THE CORONER'S INQUEST.
The revolutionary iconoclasts had fully established their sway in the
worst and most irritating forms; their resources, directed by
irresponsible and offensive authority--controlling the fortunes, hopes
and fate of all classes--ramified and extended throughout the South.
Mountebanks sat in judgment upon the lives and liberties of a vanquished
people; everywhere violating all the guaranties of freedom. The alarming
vibrations of this unhallowed power were felt in every home. It was a
matter of anxious and fearful thought, "What must be the result of
collisions that are sure to come?" It were vain to threaten consequences
badgered as the people were into passive submission by a power that
ruled supreme--a power that was conducting its operations with
unmeasured cruelty wherever the ill-starred Confederacy had raised its
hated crest. Retaliation swift and sure pursued a few of the misguided
negroes whose black hands were upraised to smite the South. Now and
then, under the shadow of the citadel that was garrisoned by the
pensioned slaves, the victims of the murderous knife or deadly bullet
would be found. Hence the South was the harvest field for the
functionaries who delighted in the sudden visitations of Providence, and
who looked for the vultures upon circling pinions above the river as
couriers of cheering messages; in the language of the negroes, as the
"sky sheruffs" who served due notice upon the oppressed taxpayers of
this patronizing government of the freedmen.
By a custom that obtained very generally in the South in the post-bellum
days, there was a division of offices inequitably made, however, between
the carpet-baggers and the negroes; and to the negroes was assigned
among others of inconsiderable revenue, the office of county coroner.
This office for many generations before the war was a sinecure, but a
pictorial page now appears in the history of reconstruction,
electrotyped in disgusting caricatures. The office of coroner was
constructed out of a mediæval original; it was both ancient and
honorable--a remnant of the feudal system that superseded other forms of
government in Europe before and since the crusade. So considerable were
its revenues and dignity, that the lords chief justices of the King's
Bench of England coveted and enjoyed its emoluments and title; and to
descend from an antiquity so dignified and remote, from bewigged and
begowned lords justices to 15th amendment freedmen, was quite a sheer
descent. But reconstruction came with fantastical ideals; with its own
peculiar and irritating forms and institutions, and the political fabric
was ludicrously inverted and the freedmen appeared to walk through the
air on stilts.
When post-mortem investigations were exceedingly rare in a county that
boasted of its healthfulness and its obedience to law, the per diem of
the coroner was fixed by legislative enactment to ten dollars, with
certain enumerated charges, such as summoning, swearing and empanelling
the jury of inquest. But now there was an epidemic of accidental deaths
in this phenomenal era. Among the negroes the most natural thing was to
die--to die from exposure, from starvation, and sometimes from heroic
doses of manhood suffrage. They died in the river, in the creek, in the
lowgrounds. Old Uncle Elijah Thorpe, the coroner, would sit moodily by
the hour on his dilapidated stoop, intently gazing into the firmament
above him for the appearance of "de sky shurruff," and when the circling
scavengers of the country would flap and dip their pinions below the
fringe of the cypresses that bordered the river, his spirits would
revive, and refreshing smiles would play hide and seek in the black
caverns of his face.
The old coroner like Judge Blackstock, appeared to be the "survival of
the fittest." He had come out of the toils of slavery with his hair as
white as the snow, and with lines in his black face as if a "new ground
plow" had been running furrows into it. He was an old man when the great
guns were celebrating the emancipation of four million slaves. He was an
old man when the bosses placed into his horny, gouty hand the elective
franchise. He was an old man when he looked out one night, when the
stars were twinkling in the mid-heavens, and saw the luminary of freedom
with its bewildering corruscations. He was the advanced guard of the
freedmen who welcomed the agent of the bureau with waving of hats and
clapping of resounding hands. He was the file leader of Laflin's black
reinforcements. When Elijah began to grow rich out of the spoils of his
office he observed in a confidential way to Laflin,
"Ef de niggers keeps er gitten sassinated lak deys agwine on und de
jurer don't gin out, dis heer Soufland is agwine ter be a sametary from
one eend to de tother; the buzzards is lak a passel ob rode hands er
cummin und agwine," and then to disarm the carpet-bagger's cupidity he
continued with a lugubrious cast of countenance, "By de time I gits de
rashuns from de kommissery und de sperrits fur de jurer dars a mity
leetle spec left ob de poreseeds. De pay boss haint ekal to de
sponsuality of de offis."
These post-mortem inquiries, like all other functions of the time,
presented most ridiculous contrasts. While the circling carrion crows
were looking for dead negroes in the river and swamps, the negro women
in the cabins and kitchens were watching the movements of the coroner;
and whenever the public became advised "dat de corps ob humans was to be
sot upon" if the news came in the dead of the night, an outcry would go
from cabin to cabin; dusky faces would appear at dirty windows and an
inquiry in staccato from some sister would arouse her neighbour.
"Oh! Sophia Ann, has yu heerd de news, or is yu pine blank ded? De
crowner has dun und put de saddle on ole 'sametary' und de saddle-bags
und de jimmyjon too, und agwine ter set on er corps fortwid."
"Hush! sister Becky," would come the answer; "Aint you got anudder tack
of hystericks;" and rayless jaundiced lights would appear in windows;
then the screeching of fowls in the coops, then pots would simmer and
boil; then little Bill would be jerked out of bed with the angry
exclamation, "Fore de King, I believes dis heer yungun would sleep clar
froo de jedgment day und wudn't heer nary trumpet. Git outen heer yu
Bill und fetch dat ar steer und de kaart fore de door fortwid." And then
Bill, yawning and gaping and grunting, and twisting his arms over his
black head, would stagger with tangled feet to the stable and command,
"Cum outen dis heer door ole Linkum fore I whacks yu ober de hed wid dis
heer palin." And then old Linkum would toss his head and start towards
Bill with a boo--o-o and then back into his stall with another boo-oo,
and then Maria would shout from the kitchen,
"Yu Bill has yu und ole Linkum gone plum ter sleep? Why don't yu fetch
dat aggrawating steer outen dar?" And then she would turn to pack away
the pies and chickens in the basket, and then ole Linkum and Bill and
Maria and "Ladybird," the ugly fice dog, would be reinforced upon the
road by a picturesque caravan. There would be women and children of all
sizes, ages and conditions; then the hard cider carts, fakirs and pie
women, then the old parson and the deacons and the singing sisters, then
the man with a hand organ and a monkey, then a score of yelping hounds,
curs and fices, then the coroner in battered beaver and green goggles,
astride his flopped-eared, flee-bitten mule, "ole Samitary," all with
laughter, jest and song hurrying to the scene of the catastrophe; while
the poor misguided subjects of the investigation would be staring with
great lack-lustre eyes into the sky.
Upon this occasion the rising sun as he passed through the mist veiled
his face from a spectacle terribly ghastly. Four black corpses in silks
and satins and tawdry lace, with upturned faces, lay rigid with a seasaw
motion in the ooze and water; and a huge black object, like the back of
a leviathan with striped banners in his nostrils, dammed up the stream
that flowed with a sluggish current from the river. This then was the
end of the carnival; the due return upon the writ of ejectment.
What utopian dreams were whispered into ears into which the eddying
waters were intoning a refrain! Shall the mistress of Ingleside descend
into this cold, forbidding flood with the keys of her broad domain, and
place them as a symbolical delivery of title into hands so rigid and
nerveless, that never guarded its portals with one night's vigil? Shall
the officers of the law, under these broken arches, endorse a due return
upon the writ of ejectment? When we see the star spangled banner down
there, dyeing the waters as it seemed with blood, "with the Union" down,
does it bind us to an allegiance to the powers that sent these outlaws
upon their mission of assassination.
Joshua was very wretched when he heard of the horrifying disaster that
overreached the human beagles that were pursuing their quarry so
heartlessly. Old negroes like Joshua and Ned were fast becoming
disillusioned; they had danced attendance to Laflin and his pampered
slaves when they were desperately hungry; they had marched and counter
marched, when from sheer weakness they could scarcely keep step to the
fife and drum; they had seen the hollow pageantry; had heard the
discordant fanfares from brazen trumpets; the mockery of commands to
"fall in" and to "fall out;" indeed they had been lashed to the
treadmill of fatiguing servitude when there wasn't a bazaar or a
sutler's shop into which they could enter and beg a morsel of bread; and
when they "broke ranks" there wasn't a ration of meat or flour
distributed to the old hulks that were to all intents and purposes out
of commission. Joshua felt that all the events and catastrophes of this
mortal life were in some mysterious way the annotations of Sacred Writ,
and hence as he clothed himself in the spic-span homespun garments that
Alice had given him, he said to his wife,
"Now eff I kin ever find my old bever, und my specks, I'm agwine to ax
Miss Alice what de scriptur says erbout dis insurreckshun. Cording to my
membrance when de Mallyskites flung ole Farro outen de charryot into de
sea, dat Fillisten ginril was imitating Ellick in his devilishness;
haint dat scriptur, Hannah?"
Hannah looked up from her wash-board with earnestness and with just a
suggestion of temper as she observed:
"Whicherway in de scriptur duz yu find dat passage? Cordin to my
membrance dare want none of dem charryots in dem deys epsepting Lijah's,
und hit warn't hitched to no hosses."
As Joshua was going toward the mansion he said to himself, "Dey is
agwine to spishun ole marsa wid killing dem niggers, und den de werry
ole harrykin is gwine to brake loose in dis plantashun. Grate Jarryko!
Ef it cums to de wursest me und Ned und Clarsy und Hanna is agwine to
stan twixt him und dem twell de eend."
It appears to be exclusively the prerogative of women to be the burden
bearers for others; assuredly this virtue was heroically exercised by
the beautiful girl, whose heart was all sympathy for the misguided
wretches. Not one thought, not a care, for her poor, defenceless self;
all for the negroes who were drunken upon the lees of reconstruction,
the poor slaves of a power they dared not oppose.
"Uncle Joshua," she asked in tears "Have you heard the sad fate of Aleck
and Ephraim?"
"Yes, marm, I dun und heerd de news dis mornin fo sun up, und I'm
missurble fur yer und ole marsa, missis. Dis werry sassinashun cum to my
membrunce las nite twixt lebben 'clock und day, und when hit wuz fust
norated er roun, I ses ter Hanner, sez I, Dar now! I spishuned dat werry
axydent wuz ergwine ter happ'n. Und Hanner she ups und sez, sez she,
'How cum yer node mo dan tuther humans? Is yer er possel ur a wangel?'
Und den I upped und tole her, und hit cum erbout in disser fashun,
missis: A bitter sadness lay upon my piller las nite, yung missis, und
way in de shank o' de nite I seed yo precious mammy, und she wur er
weepin lak her po hart wud brake, und I sed to her, sez I, 'Ole missis,
haint dat yu?' Und den she smoled one leetle smole, und den she sed,
sez she, 'Ole nigger, I'm so missurble, for my dear husbun und my
preshus child are in danger; won't yu help em?' Und den she pinted her
lily finger down de appenu toards de crick, and den I heerd her say, sez
she, 'Rite dare is whar de niggers is ergwine ter kill my po dears;' und
den she banished lak a sperret outen my site. Fo Gawd, yung missis, dem
dar wurds sont a shower ob isickles all ober me."
This simple, affecting narrative chilled the heart of poor Alice, too,
and her grief became as frigid as if smitten by polar frosts.
Oh, what would Alice give for the reign of peace, of law in this Idumea
of the South! "Why prepare these watery sepulchres for the freedmen
whose hopes have been built upon their delusive pledges? Why starve and
drown them as if they were vermin, without aspirations and without
souls? Who can excel these authors of misrule in the fine art of
assassination?" she asked.
Clarissa stood at the side of her young mistress, whilst Joshua, as if
by inspiration, was narrating the vision of the night. She was
transfixed with terror, and shaking from head to foot she exclaimed:
"Bress Gawd! dis is de eend ob hit all--fust cums de belliun, den de
hosses und de charryot, den def!"
"Stop rite dar! Stop rite dar, Clarsy! Nary nudder wurd," exclaimed
Joshua with emphasis. "Don't de scriptur say how dat whot is ergwine ter
cum is ergwine ter cum? Und ef hit haint er gwine ter cum hit haint
ergwine ter cum; why, in cose; ef me und Ned hez ary grane ob spishun
erbout Miss Alice und ole marser, me und him is ergwine to uprare a
barrykade rite at de grate house, und dey will be drib back lak de
Mallyskites. Yu jess hole yer gripe upon Proverdense und grace, Clarsy,
und den we kin fling de charryots und de hosses in de creek agen, und
ole marser und yung missis will be saved."
"Grate king!" replied Clarissa, still greatly alarmed. "Yu mout ez well
uprare dat barrykade rite now; kase when dem niggers sees dese drounded
corpses er see-sawin in de creek, day is ergwine ter cum down on dis
hear grate house same ez de yaller flies on dem pided steers out yander
in de mash."
"Yu is too brash, sister," replied Joshua. "I haint ergwine ter hab dem
debbils spishunin dat dar's a trap sot fo I gits hit sot. When de moon
gits back yander hind de trees hit will be sot, und I aims fur yu ter
pull de trigger."
"Oh, my king!" blurted out Clarissa, as she wrung her hands, "und sposin
hit don't go off ur nuffin; den whot? Dis heer po nigger wud immytate
wun ob dem sojers dat wuz dug outen de krater way ole Mars Jon got his
def wound. Ef dat ar trap is sot its bleeged ter be upsot by sumbody
dat's got mo ambishun agen his kuller dan I is, yu heers my racket!"
exclaimed Clarissa in great excitement.
Joshua was the first to interview the dead bandits. I can see him
squatted upon his haunches with palsied finger pointed at the fishy eyes
exclaiming;
"Dar now square Wiggins jess see what yu is fotched up agen at las. I
dun und tole yu so; now haint yu dun und dun it er trying to skeer ole
marser outen de grate house; mout heb node yu was ergwine to git
obertook by sum jedgment ur udder. I don't spishun nuffin else dat fo
dis devilish konstruckshun is dun wid, dare haint ergwine to be er live
nigger in de Nunited States; und de biggerty niggers like yu und Efrum
is ergwine to mak hit wusser fur tuther fokeses. Yu dun und dun de
wussest fing yu ebber dun in yo born days, when yu sot down in dat dare
kerrige wid all dem flags er flying at de hine eend lak er sho nuff
surkuss; und deres yo po innosen wife er follerin yu backards und
furrards lak yu was ole Farro kommandin de yurth, er lying down dare
same as a drownded warmint in de crick, und her po leetle yunguns crying
mammy! mammy! und all dun und dun kase yu started a hullyberlo erbout
ole marser's plantashun; wurf mo den all de dratted niggers big und
leetle on de top side of de yurth; und kase yu fotched ole Shurmun's
army wid dare muskits in de ded ob de nite to tak ole marser und yung
missis ded er live. I nebber seed er nigger lak yu play biggerty dat de
good Lord didn't slam to de yurth wid his jedgments. Pend 'pon it de
Lord is gwine to git de under holt ebery time." And all the time Aleck
lay with great lack-lustre eyes staring and grinning at Joshua. "Und yu
is down dare too Efrum wid dem yaller upperlips, pine plank lak de sun
flowers in de jam of Hanna's gyarden er bobbin up und down same as a
kildee in de mash; und boff of yu er smokin in de tarnel hell farr. Und
all cum erbout kase dere's too much freedum in de lan. I nebber seed a
drounded nigger fore de bellion fell in all my born days, and now yer
kaint fro yer hook in de crick fur a catfish yer aint skeered yu mout
git tangled up wid a drounded nigger."
Joshua paused to wipe the perspiration from his face with his ragged
coat sleeve, and the great black crowd moved as by a common impulse to
the brink of the stream and gazed with a contrariety of emotions upon
the drowned negroes. The goggle eyed coroner with his beaver in his hand
stepped a little to the front and commanded attention.
"Breddin," he said, "dars a time to live und dars a time to die, und ef
I must spaciate upon def befo dis conjugation I mout say dat he cums in
a heap aways und a heap er fashuns; den agin he cums when he hedn't
ought ter cum. He cum dis time when he hedn't ought ter cum und he hes
flung de hole goverment out of jint."
"Und I specks de boss will be bleeged ter mak a signment ob de assets of
North Caliny. Fur de lans sake," exclaimed Joshua, "let me git wun
moufful ef she's agwine to bust." Without noting the interruption,
however, the coroner proceeded:
"I'm agwine ter ax brudder Skyles de slidin elder to lead us all in
prayer, und ter bless de Lord dat de crowner und jurer is rite heer to
sympathize with our bereaved friends in the bonds of iniquity."
Aleck and his ill fated friends were still sea-sawing in the water and
after the prayer the man with the hand organ and the monkey began to
play in squeaky, stridulous tones "The girl I left behind me."
Joshua the octogenarian, was among the men who were chosen upon the
jury.
"Now den what is yer gemman gwine ter side erbout dese drounded
corpses?" asked the coroner. There was a long painful pause when a very
venerable negro confronted the coroner with this enquiry;
"I rises to a question ob pribilige sar. I wishes to quire, ef a crowbar
mout be er witniss in his own beharf, sar?"
"Sartanly sar, sartanly," answered the coroner:
"How is yer agwine to swar hit?" he continued.
"Now yer oversizes my siggassity sar; yer axes pine blank" said the
coroner, raising his spectacles with great dignity, "'How dis jurer is
agwine to swar a crowbar;' is dat hit?"
"Yas sar," replied the negro.
"What sez yer gemman ob de jurer to dis qustun," asked the coroner.
After laying their heads together, a juror pompously observed.
"Dat he hed seed a horg crost questuned in de kote, und he convicted de
prisner."
"Were he a white man?" the jury asked.
"No sar, dat time de prisoner was a cullud gemman sar."
"Aye, Aye," they exclaimed in chorus.
"Und de nex time I seed a pare of galluses convict a prisner."
"Was he a cullud gemman?" again they asked.
"No sar, he were a po white man."
"Jess so, Jess so," they again exclaimed with infinite satisfaction.
"Fetch dat crowbar in heer und tell where yer git him," said the
coroner.
"I scovered him under de bridge," the negro answered.
"Whose name is dat, sar?' the coroner asked pointing to the letters J.
W. S. chiseled into the iron handle.
"Haint dat Semo's name?" he again asked.
"It ar" answered a juror.
"Constable," the coroner stormed with wrath, "Yer fech dat white man fo
me, ded er live, und summuns de possy common ta ters to go wid yer sar.
Und bredden," he continued, "we'll pass de jimmyjon und tak a swipe
while wee's erwaiting fur de prisner."
Clarissa looked out of the kitchen window and descried the negro
constable and his posse advancing rapidly toward the mansion. With her
hands just out of the kneaded flour she ran frantically to her young
mistriss with the exclamation,
"Lord have mercy, Miss Alice, yander cums ole Shermans army; de
plantashun is black und blu wid niggers wid der muskits," "Oh, my Lord
have mussy on us."
Alice though greatly alarmed, replied as calmly as possible,
"Dont you know Clarissa, we have never harmed these people. Do you think
they will kill us in cold blood. Where is father? Come father, come
Clarissa, we will go into the verandah and meet them, kindly face to
face. Come, father, I know you are brave--and you are a Christian. If
they have come to murder us--there is but a pang and all will be over.
In a moment we shall forget our griefs, our humiliations. Let us clasp
hands and die altogether."
The negro constable observing the distress of the family and wishing for
the time being to avoid excitement, halted his gang at the gate and
advanced to the old man with his warrant.
"Mr. Semo," said he, "Yer is scused of ferociously homisiden de corpses
in de crick und I'm sent to fetch yer to de crowner."
"All right I will accompany you," the old man said with resignation.
Poor Alice clung to her father's neck crying as if her heart would
break, and spoke pleadingly to the negro.
"May I not go with my father? May I not die with him? Oh, my dear, dear
father. I cannot bear the separation, the suspense. Please, please Mr.
Constable let my father remain here and let me suffer and die for him."
"Oh my daughter, my child," petulantly cried the old man, "this will not
do." "Dry your tears my dear child and be assured that the coroner
cannot do me harm. If he shall find me guilty, I shall remain in jail
only to-morrow. The court convenes on Monday next when I shall be
discharged and return home. Give me a kiss now, and remember dear, that
your father is safe: Good-bye, God bless you."
As Joshua, a juror, saw the feeble old man with great effort advancing
with the negro posse, he began to shed tears and covered his furrowed
face with his old beaver:
"Po Mars Jon," he sobbed audibly, "Has it cum to dis, scusing the
bestest man in de kentry wid foroshus homosiden. Marser, yu shall hab
jestice. I'll stan twix yer und def. Yu know'd nuffin about dis
massacre, jess ez innerson ob dis scusation ez a baby--ebery bit und
grane."
"Constable," asked the coroner, "fetch me dat crowbar und de prisner."
"Now den, dis heer crowbar is a witnis agin yer, Mr. Semo, what has yer
got to say agin dis scusation sar?"
The Colonel replied with dignity, "I have not seen it before in twelve
months, I am sure."
"How cum dis heer crowbar under de bridge, how cum de bridge fell down
und how cum dem fokses drounded, answer me dat?" sharply answered the
coroner.
"I cannot tell sir, I know nothing whatever about the matter, and----"
"Boss Crowner," interrupted Joshua, "does yer sposing dat ar crowbar was
de cashun ob dat dar drounen? Answer me dat fust. I aint agwine ter sot
on no man dat aint gilty. Diss heer bisniss is ticklish bisniss, I tell
yer dat rite now, und we is all sworn ter find out whedder dat crowbar
kilt dose fokses ur whedder dey kilt deyselves. Now yer look er heer,
when dis heer gang cum down dat rode a rasin und a hollering lak wild
panters, dey want a noticing nuffin und dat ole bridge hez been shackly
und cranksided for a mont, und der horses cummin a prancing und er
gallupin wid all dem flags a flying mout er knowed sumfin was agwine to
gib way, und ef I wotes ter hang eny body it is agwine to be de oberseer
ob de rode, taint agwine to be ole marser. Ef I wotes, I says ef I
wotes, I am agwine ter clar ole marser ob dis heer terble scusashun und
I am reddy ter wote rite now. I got a plenty ob munny und a plenty ob
good wittles, too, und I haint agwine to grunt und root roun de
kommissery lak a horg nudder, wid de ole flag a twisted ober de back lak
de tail ob a chiken rooster. Marser Jon shall hab jestis ef I hab to go
outen dese Nunited States fur it. Mout as well be sarchin fur fleas on a
catfish ez fer jestis in dis kote. I move dis honerble kote to turn ole
marser Jon loose, und I call for de wote rite now."
This speech of the old negro seemed, as it were, the gift of an oracle.
It grappled with a great subject of principle. Joshua was indeed an
immune, having nothing to fear from the negroes, on account of his
extreme old age and enjoying the trust of the Colonel and his daughter.
He looked up at the flag as he concluded, as it seemed to him just now
to be overcast with the murky vapors of oppression, and pointing his
bony finger toward its scarlet-veined folds, exclaimed with the pathos,
the spirit of an orator of nature,
"De grate Lawd forbid dat yore stripes, 'Ole Glory,' shall be washed in
de blood ob my ole marser. I welcomed yu in de Souf when I seed yu
chassayin in de wild storm; I bowed my ole hed to yu when yu flung yo
storry crown toards de hebens; I've marched backards und farrards, tired
unto def, when yu led de rigiment, und felt dere wuz power und pride und
peace under yo stripes und under yo storrs; und when hongry und starving
fur bread, I flung my ole bever in de air und cheered fur de flag ob de
Nunion. I lubs my ole marser ez I lubs yu, 'Ole Glory' und he mus not
die--he shall not die; ef de blood of Ellick und Efrum wuz upon his hans
und upon his soul ez thick ez de mud upon dare gyarments."
Suffice it to say that in the opinion of the jury John W. Seymour had
committed the murder alleged in the warrant and was committed to the
common jail for the unbailable capital crime.