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HANOVER; OR THE PERSECUTION OF THE LOWLY.
A Story of the Wilmington Massacre
by
JACK THORNE
Published by M. C. L. Hill.
Respectfully dedicated to
the eminent heroine
IDA B. WELLS BARNETT
NEGROES FLEEING FROM WILMINGTON.
DRIVEN OUT BY ORGANIZED BANDS OF "RED SHIRTS." OBNOXIOUS WHITE MEN ALSO
ORDERED TO GET OUT OF TOWN. NO LYNCHING ALLOWED. MAYOR WADDELL AND HIS
POLICE PREVENT FURTHER KILLING. RULE OF WHITES NOW PREVAIL. THREE
HUNDRED POLICEMEN SWORN IN TO PRESERVE ORDER--NO COLLISION BETWEEN THE
RACES EXPECTED. NO TRADE AT WILMINGTON.
* * * * *
[Associated Press Market Report]
WILMINGTON, N. C., NOV. 11.--Spirits turpentine--Nothing doing.
Rosin--Nothing doing.
Crude turpentine--Nothing doing.
WILMINGTON, NOV. 11.--With the killing of the Negroes yesterday the
backbone of the trouble seems to have been broken. The authors of the
tragedy have gone to their homes and the mob has disbanded as if in
contempt of the gangs of Negroes who still hang about in the black
quarters growling and threatening the whites.
Law and order are gradually being restored; and those among the Negroes
who feel resentment against the whites are afraid to show their true
colors.
Early this morning 300 resolute white men gathered at the Mayor's office
and were sworn in as new policemen.
Late last night half a hundred white citizens got together and planned a
big lynching party which was to raid the city from centre to
circumference to-day.
There were six Negroes in jail who had been arrested during the
excitement of the day, and who some people of the town thought should be
summarily dispatched. One was a leader, Thomas Miller, who was charged
with declaring that he would wash his hands in a white man's blood
before night. Another was A. R. Bryant, charged with being a dangerous
character; the others were less prominent, but had been under the ban of
the whites for conduct calculated to incite trouble.
Mayor Waddell and his associates put a veto upon the proposed lynching.
They said that good government was to prevail in Wilmington from this
time, and would commence immediately. The would-be lynchers were so
insistent that the Mayor called out a guard and kept the jail surrounded
all night. This morning the six Negroes were taken out and escorted to
the north bound train by a detachment of militia, to be banished from
the city. The citizens cheered as they saw them going, for they
considered their departure conducive to peace in the future.
G. Z. French, one of the county leaders, attempted to escape. He ran
through the streets, but was overtaken at the depot by several members
of the posse.
A noose was thrown over his head and was drawn tightly around his neck.
Gasping and half choked, he fell upon his knees, begging for his life.
NEGRO BEGS FOR LIFE.
"Do you solemnly promise that you will leave and never come back?" asked
the leader of the posse.
"Oh, yes; yes. For God's sake, gentlemen, let me go, and I'll never come
back any more!"
The frightened wretch was allowed to go and crawled aboard the train,
scared half to death.
After finishing with French the "red shirts" made a raid on Justice
Bunting's residence. He was away from home. The mob tore from the walls
of his house the picture of his Negro wife and that of Bunting, and put
them on exhibition on Market street.
They were labelled: "R. H. Bunting, white," and "Mrs. R. H. Bunting,
colored." From Bunting's residence the mob proceeded to the house of a
Negro lawyer named Henderson. The hard-knuckled leader knocked at the
door. "Who's there?" came the query. "A white man and a friend," was the
reply. Inside there was the deep silence of hesitation. "Open the door
or we'll break it down," shouted the leader. Henderson, badly
frightened, opened the door.
"We want you to leave the city by 9 o'clock Sunday morning," said the
leader.
"All right," replied Henderson, "all I want is time enough to get my
things in order."
A Negro lawyer named Scott was also banished and left the city before
morning.
The Democrats hired one of Pinkerton's Negro detectives to associate
with the Negroes several weeks, and his investigation, it is said,
revealed that the two lawyers and the other Negroes mentioned were
ringleaders, who were inciting their race to violence.
WHITE MEN MUST GO TOO.
The retiring chief of police, Magistrate R. H. Bunting, Charles H.
Gilbert, Charles McAlister, all white Republicans, and many assertive
Negroes, who are considered dangerous to the peace of the community, are
now under guard and are to be banished from the city.
The Negro Carter Peaman, who was exiled last night, got off the train
several miles from the city and was shot dead.
A report is current that John C. Dancy, the Negro United States
Collector of Customs for this port, has been notified to leave the city
and will be waited upon if orders are not summarily obeyed.
The city is now under thorough military and police protection and there
is no indication of further outbreaks.
[Illustration]
Introductory Note.
On the Cape Fear River, about thirty miles from the East coast of North
Carolina rests the beautiful city of Wilmington.
Wilmington is the metropolis; the most important city of the old North
State, and in fact, is one of the chief seaports of the Atlantic coast.
The city lies on the East bank of the river, extending mainly Northward
and Southward. Market Street, the centre and main thoroughfare of the
city, wide and beautiful, begins at the river front and gradually climbs
a hill Eastward, so persistently straight, that the first rays of a
Summer's morning sun kiss the profusion of oak and cedar trees that
border it; and the evening sun seems to linger in the Western heavens,
loath to bid adieu to that foliage-covered crest.
Wilmington is the Mecca for North Carolina's interior inhabitants who
flock thither to breathe in its life-giving ocean breezes when Summer's
torrid air becomes unbearable, and lazy Lawrence dances bewilderingly
before the eyes. The Winter climate is temperate, but not congenial to
Northern tourists, who like swallows, only alight there for a brief
rest, and to look around on their journeying to and from the far South:
yet Wilmington is cosmopolitan; There dwells the thrifty Yankee, the
prosperous Jew, the patient and docile Negro, the enterprising, cunning
and scrupulous German; and among her first families are the
Scotch-Irish, descendants of the survivors of Culloden. Wilmington
suckled children who rallied under Scott in Mexico, heard the
thunderings at Monterey, and the immortal Alamo. When the civil strife
of four years was nearing its close, when the enemies to the Union of
States, sullen and vindictive, were retreating before an invading army,
Wilmington, nestling behind Fort Fisher, one of the most formidable
fortresses ever contrived, was shaken by some of the most terrific
bombarding that ever took place on earth.
"Then thronged the citizens with terror dumb
Or Whispering with white lips, 'The foe! they come! they come!'"
Wilmington, the scene of one of the last desperate stands of a
demoralized army, witnessed the "memorizing of Golgotha" as her sons
desperately struggled to resist a conquering foe. In Oak Dale Cemetery
on the Northeastern boundary of the city sleep a few of the principal
actors in that tragedy. There rests noble James; there rests Colonel
Hall--grand old Roman! I am glad he did not live to see the 10th of
November, 1898, lest he should have been tempted to join that mob of
misguided citizens whose deeds of cowardice plunged that city, noted for
its equity, into an abyss of infamy. Southward from Oak Dale Cemetery
awaiting the final reveille, are calmly sleeping not a few of that Grand
Army who fell in the arms of victory at Fort Fisher.
During the slave period, North Carolina could not be classed with South
Carolina, Georgia, and other far Southern States in cruelty and
inhumanity to its slave population; and in Wilmington and vicinity, the
pillage of a victorious army, and the Reconstruction period were borne
with resignation. Former master and freedman vied with each other in
bringing order out of chaos, building up waste places, and recovering
lost fortunes. Up to but a few years ago, the best feeling among the
races prevailed in Wilmington; the Negro and his white brother walked
their beats together on the police force; white and black aldermen,
white mayor and black chief of police, white and black school
committeemen sat together in council; white and black mechanics worked
together on the same buildings, and at the same bench; white and black
teachers taught in the same schools. Preachers, lawyers and physicians
were cordial in their greetings one toward the other, and general
good-feeling prevailed. Negroes worked, saved, bought lands and built
houses. Old wooden meeting houses were torn down, and handsome brick
churches went up in their places. Let the prejudiced scoffer say what he
will, the Negro has done his full share in making the now illfated city
blossom as the rose. We who have for so many years made our abode
elsewhere, have made our boast in Wilmington as being ahead of all other
Southern cities in the recognition of the citizenship of all of her
inhabitants; unstained by such acts of violence that had disgraced other
communities. To be laid to rest 'neath North Carolina pines has been the
wish of nearly every pilgrim who has left that dear old home. All this
is changed now; That old city is no longer dear. The spoiler is among
the works of God. Since the massacre on the 10th of November, 1898, over
one thousand of Wilmington's most respected taxpaying citizens have sold
and given away their belongings, and like Lot fleeing from Sodom, have
hastened away. The lawyer left his client, the physician his patients,
the carpenter his work-bench, the shoemaker his tools--all have fled,
fled for their lives; fled to escape murder and pillage, intimidation
and insult at hands of a bloodthirsty mob of ignorant descendants of
England's indentured slaves, fanned into frenzy by their more
intelligent leaders whose murderous schemes to obtain office worked
charmingly. Legally elected officers have been driven from the city
which is now ruled by a banditti whose safety in office is now
threatened by the disappointed poor whites whose aid was secured in
driving out wealthy Negroes on the promise that the Negroes' property
should be turned over to them.
What has wrought all this havoc in the city once so peaceful? Rev. A. J.
McKelway of Charlotte, Editor of the _North Carolina Presbyterian_, in
an article published in the _New York Independent_ of November, 1898,
explains as follows:--"In 1897 was passed at Governor Russell's wish and
over the protest of the Western Republicans, a bill to amend the charter
of the city. If there had been any condition of bad or inefficient
government, there might have been some excuse for this action; but the
city was admirably governed by those who were most interested in her
growth and welfare. Here is the law that is responsible for the
bloodshed recently in Wilmington:"
"BE IT ENACTED, That there shall be elected by the qualified voters
of each ward one Alderman only, and there shall be appointed by the
Governor one Alderman for each ward, and the Board of Aldermen thus
constituted shall elect a Mayor according to the laws declared to
be in force by this act."
"It will be readily seen that, combining with those elected from the
Negro wards, it was easy for the appointees of the Governor to elect the
Mayor and appoint the other city officers."
"When the new Board took possession there were found to be three
Aldermen, fourteen policemen, seventeen officers in the fire department,
four deputy sheriffs, and forty Negro magistrates besides. It is
probable that _not one of these_ was qualified to fill his office. The
new government soon found itself incapable of governing. It could not
control its own. The homes of the people were at the mercy of thieves,
burglars and incendiaries, and the police were either absolutely
incapable of preventing crime, or connived at it. White women were
insulted on the streets in broad daylight by Negro men, and on more than
one occasion slapped in the face by Negro women on no provocation. * * *
* White people began to arm themselves for the protection of their lives
and property. * * * * In the city of Wilmington it has been found upon
investigation, that the Negroes own 5 per cent. of the property, and pay
5 per cent. of the taxes. * * *
"The Negro editor publicly charged to the white women of the South equal
blame for the unspeakable crime, etc."
The Rev. Mr. McKelway has worded his defense well; but in giving a
plausible excuse for the crime of Nov. 10th, he makes a dismal failure.
A mob headed by a minister of the gospel, and a hoary-headed deacon,
after cutting off every avenue of escape and defense, and after the
government had been surrendered to them as a peace offering, wantonly
kills and butchers their brethren, is without parallel in a Christian
community, and the more Mr. McKelway seeks to excuse such a deed, the
blacker it appears.
The Hon. Judson Lyon, Register of the United States Treasury, in his
reply to Senator McLaurin in the _New York Herald_, says truthfully: "In
Wilmington, N. C., albeit the Executive as a leader of his party had
backed down and surrendered everything as a peace offering, and the
democracy, if that is what they call themselves, had carried the day,
still the main thoroughfares of that city were choked with armed men.
They destroyed personal property, they burned houses, they wantonly took
more than a dozen lives, they drove thousands to the woods where nearly
a dozen infants were born and died in many instances, with their mothers
the victims of exposure as the result of the cruelty of people who call
themselves democrats and patriots. Weyler in his maddest moments was
hardly more barbarous."
In the city of Wilmington, where so much innocent blood had been spilled
and so many valuable lives had been taken by that furious mob, see what
are the facts:
There were ten members of the Board of Aldermen, seven of these white
and three colored; there were twenty-six policemen, sixteen white and
ten colored, the chief being white and a native of the State, city
Attorney a white Republican, city clerk and treasurer, white, with
colored clerk. Turnkeys and janitors white Republicans with colored
assistants, Superintendent of Streets a white man, Superintendent of
garbage carts a white man, Clerk of Front Street Market, a white man,
Clerk of Fourth Street Market, a white man, Superintendent of Health, a
white Democrat, two lot inspectors, colored men, Chief of Fire
Department and Assistant chief, both white Democrats. There are three
white fire companies and two colored. Superintendent of City Hospital is
a white Democrat with white nurses for white wards, and colored nurses
for colored wards. The school committees have always had two white
members and one colored. Superintendent of Public Schools is a white
Democrat.
Now, will somebody point out where that awful thing that is iterated and
reiterated so much, to wit, NEGRO DOMINATION existed under this showing
in the communicipality of Wilmington.
The men who were driven from the city by the mob, with but few
exceptions, had no political following, nor political aspirations.
It has always been the rule with mobs to villify their victims, assail
their characters in the most shameful manner in justification of their
murder. But an attack upon the character and integrity of the Negroes of
Wilmington, in order to justify the massacre of Nov. 10th, shall not go
unchallenged. If what I write should raise a howl of protest and call
another ex-Governor Northern to Boston to brand it as a lie, it is
nevertheless a truthful statement of the causes that led up to the
doings of the 10th of November, and although I shall fictitiously name
some of the star actors in this tragedy and the shifters of the scenes,
I can call them all by their names and point them out. It will be proven
that the massacre of Nov. 10th, 1898, had been carefully planned by the
leading wealthy citizens of Wilmington, and that over thirty thousand
dollars was subscribed to buy arms and ammunition to equip every man and
boy of the white race, rich and poor; that secret dispatches were sent
to sympathizers in adjoining States and communities to come in and
assist in making the 10th of November, 1898, a second Bartholemew's eve
in the history of the world, by the wholesale killing of black citizens
after every means of defense had been cut off; that black men and women
for banishment and slaughter had been carefully listed; that clubs and
clans of assassins had been organized and drilled in signals and
tactics; that the aid of the State militia and the Naval Reserves had
been solicited to enter Wilmington on the 10th of November to assist in
disarming every Negro, and aiding in his slaughter and banishment. That
the intervention of Providence in the earnest and persistent entreaties
of white citizens who were too nobly bred to stoop so low, and the
strategy and cunning of the Negro himself, frustrated the carrying out
to its fullest intent, one of the most infamous and cowardly deeds ever
planned.
CHAPTER I.
The Editor.
"I will not retract! No! Not a single sentence! I have told the truth.
This woman not satisfied with the South's bloody record since the war,
is clamoring and whining like a she wolf for more human sacrifices, and
an increased flow of human blood. She is unmercifully pounding a
helpless and defenseless people. The article was issued in defense of
the defenseless. It is right against wrong; truth against error, and it
must stand even if the one who uttered it is annihilated; it must
stand!"
"But you must remember my dear man, that the South is no place to speak
plainly upon race matters. You have written the truth, but its a truth
that the white people of the South cannot and will not stand. Now the
leading whites are much incensed over this article of yours which they
interpret as an intent to slander white women, and I am sent to say to
you that they demand that you retract or leave the city."
"I will do neither! The truth has been said, a slanderer rebuked. God
help me, I will not go back on that truth."
"Well, I leave you; I've done my duty. Good morning."
It is often said that there is nothing so indispensible as the
newspaper. It is the moulder of public opinion; the medium of free
speech; the promoter and stimulator of business; the prophet, the
preacher, swaying the multitudes and carrying them like the whirlwind
into the right or wrong path. To millions its the Bible, the Apostles
Creed. Their opinion of God, of religion, of immortality is shaped by
what the newspaper has to say upon such subjects. Glowing headlines in
the newspapers have kindled the flames of Anarchy, and started men upon
the path of destruction like wolves stimulated and brutalized by the
scent of blood, to pause only when irrepairable evil hath been
wrought.--"When new widows howl and new orphans cry." What a power for
evil is the newspaper! The newspaper arrayed on the side of the right
hurls its mighty battering-ram against gigantic walls of oppresion until
they fall; takes up the cause of the bondman, echoes his wails and the
clanking of his chains until the nation is aroused, and men are marching
shoulder to shoulder on to the conflict for the right. What a power for
good is the newspaper! I once heard a great editor say that "although
newspaper work was hard and laborious, requiring a great store of
intellectual strength it was nevertheless a fascinating work." But in
the South where freedom of speech is limited to a class _grit and
backbone_ outweigh intellectual ability and are far more requisite. When
we consider the fact that many white newspaper men have "licked the
dust" in the Southland because they dared to emerge from the trend of
popular thought and opinion, the Spartan who without a tremor held his
hand into the flames until it had burned away was not more a subject of
supreme admiration than the little Octoroon editor of the _Wilmington
Record_ whose brave utterances begin this chapter.
The great newspapers of today are too engrossed in weightier matters to
concern themselves to any extent with things that promote directly the
interests of the ten million black Americans. That is largely the cause
of the existence of the Negro editors. The Negro, like the white man,
likes to read something good of himself; likes to see his picture in the
paper; likes to read of the social and business affairs of his people;
likes to see the bright and sunnyside of his character portrayed; so he
often turns from the great journals (who are if saying anything at all
concerning him, worrying over the "Negro Problem" (?)) to look at the
bright side presented by the Negro newspaper. A few days ago while
worried and disconsolate over the aspersions heaped upon a defenseless
people that floated upon the feotid air from the Alabama Conference,
_The New York Age_ came to me, a ray of light in a dungeon of gross
darkness.
Prior to the year 1892 there had been no genuine zeal among colored
people to establish a colored newspaper in Wilmington. _The Record_ was
launched at about that time: but not until taken in hand by the famous
A. L. Manly did it amount to very much as a news medium. Under the
management of this enterprising little man _The Record_ forged ahead,
and at the time of its suspension was the only Negro daily, perhaps, in
the country. It was a strong champion of the cause of Wilmington's
colored citizens. Improvements in the section of the city owned by black
people were asked for, and the request granted. Good roads were secured,
bicycle paths made, etc. The greatest deed achieved however, was the
exposure by _The Record_ of the very unsanitary condition of the colored
wards in the city hospital. _The Record_ made such a glowing picture of
the state of affairs, that the Board of County Commissioners were
compelled to investigate and take action, which resulted in the putting
of the old hospital in habitable shape. This, though a good work, did not
enhance the Editor's popularity with the whites who thought him too
_high strung, bold and saucy_. And the colored people who appreciated
his pluck felt a little shaky over his many tilts with editors of the
white papers. The brave little man did not last very long however--the
end came apace: Sitting in his office one evening in August reading a
New York paper, his eyes fell upon a clipping from a Georgia paper from
the pen of a famous Georgia white woman, whose loud cries for the lives
of Negro rapists had been so very widely read and commented upon during
the past year. This particular article referred to the exposure of and
the protection of white girls in the isolated districts of the South
from lustful brutes. "Narrow-souled fool!" exclaimed the editor,
throwing the paper upon the floor; "I wonder does she ever think of the
Negro girls in isolated districts of the South exposed to lustful
whites! Does she think of those poor creatures shorn of all protection
by the men of her race! I guess her soul is too small to be generous a
little bit.--'White girls in isolated districts exposed to lustful Negro
brutes.' Colored girls in isolated districts exposed to lustful white
brutes; what's the difference? Does the Negro's ruined home amount to
nought? Can man sin against his neighbor without suffering its
consequences? 'Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!' I'll
throw a broadside at that old women, so help me God."
The editor took up his pen and wrote the retort which shook the old
State from mountain to sea, and which enhanced the chances of the white
supremacy advocates who were then planning for an uprising in November.
"_Punish sin because it is sin_," concluded the editor, "_and not
because the one who commits it is black._" The article was commented
upon by the press throughout the State, and "the affrontery of the
Negro" in assailing white women bitterly discussed. _The Record_
advanced from five to twenty-five cents a copy, so anxious was every one
to see what the Negro had said to call for such ado. Threatening letters
began to come in to the editor's office. "Leave on pain of death." "Stop
the publishing of that of paper." "Apologize for that slander," etc. But
the editor refused to apologize, "Suspend or quit." A meeting of
citizens was called, and a colored man sent to advise the editor to
retract, but he was obdurate. Immediately after the departure of the
colored advocate, the owner of the building came in and told the editor
that he was compelled to ask him to move out. He looked around the
office so full of pleasant recollections. The face of "Little
Shunshine," once the writer of the social column whose rolicksome
disposition had robbed labor of its irksomeness in the work-room, beamed
upon him from far over the seas, and rendered the quitting of the old
home a much harder thing to do. But go he must. Colored friends hearing
of his predicament rallied to his aid, and offered him at least a
temporary asylum in one of their buildings. So the office of _The
Record_ was moved into Seventh Street. Excitement soon abated however,
and _The Record_ resumed its work. Those who are inclined to blame the
editor of _The Wilmington Record_ for the massacre of 1898 must remember
that the article was written in August, and the massacre occurred in
November; and that the editor of that paper did not leave Wilmington
until a few days before the massacre, upon the urgent advice of friends.
The whites of Wilmington had need to be afraid of the Negroes, and did
not attempt to do violence until sufficiently reinforced from the
outside, and the black citizens had been cut off from all means of
defense. Editor Manley's reply to the Georgia woman was not the cause of
the upheaval, but it was an excellent pretext when the election came
on.