Gaston County, N. C., in the lower part of that State, adjoins York
County, South Carolina, the State line dividing these two districts. In
the north-easterly part of Gaston County, in the outskirts of Hoylestown,
there came to live a family of mulatto people--or quadroons--in 1870, who
were refugees from oppression, brutality and abuse of the Ku Klux Klan in
Moore County, N. C., whence they had been banished after the husband had
been shockingly scourged, and the lives of himself, wife, and three
children threatened, unless he left Moore County within a fortnight from
the night he was whipped.
At the earnest entreaties of his wife, who feared the next threatened
visitation of the Klan, her husband consented to quit the place he had
dwelt in some years, but where he had rendered himself obnoxious to the
Democratic party around him, through his persistent advocacy of Republican
sentiments, which he promulgated among his own race, causing them to cast
their votes for the Radical ticket. And for this offence he was terribly
whipped and ruthlessly driven from his home.
The name of this family was Noye, Aleck and Elfie, the father and mother
had both been slaves, belonging originally to the Noye estate, in Moore
County. Aleck was an ingenious fellow, and his brother Felix, had, twenty
years previously, invented a peculiar reclining chair for the use of
invalids; which to this day is manufactured largely in New England, upon
the identical principle, originated by Felix, for which his old master
took out a patent, and from the royalty of which he has realized a fortune
first and last.
Aleck was a first rate mechanic and earned a good living. After the war,
when he became free to exercise his natural talent for his own benefit,
and had the right to vote, he became an ardent Radical, and proved a
damaging subject among his brethren in the estimation of the Southern
Democrats.
He was a brave fellow, and only at the urgent solicitation of Elfie, did
he decide to quit his former residence, after the scourging above alluded
to. But he went to Gaston County, found occupation readily and pursued his
labor faithfully. The old love of "freedom of opinion" went with him, and
his zeal for his colored fellow brethren soon cropped out, in his new
location. He was "warned" to leave Hoylestown, just as he had been
compelled by the mandate of the Klan to flee from Moore County, but
refused to go.
On the night of February 7, 1871, Aleck was sitting with his family before
the fire in his little cabin, after a hard day's work; and the children
were about the room, one of the little girls being at the moment beside
his knee. The mother was busy getting the homely evening meal ready, and
was just in the act of removing from before the glowing fire the pone and
hoe cakes for supper, when the door of the hut flew open, suddenly, a
musket shot rang out, and _she_ fell head-foremost in upon the blazing
logs, with a bullet through her brain!
Aleck sprang from his stool, caught his wife in his arms, and drew her out
of the flames upon the floor. She never spoke from that instant, and, amid
the screams of the terrified children, Aleck found himself in the gripe of
two or three disguised ruffians, who entered in advance of half a dozen
others of the Klan, who quickly pinioned him, and informed him that "his
time had come."
His wife, whom he tenderly loved, lay dead before his startled and
dumfounded gaze, and he could not command himself to speak for a moment.
Then he commenced to struggle with the brutes, the screams of his little
ones bringing him back to himself. "What is this for," he exclaimed. "Come
along!" was the sharp reply of the leader of the gang, "You're played out,
and now you're _our_ meat!" And they swiftly bore the wretched father out
of the hut, and away from his slaughtered wife and horrified crying babes.
Aleck was taken to the woods, half a mile distant, where the gang tore and
cut his clothes off of him, and then proceeded to flay him, in accordance
with the decision of the Camp in that county; the members of which had
first been put upon his track by members of the Moore County Klan. Upon
this second visitation, the edict was to "whip the nigger to death." And
they did the bidding of their leader, as the sequel proved, to the letter.
He was cut and slashed, and beaten until the breath of life was almost
gone out of his poor defenceless body, and then their victim was hurled
into the chapparal, and left to the night wolves of the forest to devour.
It sometimes occurs that our strength increases in proportion to the
strain that is imposed upon it. Wounds and rough hardship enure the
sturdy, and provoke their courage, oftentimes, and there is a natural
instinct in the heart of man, which, under the severest trials and abuses,
steels his very nerves _not_ to yield to the heaviest blows of calamity or
adversity--mental or physical.
Aleck was brave-hearted to a fault. He was likewise physically courageous,
and could bear the worst kind of punishment, ordinarily, without
flinching. He was now vanquished, for hours he lay like one who had "given
up the ghost," beyond conjecture. Still he did not die until the following
night. He was providentially discovered by some negroes, in the woods,
taken to his cabin, and brought to consciousness.
Before he expired he told his dreadful story to four witnesses, who gave
it in substance to the United States authorities, as we have now stated
the details; but unfortunately--on account of the disguises of his
heartless tormenters and murderers--he could give no description that
pointed to the personal identity of the offenders.
He learned that his wife was dead, before his own lamp of life went out,
and simply asking of the colored friends who gathered about his
death-bed-side, that the humble pair might be laid in the same grave, poor
Aleck Noye sank to his final rest, and yielded up his spirit to the God
who gave it. The children were taken away by some of the poor neighbors
who esteemed the quadroon family for their virtues, and universal kindness
towards them, and thus closed another awful tragedy in North Carolina--of
which over six hundred came under the knowledge of the United States
District Attorney, in a single county, (not all of them fatal, to be
sure), and which have been duly reported by him, officially, within a
comparatively limited period, since the close of the war.
Is there no "combination of purpose or design" in all these instances of
wrong? Does there exist "no organization among these men" for evil? And
have these terrible doings no "political significance" as is asserted in
the minority Report of the Congressional Committee upon the Ku Klux Klan
outrages? In the face of this accumulated, overwhelming, damning
evidence--will _any_ one believe that the Honorable gentlemen (who have
put forth this paper in opposition to the majority Report of that
Committee), are not themselves convinced that all this is true; and that
not one half of the shocking story of the infamy of this wretched Klan has
been told?
Will it be impressed upon the minds of the public of this enlighted
nation, North or South, through any sophistry, argument or theorising,
that all these living witnesses and victims are liars, and perjurors? Have
not these events occurred? And if so, what is the _cause_ of the wrong
doing? It happens, unfortunately, for the "Union Democracy," who flout at
these accounts of the doings of the Klans, that none _but_ Radicals or
negroes are assailed. And also that _never_ has a Radical been found
associating with these Ku Klux midnight marauders and, butchers, in an
attack upon one of their victims! Is there "no political significance" in
this fact?
It is simply idle to propose such a fallacious and utterly groundless
doctrine. The fact is patent, and the matter is clear as that the sun
shines over the earth at mid-day--to the mind of every intelligent being
who can see or read--that the opponents of the Republican party, in the
guise of Ku Klux Klans, supported unblushingly by the "Union Democracy" of
the country, and their Democratic allies, are the combined movers,
operators, sustainers and abettors of this crusade, and that their first
and last and continuous aim and hope is to weaken or destroy the Radical
sentiment in the land.
Thus far, however, thanks be to God! the American people have not been
deceived by the theories or the assertions of those who would tear down
the fabric of our wholesome Republican Government. And far distant be the
day when such attempts to overturn that government may succeed. "There is
a right way for us and for our children, and the hand of God is upon all
them for good, that seek him; but his wrath is against all them that
forsake him."... And it is written, that "he who shunneth iniquity and
oppression, and followeth after righteousness, alone findeth life,
righteousness and honor."