortitude.”

The trap was drawn at a few minutes after eleven o'clock, and the two men were “launched into eternity.” Green appeared to die instantly, his neck having been broken by the fall, but Copeland was slowly strangled, and he “writhed in violent contortions for several minutes.”