On the fourth week after the visitation above recorded, and just when the
Furguson brothers had about recovered from the effects of the brutal
whipping, and were able to attend to their ordinary duties, the family
were subjected to a second raid, far more revolting and indecent in its
character than the first, and such as the sensitive mind naturally recoils
from the contemplation of. The details are given here with a strict
adherence to the truth, all the facts herein set forth having been
personally verified to the writer by the sufferers themselves.
On the night of the 11th of December, 1870, Susan Furguson, and a young
man named Eli Phillips, who had long known, and loved, and sympathized
with her, were sitting before the fire in the room which had been the
scene of the former outrage; the other members of the family, with the
exception of John Furguson, had retired to bed.
Mrs. Furguson, the mother, was in very delicate health, caused by the
shock produced by the visitation of the Klan four weeks previous, and the
labor consequent upon nursing and caring for her sons. One of the
brothers, Daniel, lay stricken with a fever that had prostrated him two
days before, and was in an almost helpless condition.
About ten o'clock in the evening, the doors upon both sides of the house
were broken in simultaneously, without previous warning, and a band of
men, armed and disguised as before, and much larger in numbers, rushed
into the room, uttering the most demoniac yells. A portion of the number
proceeded directly to the bed where the mother was lying, terror-stricken
and paralyzed from fear at their approach, and after first charging her
with having exposed their former visit, dragged her from the bed and threw
her violently to the floor. They then stood her up, and ordered her to
remove her night dress and chemise. This she refused to do, pointing to
her gray hairs and imploring mercy in the name of God, and for the sake of
the mothers who had borne them.
Her appeals were made in vain. At the order of the Commander, the members
commenced tearing off the only garments that concealed her nakedness, and
this with the most shocking brutality. The daughter, maddened by the
sight, rushed upon the assailants, but was anticipated by other members of
the band, with whom she had a severe struggle, displacing the masks of
four of them enough to enable her to recognize their faces.
She was quickly overpowered, and then beheld her mother completely naked,
her brother John bleeding profusely from the blow of a club, and her
brother Henry and the young man Phillips firmly secured.
The mother was then thrown upon the floor and there securely held, while
two of the band beat her with twisted sticks, administering upwards of one
hundred blows upon various parts of her person, and bandying the most
obscene remarks and jests in relation to her. The daughter plead for her
mother most eloquently, she informed them that she was in delicate health,
and might die under the punishment, but this had no effect upon the
executioners. The interest of the "white man's race" was at stake, and
they had sworn to uphold the "white man's government," and would not stay
their hands.
Having chastised the mother until there seemed but little life left, they
commanded John and Henry, and the young man Phillips, to remove their
clothes, and upon their refusing to do so, tore them off until not a
vestige was left upon their persons. They were then whipped one after
another, with great severity, the beating of John being so terrible that
his life was despaired of for several days afterwards. The bed upon which
the helpless and fever-stricken Daniel lay, was knocked down from under
him, and his already infirm body bruised and lacerated without stint. It
was indeed "a chastisement with scorpions;" but the most indecent
spectacle was reserved to the last.