PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FREEDMEN.
Our investigations have proved to the friends of the former slaves that
their emigration from the South was not instituted and put into
operation by their own choice, except as the force of circumstances, in
their surroundings, pressed them into this remarkable movement. Monthly
reports of the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association have also proved
satisfactory to thousands of donors toward their relief. The increasing
intelligence among the four millions and a half of slaves, declared
free by the nation's pen in the hand of her President, Abraham Lincoln,
they found did not bring with it the glorious sunlight of freedom the
proclamation promised in its dawn. After fifteen years of patient
hoping, waiting, and watching for the shaping of government, they saw
clearly that their future condition as a race must be submissive
vassalage, a war of races, or emigration. Circulars were secretly
distributed among themselves, until the conclusion was reached to wend
their way northward, as their former masters' power had again become
tyrannous. This power they were and are made to see and feel most
keenly in many localities, a few incidents will show.
Elder Perry Bradley left Carthage, Leek County, Mississippi, in
January, 1880, and testifies to the following facts:
"In October, 1879, twenty-five or thirty masked men went into Peter
Watson's house, and took him from his bed, amid screams of 'murder'
from his wife and seven children; but the only reply the wife and
children received at the hands of the desperadoes was a beating. Their
boy of twelve years knocked one down with a chair. While the fighting
was going on within, and in their efforts to hold their victim outside,
he wrenched himself from their grasp--leaving his shirt in their
hands--and ran through the woods to my house, around which colored men
gathered and protected him. Although twelve gun-shots followed him in
the chase, yet none hit him. By the aid of friends he took the first
train he could reach, which, to his surprise, took him twenty-five
miles southward, instead of in a northern direction. At Cassiasca,
Attala County, Mississippi, not knowing whether they were friends or
foes, he told them he wanted to go to Kansas. They told him he should
swear that he could not make a living there, before they would allow
him to go North. As he found they were all Democrats at that depot, he
consented to their demand; consequently they brought the Bible, and he
took his oath 'that he could make a living there, but could not get
it.' The Democratic 'bull-dozers,' who had sworn they would hang him if
they ever caught him, took his span of horses, wagon, three cows, and
his crop of cotton, corn, sugar-cane, and potatoes (all matured), and
gave his wife money with which to pay the fare for herself and seven
children, the twenty-five miles on the cars to meet her husband. The
colored men were told 'that if they would be Democrats they could stay;
but Republicans and carpet-baggers could not live there.'
"Austin Carter, a Methodist preacher, was an earnest temperance worker,
and was prospering in that part of his work. He was also a strong
Republican. He was shot dead in August, 1878, near New Forest Station,
Scott County, Mississippi, on the railroad running east and west
between Jackson and Meridian, Mississippi, while on his way home,
between the hours of six and seven o'clock P. M. He received four shots
in the back of his head, which instantly took his life. His wife and
children knew nothing of it until the shocking tidings reached them the
following morning. Thomas Graham, a wealthy merchant at Forest Station,
reported that the man who shot him had gone to Texas and could not be
found or heard from; and nothing was done to find the murderer or to
bring him to justice."
Elder Perry Bradley was told by a number of this class of Democrats, at
various places where he was accustomed to preach, that he could not
live there and preach unless he would vote the Democratic ticket and
teach his people to do the same. Said he, "In the town of Hillsboro, at
one of my meetings, the bulldozers came into the congregation and took
me out of the meeting, held in a school-house one mile from Hillsboro,
on April 15, 1879, at ten o'clock P. M., where I had preached during
our day meetings without disturbance. Captain Hardy, leading the band,
took me into the woods to an old deserted house, in which was their
general or chief commander, Warsham, who asked the following question:
'Will you stop preaching to your people that Christ died to make you
all free, body, soul, and spirit?' 'I can not stop preaching God's
truth as I find it in the Bible,' was my answer. 'I want you to
understand now that you can't preach such doctrine to our niggers,' was
the rejoinder. He then directed them to give me two hundred lashes.
They took me out in the front yard and drove four stakes in the ground,
to which each wrist and foot was fastened. After being disrobed of my
clothing and fastened, face downward, two men were selected to do the
whipping, one on each side, alternating their strokes, while the rabble
stood around until the two hundred lashes were given. Then they were
told to stop and let me up. Too weak and trembling to stand, I was
again queried whether I would not now preach the Democratic doctrine
and vote that ticket? I replied, 'I can not conscientiously make such a
promise.' 'Why not? 'Because I do not believe there are Democrats in
heaven.' Said their general, Warsham, 'We'll turn him loose with this
brushing; may be he'll conclude to behave himself after this.' Turning
to me he said, 'Remember, this is but a light brushing compared with
what you'll get next time; but well try you with this.' I returned to
my home with my back cut in many deep gashes, the scars of which I
shall carry to my grave. Yet I praised God in remembrance that my
loving Savior suffered more than this for me, and that this suffering
was in his cause. As soon as I was able to continue my work for my Lord
and Master among my people I was again enabled to proclaim the riches
of his grace. A few weeks after resuming my work I preached on the Dan.
Lewis' place, in Scott County, where I had held meetings undisturbed.
But the same company sought me out, and took me out of an evening
meeting into the woods about three miles distant to hang me. After due
preparations were made they passed their whisky around, of which they
all drank so freely that in their carousings they got into a fight, and
while drawing pistols at each other young Warsham, the acting captain,
in whose charge I was left, cut the rope that bound my hands behind me,
and told me to 'go.' And gladly I obeyed the order and left them
engaged in their fight and too drunk to notice my escape. I left that
land of darkness as soon as possible for this free Kansas, and I have
my family with me, for which I thank my Deliverer from the jaws of the
lion of oppression, and praise the Lord of hosts for a free country,
where I can vote as well as preach according to the dictates of my own
conscience without the torturing whip or the hangman's rope."
Professor T. Greener, of Howard University, Washington, D. C., who has
been prominently identified in the new exodus lately returned from a
trip to Kansas, where he visited the colored colonies, and gathered
information regarding the black emigrants. He reports them as doing
well, constantly receiving accessions to their numbers, and well
treated by their white neighbors. He says: "Indications point to a
continuance of emigration during the Winter, and increase in the
Spring, not in consequence of any special effort on the part of those
who favor this solution of the vexed Southern question, but because the
emigrants themselves are proving the best agents and propagandists
among their friends South." Professor Greener is warm in his praise of
Governor John P. St. John and the people of Kansas.
A staff correspondent of the Chicago _Inter-Ocean_, writing from
Topeka, Kansas, December 31, 1879, says: "During four weeks' travel
through the State, I estimate the number of colored emigrants at
fifteen, or twenty thousand. Of these one-fifth probably are able to
buy land, and are making good progress at farming. Most of the others
have found, through the Freedmen's Relief Association, places as
laborers, and are giving good satisfaction; and in no county are they
applying for aid, nor are burdens upon corporate charities. The demand
for laborers seems stretched to its fullest capacity, as the
accumulation of refugees at the barracks (now nearly seven hundred),
for whom no places can be found, clearly indicates. Judging from what I
learn from the refugees themselves, and from the increasing numbers,
now from twenty-five to fifty arriving every day, we predict that the
movement to Kansas will soon assume such proportions as to astonish the
country, and unless the tide can be turned, or the charity of the North
be more readily bestowed, the suffering which the relief committee,
although laboring faithfully with the means at their command, has not
been entirely sufficient to relieve during the past cold weather, will
soon be turned to general destitution and great suffering among the
pauper refugees."
The greatest crime in many portions of the South is being a Republican.
This has added largely to the emigration, and the tide has reached not
only Kansas, but the older States of the North. It has entered Indiana,
Ohio, and Illinois, and soon will find its way into Wisconsin, Iowa,
and Michigan. We find no political chicanery of the North in this
universal uprising of the colored people of the South in leaving the
home of their birth. But it is the mistaken policy of the South that is
driving their laborers northward; that is, compelling them to flee to
more congenial surroundings. It is among the wonders that they waited
so long and so patiently for the better day to come. Not long ago one
thousand arrived in Parsons, Kansas, in the south-western part of the
State. Governor St. John gave them a temperance speech with other good
advice. Two hundred and twenty-five arrived in Topeka, and while I was
at the barracks over seventy came in from Texas. Hardly a day passed
while I was there but we heard of fresh arrivals. Eleven wagon-loads
came into Parsons, and two of the men came to Topeka and reported the
condition of many of them as very poor. We relieved within three weeks
over one thousand persons.
_The crime of being a Republican_, in many portions of the South, is
shown by the following testimonies. I interviewed an intelligent
colored man, John S. Scott, of Anderson County, South Carolina. He came
well recommended as a well qualified teacher. He had taught
twenty-eight terms of school in South Carolina and six terms in
Georgia; but if he succeeded in collecting half his pay he did well. He
handed me a package of certificates and commendations. His friends were
about to run him for office, but his life was threatened, and he was
informed that they were determined to have a "white man's government,"
and gave him to understand that if he got the office, his life would be
worthless.
Abbeville district, in that State, was Republican, and John Owen was an
influential colored Republican. During the election he was arrested and
placed in jail, under the charge of selling forty-eight pounds of
twisted tobacco without license. When arraigned before the court it was
proved that he had no such article, yet they fined him fifty dollars.
He had raised tobacco, but it was still in the leaf. The fine was paid,
and after the election he was released.
In the Seventh Congressional District, on Coosa River, September 24,
1877, a white man by the name of Burnam offered to purchase a small
cotton farm near his, owned by a colored man, and offered him forty
dollars for it. The owner replied, "I will sell to no man for that
amount." Nothing more was said on the subject, and the colored man
purchased a few pounds of bacon of Burnam and left for home. As he had
to pass a little skirt of woods, Burnam took his gun, crossed the
woods, and came out ahead of the colored man and shot him dead! He
remained at his home two weeks, when the excitement over the
cold-blooded murder became unpleasant for him, and he left the
neighborhood, and had not returned in March, 1878, the date my
informant left the country. The murdered man was a Republican.
Sanford Griffin was an honorably discharged soldier, and he testified
that Columbus Seats was shot dead by Frank Phillips, in Clarksville,
Tennessee. Griffin made an effort to have the murderer arrested, but
failed. No difference was known to exist between them, except on the
subject of politics. Seats was a Republican, and could not be induced
to vote the Bourbon ticket.
In the autumn of 1878 Vincent Andersen was brought into Clarksville,
Montgomery County, Tennessee, at eleven o'clock A. M. The following
night a mob took him out of jail and hanged him on a locust tree on the
Nashville Pike, near Clarksville. This case Griffin made an effort to
bring before the court, but failed. The jailer, Perkins, said the men
who brought Anderson to the jail, came in the night, and having
overpowered him, forcibly took the jail key. But a girl of thirteen
years testified that she saw the men in conversation with the jailer,
and was confident they paid him money. Vincent Anderson had purchased
ten acres of land, and had paid every installment promptly, and was on
the way to the railroad station to make his last payment, when the mob
took him to jail, until the darkness of night favored their wicked
purpose of taking his life. He could not be prevailed upon to vote the
Bourbon ticket.
One more incident this intelligent ex-Union soldier gave to which he
was a witness: A young white woman, Miss Smith, purchased a pistol and
remarked, "I am going to kill a nigger before the week is out." During
that week her father and Farran, a colored man, had a dispute, but
Farran had no thought of any serious result from it. But as Lydia
Farran, the wife of the colored man, was on her way to the field to
help her husband, Miss Smith, the white girl of eighteen or twenty
years of age, took the pistol she had purchased a day or two
previously, and followed Lydia and shot her dead! She left two little
children, then a colored family got to their distracted father, who
escaped for his life. He had not known of any difficulty between his
wife and Miss Smith, or any other of the family, and could attribute
the cool calculating murder of his wife to no other cause than the
little difference of opinion that was expressed a few days previous to
the fatal deed! Sanford Griffin succeeded in bringing this case before
the court. But the charge of the judge to the jurors was, "You must
bear in mind that Miss Smith was the weaker party, and if the shooting
was in self-defense, it would be justifiable homicide." The jury so
returned their verdict, and the case was dismissed.
The Freedmen's Aid Commission in Kansas relieved the wants of many of
these refugees from the South; but the number of colored people was so
great that, until they could find places to work for others or for
themselves, the Commission had difficulty to care for them. A circular
letter was issued, appealing to the friends of the cause for help. To
this letter, sent out in December, 1879, these few telling words, from
our dear friend and Christian philanthropist, Elizabeth L. Comstock,
were added: "The treasury is nearly empty; city and barracks very much
crowded; refugees coming in faster than we can care for them; money
urgently needed for food, fuel, and medicine, and also to provide
shelter." We take pleasure in announcing that our appeals from time to
time met with responsive chords in many hearts, and relief was sent to
the perishing.
It is needless to speak further of the causes for emigration, so
clearly set forth in the foregoing facts; but we give a late one, which
in its section of country caused considerable anxiety and stir among
this oppressed people. About the close of July an article appeared in
the _Mercury_, edited by Colonel A. G. Horn, at Meridian, Mississippi,
in which occurs the following: "We would like to engrave a prophecy on
stone, to be read by generations in the future. The negroes in these
States will be slaves again or cease to be. Their sole refuge from
extinction will be in slavery to the white man." Do not forget, dear
reader, that though ignorant, as a large majority of ex-slaves are, yet
their children read these sentiments, which are more outspoken than
that which characterizes Southern Democracy; yet re-enlivened treason
is nevertheless the true sentiment and ruling power of many places in
ex-slave States. It is so accepted by the negroes, who, to avoid
extinction or slavery, seek refuge amid physical and pecuniary
hardships. Indeed, this exodus from the South, is not ended--a move for
freedom is not easily extinguished.
To aid the reader fully to understand the needs of these poor people in
the southern portion of Kansas, I insert an appeal of a constant and
self-sacrificing worker for them, Daniel Votaw, of Independence,
Kansas: "It appears that the southern portion of this State is having a
larger share of emigrants than any other part of it. For this reason I
ask the philanthropist to send aid quickly. I believe clothing will
come; but who will send money to buy bread? Most of them say, 'Just
give corn-bread, and we are satisfied.' I have never seen nor heard so
much gratitude come from any people as flows from the hearts of these
poor colored refugees. Our granaries are full, our groceries groan with
the weight of provisions; but these sufferers have nothing to buy with.
My blood almost runs chill when I remember that there are two excessive
luxuries used by persons who call themselves men, that would, if
rightly applied, fill this crying bill of want; namely, tobacco and
whisky. Come, erring brothers, to the rescue. Can you not donate these
expenses to this good cause? Do it, and Heaven will bless you. Those
who may send provisions, clothing, or money, will get a correct
account, if a note of donor or shipper is found inside the package, to
enable us to respond with a correct receipt."
I have a letter from a colored man in Mississippi, addressed to
Governor John P. St. John, which he turned over to me to answer. I give
an extract: "Please advise me what to do. The white men here say we
have got to stay here, because we have no money to go with. We can
organise with a little. Since the white people mistrust our intentions,
they hardly let us have bread to eat. As soon as we can go on a cheap
scale, we are getting ready to leave. Some of us are almost naked and
starved. We are banding together without any instruction from you or
any aid society. We are all Republicans, and hard-working men, and men
of trust We have to keep our intention secret or be shot; and we are
not allowed to meet. We want to leave before the matter is found out by
the bulldozers. There are forty widows in our band. They are work-women
and farmers also. The white men here take our wives and daughters and
serve them as they please, and we are shot if we say any thing about it
and if we vote any other way than their way we can not live in our
State or county. We are sure to leave, or be killed. They have driven
away all Northern whites and colored leaders. A little instruction from
you will aid the committee greatly in our efforts in getting away.
Hoping to hear from you soon in regard to the request, we remain, Very
truly yours," etc.
The foregoing from which I purposely omit the name and address of the
writer is a sample of many hundreds of letters received by Governor St
John. Many of them he placed in our hands to reply. But neither the
governor nor our association could do any thing to bring these poor
people to Kansas. Our sole object is to relieve them after their
arrival. Consequently, it is but little encouragement we could give
these sorrowing hearts as to any preparations for leaving that poisoned
land. One family told us "We were compelled to lay our plans in secret,
and we left our bureau and two large pitchers standing in our cabin and
took a night boat." What a misnomer to call our former slave States
"free!"
The cry has been, "The sooner Northern carpet-baggers leave the South,
the better for them, and the sooner the nigger finds his proper place,
and keeps it the better for him." The following incidents will serve as
data from which we have a right to judge of the manner used to bring
the colored people into what they deem their proper place. But they are
becoming too intelligent to endure subjugation when they can evade it
by flight.
Robert Robinson on the road between Huntsville, Alabama, and Cold
Springs hired a colored man for three months, and he called at his
store for his pay "All right," said Robison, "step back and we'll look
over the books and pay you." After entering the room the door was
locked, and Robinson placed a pistol at his head, while his brother
beat him with a pine club, which disabled him from labor for three
weeks. This was his pay.
Giles Lester was taken to jail, and was in the hands of Bailiff Dantey.
A mob of fifteen or twenty men took him out on Friday night, to a piece
of woods, and hanged him--not so as to break his neck at once; but they
were three hours in beating him to death. A white man living near by
said he never heard such cries and groans of agony in all his life as
during those three hours. These atrocities were committed within two
years past.
During the Mississippi riot that fiercely raged during 1875-6, the
object of which was to secure a solid Democratic vote at the
presidential election, innocent men, without the shadow of provocation,
were hauled out of their houses and shot, or hanged; and no legal
notice was taken of the murderers, for they were men of property and
standing. General J.R. Chalmers was a leader in one band of these
rioters, and is now honored with a seat in Congress. The mob took Henry
Alcorn out of his house to the woods and shot him, leaving the murdered
man to be buried by his friends, who mourned over his sad fate. But
there is no redress where this corrupt public sentiment takes the place
of law. This band of rioters called up Charlie Green to cook for them
all night at one of their places of rendezvous. At early morn, Charlie
being tired, fell asleep sitting on a dry-goods box. One of the party
said he wanted to try his gun before starting, and discharged its
contents into Green's body, taking his life instantly!
One or two instances of Southern malignity and outrage were reported to
me by one of these refugees. A woman residing near some of those whom I
interviewed during my stay in Kansas, in 1879-80, was called out by the
"Bourbons" or "Regulators" who were in pursuit of her husband, and
questioned as to his whereabouts. Suspecting that their object was to
take his life she refused to tell. Upon this a rope was placed around
her neck and tied to a horse's tail, and she was thus dragged to the
nearest wood and hanged to the limb of a tree until she was dead. Her
husband made his escape as, best he could with his mother-less babe.
There was a plantation in Mississippi rented to six colored men, three
of them with families. At Christmas they called for a settlement.
Morgan, the proprietor, brought them into his debt, and swore "every
nigger had eaten his head off." He took seven hundred bushels of wheat
that they had raised, and fourteen fat hogs, the corn, and even the
team and wagon they brought on the place. They concluded to resort to
the civil authorities, hoping to recover a portion of the avails of the
season's hard work. But Morgan gained the suit. At this the colored men
told him just what they thought of this wholesale robbery. Within a
week after the six men were taken out of their beds in the dead of
night, by a company of masked "Regulators," who stripped the bedsteads
of their cords, with which they were hanged and then lashed to boards
and sent floating down the Mississippi River. A white cloth was
fastened over their bosoms, upon which was written: "Any one taking up
these bodies to bury may expect the same fate." They were taken out of
the river one hundred miles below. Two of the widows sent for the
bodies of their husbands, and a number whom I conversed with attended
the funeral and read the notice on the linen, which had not been
removed from their persons. Surely we have a right, and it is our duty
to ventilate these facts, though we may be deemed sensational. We can
not be charged with political wire-pulling, as they are beyond our
reach. But I ask, in the words of Elizabeth H. Chandler, who has long
since gone to her rest and reward--
"Shall we behold unheeding
Life's holiest feelings crushed?
When woman's heart is bleeding,
Shall woman's voice be hushed?"
Is it a wonder the freedmen flee by hundreds and thousands? They are
still coming into Kansas. There are many sick and dying among them. Let
every man, woman, and child arise and work for the refugees, who are
suffering for food, fuel, and clothing. There is great necessity for
immediate and vigorous effort, in taking the place of the Good
Samaritan in caring for the robbed and bruised stranger, who find many
priests and Levites passing by. During the Winter all money and
supplies for Kansas refugees should be directed to Elizabeth L.
Comstock, North Topeka, Kansas.
Our work is by every possible means aiding these poor people to help
themselves, which they are doing wherever work can be found. But Winter
season overtaking them on the way to Kansas, and no work to be
obtained, the philanthropy of our North will not withhold her liberal
hand. It is a debt which we owe to this people. Comparatively few call
for assistance who have been in the State a year, and most of these are
aged grandparents, the sick, and widows with large families of small
children.
Of those who came early in the Spring of 1879, many have raised from
one hundred to four hundred bushels of corn each year, but they divide
with their friends and relatives who follow them. Some raised a few
acres of cotton in their first year, and they are jubilant over their
future outlook. They say, "Kansas prairies will blossom as the rose,
and whiten her thousands of acres with their favorite staple." One old
man whose head was almost as white as the few acres of cotton he
produced, said, "We'll 'stonish the nation wid thousands of snow-white
acres of cotton in dis yere free Kansas, raised wid black hands." I
find they are writing back to their relatives and friends in the far
off South, that they can raise cotton as successfully in Kansas as in
Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. In this prospect the door of hope
is opening before them, as if by the Almighty hand, which they accept
as having led them to the "land of freedom," as they often express
themselves.
They are coming in larger numbers again, notwithstanding every possible
effort of planters to keep them back, and false reports from their
enemies in this State that the exodus had ended, but we who are in
communication with other portions of the State know to the contrary,
and all who come report more to follow. These poor people who, between
March, 1879, and March, 1881, have made their escape from an oppression
that seems almost incredible, and have come to Kansas to live, now
number more than fifty thousand, and still they come. Like a great
panorama, the scenes I witnessed in this State sixteen years ago, amid
clashing arms, come back to me. Suffering and dying then seemed the
order of each day. True, there is a great deal of suffering and
ignorance among these field hands still, but there is a marked
improvement, both as to the intelligence of these masses and their
personal comfort. Are they not as intelligent as were the children of
Israel when they left Egypt? They made a golden calf to worship after
Moses had left them a few days. All ignorant people are prone to depend
upon leaders instead of relying on themselves.
Joseph Fletcher, who came into Kansas July 8, 1879, I found by his
papers to be an honorably discharged soldier from Mississippi. He
testifies to the following facts: "I saw one hundred men killed by
shooting and hanging during the two years, 1878 and 1879; and my
brother was one of them; I can point to their graves to-day in the two
parishes I worked in. This was in the Red River section, Mississippi.
Their crime was their persistence in voting the Republican ticket." A
number of the representative men from those parishes were interviewed,
and they testified to the same things A number of them had been
soldiers.
Andrew J. Jackson, directly from Waterproof, Mississippi, says:
"Fairfax was a smart, educated man. He owned his house and land, and
gave a lot to the colored Baptist Church and mostly built it. But the
bulldozers burned both house and church. He rebuilt his house. The
Republicans nominated him for Senator, and the Bourbon Democrats found
he would be elected. They threatened his life, and as he found snares
were laid to entrap him, he made his escape to New Orleans for safety.
When, they learned as to his whereabouts, a number of men wrote for him
to come back, and they would drop the matter and let the election go as
it would; but he heeded neither their letters nor telegrams. One of his
friends was fearful that he would heed their persuasions and went to
see him, and told him not to listen to their sweet talk, for the
bulldozers only wanted him back so that they might take his life. The
white Democrats continued to write to him to come back and advise the
colored people not to go North, and they would promise to protect him,
for every body wanted him to return and none would molest him. As he
did not return for all their pledges, one man, who had always appeared
very friendly with him, went to see him, and told him that all who had
opposed him pledged their word and honor that he should not be
disturbed in the least if he would only return and persuade the colored
people not to go to Kansas, as he had more influence over them than any
other man. He assured him so confidently that he concluded to trust
them, and returned to the bosom of his family on Saturday; but before
Monday morning he was shot dead. The heart-rending scene can better be
imagined than described."
Said one intelligent man, "We can do nothing to protect the virtue of
our wives and daughters." Near Greenville, Mississippi, a colored woman
was passing through a little skirt of woods, when she was attacked by
two white men, who violated her person; then, to prevent exposure, they
murdered her in the most savage manner. They tied her clothes over her
head and hanged her by her waist to a hickory sapling, and ripped open
her bowels until a babe, that would within a few weeks have occupied
its place in its mother's arms, fell to the ground. Just at that
juncture two colored men came in sight, and the white men dodged into
the woods. This drew attention to the awful scene of the dying woman
weltering in her gore. They hastened to cut her down, and just as she
was breathing her last she whispered, "Tell my husband." One watched
the corpse while the other went to inform the husband. This barbarous
murder, which took place in April, 1879, was twice related to me in the
same way by different women from the same neighborhood, who attended
the funeral. As I related this to our friend, W. Armour and wife, of
Kansas City, he remarked that the same incident had been told to him by
some of the new arrivals. We repeat, Who can wonder at their flight?
On July 12th and 13th two boat-loads more of refugees, numbering four
hundred persons, landed in lower Kansas City. I heard it again
repeated, "What shall we do? Here in Topeka are two hundred poor people
waiting to go somewhere to get work, and only two hundred dollars in
our treasury!" What shall we send them? More than fifty men and women
were then out hunting work; many found it and rented cabins. We waited
for a reply from the railroad authorities, to see if they would take
two hundred passengers for that money to Colorado.
This association met and reached the conclusion to telegraph Mr. W.
Armour and his co-laborers, at Kansas City, to send the four hundred at
that place to other points, as it was impossible to receive them in
Topeka until those already there were furnished with homes, or more
money should come to our aid. I returned to Kansas City, and found
their hands and hearts full also, and heard the query repeated, "What
are we to do for these poor people? We can not send them back, and they
_must_ be fed until we hear from places to which we have telegraphed."
Favorable replies came for seventy-five families to Colorado. The
colored minister, Elder Watson, was to take them away, and visited St.
Louis to request the friends in that city to send no more in this
direction for the present.
A white woman called to see some of these poor people, and brought
chicken broth for a very sick man. She said she was born in Virginia,
raised in Georgia, where she had taught school, and also taught in
Mississippi and Alabama. Because she contended for the rights of the
colored people, as they were free, she was ostracised and compelled to
leave the South. Said she, "I have seen them hung and shot like dogs.
They can not tell you the half of what they suffer. I know it, for I
have seen it."
While I was still visiting among these people, the steamer _Fannie
Lewis_ landed with one hundred and four more refugees from Mississippi.
Here they had nothing for their covering except the open sky. We feared
that, unless other States should rally to the rescue, nothing but
suffering and death would be before them. Kansas had domiciled about
what she could for the present, unless further aid should be given from
without. This State had hardly recovered from the sweeping devastation
of war when drought swept over her rich prairies, and scarcely had she
recovered from that drawback when the grasshoppers came and desolated
her again. Then the Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us," was heard
and answered. Again we raise this cry in behalf of this oppressed
people, and it will meet a generous response.
When forty thousand dependents were thrown into young Kansas by Price's
raid through Missouri, followed by Colonels James Lane and Jennison, I
received from General Curtis the report that twenty thousand poor
whites and as many freedmen were here to be cared for by government and
the benevolence of the North. At that time of sore need Michigan placed
in my hands two thousand six hundred dollars in money, and from seven
thousand to eight thousand dollars in supplies to relieve the perishing
and dying of that day. The lesson is not forgotten, that it is more
blessed to give than to receive. He alone who knows the end from the
beginning can tell the future of our country, and of the five million
of its inhabitants of African descent. Yet eternal right must and will
triumph. The debt our nation owes to the ex-slave should be paid. The
hundred thousand colored soldiers who fought as bravely to save our
nation's life as did their paler-faced brethren, and faced the cannon's
mouth as fearlessly for the prize above all price--_liberty_--are
worthy of consideration. They were ever true to our soldiers. Many of
our prisoners escaping from rebel dungeons were piloted by them into
our lines. Many black "aunties" took their last chicken and made broth
for our sick Union soldiers, as did the one I met in Natchez,
Mississippi. She had been free a number of years, and had her yard full
of geese, ducks, and chickens; but all went for Union soldiers. She was
a noble Christian woman. She said, "I feels so sorry for a sick
soldier, so far from their home. I feels happy for all I kin do for
'em. I knows Jesus pay me." Another colored woman whom I met at
Gloucester Courthouse, in Virginia, did the same.
An ex-soldier wrote in a note, found in a box of valuable clothing sent
to the refugees in Kansas: "I send this as a small token of the
gratitude I owe to the colored people for saving my life when I was
sick and escaping from a loathsome rebel prison. They took care of me
and conducted me safely to our Union camp. This goes with a prayer that
God will bless that suffering people."
We have the testimony of many witnesses. Among them is J. C. Hartzell,
D. D., of New Orleans, editor of the _Southwestern Christian Advocate_.
He says, "The cruelties endured by the colored people of the South can
not be _overdrawn_." He knew of a number of families that took
homesteads on government lands and were doing well for themselves, but
masked "Bourbons" went in a company and drove them off, telling them
they "had no business with homes of their own. The plantation was their
place, and there they should go." One man undertook to defend himself
and family with his gun, but receiving a serious wound from one of the
Bourbons, he hid from his pursuers. One of his white friends heard of
what had befallen him, and took him to New Orleans for safety, as he
knew him to be an industrious and peaceable man. Here he employed a
skillful surgeon to treat him. Our informant saw the bullet taken from
his body, and thought his life could be saved. But he is sure to lose
it if he returns to his own home. Rev. J. C. Hartzell said he had
received letters from various places all over the South, written by
intelligent colored ministers, that their Churches were closed against
them until after election. The same thing was told me by many of those
I interviewed.
The Bourbons said their meetings were the hot-beds of emigration and
Republicanism. In some places they were forbidden to meet in their
private houses for prayer-meetings, as their enemies said they met to
make plans to go to Kansas. Is there no guarantee for life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness? What a state of society is this for a
free country? Our first duty as a government is protection. But if it
is too weak for that, the second duty is to welcome the fleeing refugee
and point him to work, or to the thousands of acres of good government
land, and help him where he needs help to keep body and soul together
during the few months it may require to make himself self-sustaining.
From Daniel Votaw's report from Independence, Kansas, I extract the
following: "Thomas Bell, of Dallas County, Texas, was hanged about
October 5th for attempting to go with his family and a few neighbors to
Kansas. Blood and rapine mark the fugitive. After supper, from meal
furnished them for this purpose, they gave us a history of their trials
in Texas, which was truly sorrowful; and with the notes, mortgages, and
credits given--to the whole amount, two thousand five hundred
dollars--for their farms, they were compelled to leave and flee for
their lives, as David did before Saul."
Shot-gun rule still continued. Philip Fauber, recently from near Baton
Kouge, Louisiana, testifies as follows: "I rented land of Bragg and
James McNealy, and was to have one-third of the crop and furnish team
and seed. I took three bales of cotton to the weigher, who read my
contract, and set aside one bale for me. But the McNealys claimed the
three bales, and I referred the matter to the Justice of the Peace,
who, after reading the contract, sanctioned the decision of the
weigher. But the McNealys brought another officer, who asked to see the
contract I handed him the paper, which he read and tore up and threw
away, and McNealy took possession of the last bale of cotton, which I
told them was my only dependence for my family's support for the
Winter. On my way home through a little woods I received the contents
of a shot-gun in my face, both eyes being put out. In great distress I
felt my way home. The doctor took a number of shot out of my face, but
he couldn't put my eyes back. I can now do nothing but depend upon
others to feed and clothe me till God takes me from this dark world to
that glorious world of light and peace. The old man, McNealy denied
shooting me, but he never said he did not know who did. But he and his
two sons died within a few months after I was shot In the last sickness
of Bragg McNealy he sent for me to tell me for the last time that he
did not shoot me. Still he would not tell who did." The industrious
wife of this poor man whose face is speckled with shot scars, is
anxious to get four or five acres of land to work herself, and support
herself and blind husband.
A. A. Lacy, an intelligent colored man from New Orleans, who came to us
indorsed by a number of others from the same city, testifies to the
facts related by him as follows: "May 5, 1880, I called at the
custom-house to report for duty to General A. S. Badger, collector of
customs, by whom I had been employed. He directed me to Captain L. E.
Salles, the chief weigher, to whom I had reported a number of days, but
failed to get work, and as I failed this time I asked if I had better
continue calling for work. He replied, 'You had better call again.' As
I was passing out of the door his partner, Michael Walsh, came to me
(in a gruff, commanding tone), 'What is that you say, Lacy?' 'Nothing
to you,' I replied; 'I was speaking to Captain Salles.' At this he gave
a stab, and as I turned to see what he was hitting me for, he added two
stabs more with cursing. As I was going down the steps I felt the warm
blood running down my side, not yet realizing that I had been cut. I
opened my vest and saw the flowing blood. I stepped into Mr.
Blanchard's office, the assistant weigher, who was a Republican, and
showed him my side, with clothes saturated with blood. He was so
shocked and excited that he was taken ill and died in just two weeks.
He advised me to enter a complaint against Michael Walsh, which I did,
and he was placed in jail in default of thousand dollar bond. I was
sent to the hospital. As there were many friends and reporters calling
on me, the surgeon forbade callers except immediate attendants and my
wife. He said the deepest wound reached the left lung, and an eighth of
an inch deeper would have produced instant death. On the tenth day I
was allowed to be removed to my home, and pronounced to be
convalescent. Michael Walsh was released from prison with no other mark
of displeasure resting upon him for this attempt at murder than a few
days' imprisonment. As soon as I was able to walk about I took a boat
with friends whose lives had been threatened for Kansas, where we
arrived July 15, 1880. I am only able to light work, for which I am
thankful. Yet it seems hard to lose all this time from the assassin's
stab in a custom-house that belongs to the government I fought two
years to sustain."
Uncle Peter Cox, an aged man of eighty-eight years, has a wen on the
back of his neck, running between his shoulders, larger than a
two-quart bowl, that has been over thirty years coming. It was caused
by heavy lifting and continued hard work during his slave-life. He came
to Topeka, Kansas, in July, 1880, with his aged wife and deaf and dumb
grandson of eighteen years. His advanced age and deformity induced me
to inquire more closely into the cause of leaving his State
(Louisiana). After giving the sad history of his slave-life--the common
lot of that class of goods and chattels--he said: "Missus I stay'd thar
as long as I could, when I seed my brodder in de Lo'd hangin' on a tree
not more'n a hundred rods from my house, near Baton Rouge. A sistah was
hanged five miles off, on de plank road, in West Baton Rouge, in a
little woods. Her sistah followed her beggin' for her life, and tole de
bulldosers she couldn't tell whar her husban' was that da's gwine to
hang. But da swore she should hang if she didn't tell." Giving his head
a shake, while tears dropped thick and fast down the deeply furrowed
cheeks, he continued: "O, Missus, I couldn't live thar no longer. I's
so distressed day an' night. De chief captain of dis ban' of murder's
was Henry Castle, who wid his ban' of men was supported by Mr. Garrett,
Mr. Fisher, an' Mr. Washington, who were merchants in Baton Rouge."
But that poor grandfather's heart was filled with grief to overflowing
when the faithful grandson was walking alone in the railroad track, and
was run over by the cars and instantly killed. Although the warning
whistle was given the poor deaf boy heard it not. As he was all the
aged pair had to depend upon for their living, it was to them a heavy
stroke. No one can look over these testimonies without exclaiming, with
David, "Is there not a cause" for the flight of this persecuted people?
We find many among them, like Lazarus, begging for the crumbs that fall
from the rich man's table; but let us not allow them to die in this
land of plenty.
Yet, through all these dark clouds, we perceive the silver linings. The
heaven-born cause of temperance is gaining a foothold in our Southern
States. A crusade against the liquor-traffic commenced in Ohio, and has
swept over Michigan and other neighboring States, and is still going on
conquering and to conquer.