liblawless 0.16.1 → 0.17.0

raw patch · 28 files changed

+12761/−318 lines, 28 filesdep +manageddep ~stmPVP ok

version bump matches the API change (PVP)

Dependencies added: managed

Dependency ranges changed: stm

API changes (from Hackage documentation)

Files

• Examples/Text/pg14976.txt +2592/−0
• Examples/Text/pg14977.txt +4038/−0
• Examples/Text/pg15398.txt +5796/−0
• Examples/ZFS/Main.hs +0/−16
• Examples/ZFS/Types.hs +0/−19
• Examples/ZFS/Types/ZName.hs +0/−59
• Examples/ZFS/Types/ZPool.hs +0/−27
• Examples/ZFS/Types/ZPools.hs +0/−28
• Examples/ZFS/zpools.yaml +0/−18
• README.md +59/−19
• Source/Arbitrary.hs +5/−2
• Source/ByteString.hs +15/−0
• Source/Exception.hs +2/−2
• Source/IO.hs +57/−6
• Source/Lawless.hs +1/−3
• Source/Map.hs +2/−3
• Source/Networking.hs +1/−1
• Source/Path.hs +112/−3
• Source/Temporary.hs +0/−29
• Source/Text/IO.hs +34/−15
• Source/Textual/SepList.hs +2/−2
• Tests/Main.hs +6/−1
• Tests/TestAeson.hs +2/−5
• Tests/TestAesonEncoding.hs +1/−1
• Tests/TestSepList.hs +1/−1
• Tests/TestTemporary.hs +25/−15
• Tests/TestTime.hs +1/−5
• liblawless.cabal +9/−38

@@ -0,0 +1,2592 @@+Project Gutenberg's Mob Rule in New Orleans, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: Mob Rule in New Orleans
+       Robert Charles and His Fight to Death, the Story of His Life, Burning
+       Human Beings Alive, Other Lynching Statistics
+       
+
+Author: Ida B. Wells-Barnett
+
+Release Date: February 8, 2005 [EBook #14976]
+
+Language: English
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOB RULE IN NEW ORLEANS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgpd.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MOB RULE IN NEW ORLEANS:
+ROBERT CHARLES AND HIS FIGHT TO DEATH,
+THE STORY OF HIS LIFE,
+BURNING HUMAN BEINGS ALIVE,
+OTHER LYNCHING STATISTICS
+
+BY
+
+IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
+
+1900
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: This pamphlet was first published in 1900 but was
+subsequently reprinted. It's not apparent if the curiosities in spelling
+date back to the original or were introduced later; they have been
+retained as found, and the reader is left to decide. Please verify with
+another source before quoting this material. Of special note are the names
+Cantrell/Cantrelle, Porteous/Porteus, and Ziegel/Zeigel.]
+
+
+
+
++INTRODUCTION+
+
+Immediately after the awful barbarism which disgraced the State of Georgia
+in April of last year, during which time more than a dozen colored people
+were put to death with unspeakable barbarity, I published a full report
+showing that Sam Hose, who was burned to death during that time, never
+committed a criminal assault, and that he killed his employer in
+self-defense.
+
+Since that time I have been engaged on a work not yet finished, which I
+interrupt now to tell the story of the mob in New Orleans, which,
+despising all law, roamed the streets day and night, searching for colored
+men and women, whom they beat, shot and killed at will.
+
+In the account of the New Orleans mob I have used freely the graphic
+reports of the _New Orleans Times-Democrat_ and the _New Orleans
+Picayune_. Both papers gave the most minute details of the week's
+disorder. In their editorial comment they were at all times most urgent in
+their defense of law and in the strongest terms they condemned the
+infamous work of the mob.
+
+It is no doubt owing to the determined stand for law and order taken by
+these great dailies and the courageous action taken by the best citizens
+of New Orleans, who rallied to the support of the civic authorities, that
+prevented a massacre of colored people awful to contemplate.
+
+For the accounts and illustrations taken from the above-named journals,
+sincere thanks are hereby expressed.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The publisher hereof does not attempt to moralize over the deplorable
+condition of affairs shown in this publication, but simply presents the
+facts in a plain, unvarnished, connected way, so that he who runs may
+read. We do not believe that the American people who have encouraged such
+scenes by their indifference will read unmoved these accounts of
+brutality, injustice and oppression. We do not believe that the moral
+conscience of the nation--that which is highest and best among us--will
+always remain silent in face of such outrages, for God is not dead, and
+His Spirit is not entirely driven from men's hearts.
+
+When this conscience wakes and speaks out in thunder tones, as it must, it
+will need facts to use as a weapon against injustice, barbarism and wrong.
+It is for this reason that I carefully compile, print and send forth these
+facts. If the reader can do no more, he can pass this pamphlet on to
+another, or send to the bureau addresses of those to whom he can order
+copies mailed.
+
+Besides the New Orleans case, a history of burnings in this country is
+given, together with a table of lynchings for the past eighteen years.
+Those who would like to assist in the work of disseminating these facts,
+can do so by ordering copies, which are furnished at greatly reduced
+rates for gratuitous distribution. The bureau has no funds and is entirely
+dependent upon contributions from friends and members in carrying on the
+work.
+
+Ida B. Wells-Barnett
+Chicago, Sept. 1, 1900
+
+
+
+
+MOB RULE IN NEW ORLEANS
+
+
+
+
+
++SHOT AN OFFICER+
+
+The bloodiest week which New Orleans has known since the massacre of the
+Italians in 1892 was ushered in Monday, July 24, by the inexcusable and
+unprovoked assault upon two colored men by police officers of New Orleans.
+Fortified by the assurance born of long experience in the New Orleans
+service, three policemen, Sergeant Aucoin, Officer Mora and Officer
+Cantrelle, observing two colored men sitting on doorsteps on Dryades
+street, between Washington Avenue and 6th Streets, determined, without a
+shadow of authority, to arrest them. One of the colored men was named
+Robert Charles, the other was a lad of nineteen named Leonard Pierce. The
+colored men had left their homes, a few blocks distant, about an hour
+prior, and had been sitting upon the doorsteps for a short time talking
+together. They had not broken the peace in any way whatever, no warrant
+was in the policemen's hands justifying their arrest, and no crime had
+been committed of which they were the suspects. The policemen, however,
+secure in the firm belief that they could do anything to a Negro that they
+wished, approached the two men, and in less than three minutes from the
+time they accosted them attempted to put both colored men under arrest.
+The younger of the two men, Pierce, submitted to arrest, for the officer,
+Cantrelle, who accosted him, put his gun in the young man's face ready to
+blow his brains out if he moved. The other colored man, Charles, was made
+the victim of a savage attack by Officer Mora, who used a billet and then
+drew a gun and tried to kill Charles. Charles drew his gun nearly as
+quickly as the policeman, and began a duel in the street, in which both
+participants were shot. The policeman got the worst of the duel, and fell
+helpless to the sidewalk. Charles made his escape. Cantrelle took Pierce,
+his captive, to the police station, to which place Mora, the wounded
+officer, was also taken, and a man hunt at once instituted for Charles,
+the wounded fugitive.
+
+In any law-abiding community Charles would have been justified in
+delivering himself up immediately to the properly constituted authorities
+and asking a trial by a jury of his peers. He could have been certain that
+in resisting an unwarranted arrest he had a right to defend his life, even
+to the point of taking one in that defense, but Charles knew that his
+arrest in New Orleans, even for defending his life, meant nothing short of
+a long term in the penitentiary, and still more probable death by lynching
+at the hands of a cowardly mob. He very bravely determined to protect his
+life as long as he had breath in his body and strength to draw a hair
+trigger on his would-be murderers. How well he was justified in that
+belief is well shown by the newspaper accounts which were given of this
+transaction. Without a single line of evidence to justify the assertion,
+the New Orleans daily papers at once declared that both Pierce and Charles
+were desperadoes, that they were contemplating a burglary and that they
+began the assault upon the policemen. It is interesting to note how the
+two leading papers of New Orleans, the _Picayune_ and the
+_Times-Democrat_, exert themselves to justify the policemen in the
+absolutely unprovoked attack upon the two colored men. As these two papers
+did all in their power to give an excuse for the action of the policemen,
+it is interesting to note their versions. The _Times-Democrat_ of Tuesday
+morning, the twenty-fifth, says:
+
+  Two blacks, who are desperate men, and no doubt will be proven burglars,
+  made it interesting and dangerous for three bluecoats on Dryades street,
+  between Washington Avenue and Sixth Street, the Negroes using pistols
+  first and dropping Patrolman Mora. But the desperate darkies did not go
+  free, for the taller of the two, Robinson, is badly wounded and under
+  cover, while Leonard Pierce is in jail.
+
+  For a long time that particular neighborhood has been troubled with bad
+  Negroes, and the neighbors were complaining to the Sixth Precinct police
+  about them. But of late Pierce and Robinson had been camping on a door
+  step on the street, and the people regarded their actions as suspicious.
+  It got to such a point that some of the residents were afraid to go to
+  bed, and last night this was told Sergeant Aucoin, who was rounding up
+  his men. He had just picked up Officers Mora and Cantrell, on Washington
+  Avenue and Dryades Street, and catching a glimpse of the blacks on the
+  steps, he said he would go over and warn the men to get away from the
+  street. So the patrolmen followed, and Sergeant Aucoin asked the smaller
+  fellow, Pierce, if he lived there. The answer was short and impertinent,
+  the black saying he did not, and with that both Pierce and Robinson drew
+  up to their full height.
+
+  For the moment the sergeant did not think that the Negroes meant fight,
+  and he was on the point of ordering them away when Robinson slipped his
+  pistol from his pocket. Pierce had his revolver out, too, and he fired
+  twice, point blank at the sergeant, and just then Robinson began
+  shooting at the patrolmen. In a second or so the policemen and blacks
+  were fighting with their revolvers, the sergeant having a duel with
+  Pierce, while Cantrell and Mora drew their line of fire on Robinson, who
+  was working his revolver for all he was worth. One of his shots took
+  Mora in the right hip, another caught his index finger on the right
+  hand, and a third struck the small finger of the left hand. Poor Mora
+  was done for; he could not fight any more, but Cantrell kept up his
+  fire, being answered by the big black. Pierce's revolver broke down, the
+  cartridges snapping, and he threw up his hands, begging for quarter.
+
+  The sergeant lowered his pistol and some citizens ran over to where the
+  shooting was going on. One of the bullets that went at Robinson caught
+  him in the breast and he began running, turning out Sixth Street, with
+  Cantrell behind him, shooting every few steps. He was loading his
+  revolver again, but did not use it after the start he took, and in a
+  little while Officer Cantrell lost the man in the darkness.
+
+  Pierce was made a prisoner and hurried to the Sixth Precinct police
+  station, where he was charged with shooting and wounding. The sergeant
+  sent for an ambulance, and Mora was taken to the hospital, the wound in
+  the hip being serious.
+
+  A search was made for Robinson, but he could not be found, and even at 2
+  o'clock this morning Captain Day, with Sergeant Aucoin and Corporals
+  Perrier and Trenchard, with a good squad of men, were beating the weeds
+  for the black.
+
+The _New Orleans Picayune_ of the same date described the occurrence, and
+from its account one would think it was an entirely different affair. Both
+of the two accounts cannot be true, and the unquestioned fact is that
+neither of them sets out the facts as they occurred. Both accounts attempt
+to fix the beginning of hostilities upon the colored men, but both were
+compelled to admit that the colored men were sitting on the doorsteps
+quietly conversing with one another when the three policemen went up and
+accosted them. The _Times-Democrat_ unguardedly states that one of the two
+colored men tried to run away; that Mora seized him and then drew his
+billy and struck him on the head; that Charles broke away from him and
+started to run, after which the shooting began. The _Picayune_, however,
+declares that Pierce began the firing and that his two shots point blank
+at Aucoin were the first shots of the fight. As a matter of fact, Pierce
+never fired a single shot before he was covered by Aucoin's revolver.
+Charles and the officers did all the shooting. The _Picayune_'s account is
+as follows:
+
+  Patrolman Mora was shot in the right hip and dangerously wounded last
+  night at 11:30 o'clock in Dryades Street, between Washington and Sixth,
+  by two Negroes, who were sitting on a door step in the neighborhood.
+
+  The shooting of Patrolman Mora brings to memory the fact that he was one
+  of the partners of Patrolman Trimp, who was shot by a Negro soldier of
+  the United States government during the progress of the Spanish-American
+  war. The shooting of Mora by the Negro last night is a very simple
+  story. At the hour mentioned, three Negro women noticed two suspicious
+  men sitting on a door step in the above locality. The women saw the two
+  men making an apparent inspection of the building. As they told the
+  story, they saw the men look over the fence and examine the window
+  blinds, and they paid particular attention to the make-up of the
+  building, which was a two-story affair. About that time Sergeant J.C.
+  Aucoin and Officers Mora and J.D. Cantrell hove in sight. The women
+  hailed them and described to them the suspicious actions of the two
+  Negroes, who were still sitting on the step. The trio of bluecoats, on
+  hearing the facts, at once crossed the street and accosted the men. The
+  latter answered that they were waiting for a friend whom they were
+  expecting. Not satisfied with this answer, the sergeant asked them where
+  they lived, and they replied "down town," but could not designate the
+  locality. To other questions put by the officers the larger of the two
+  Negroes replied that they had been in town just three days.
+
+  As this reply was made, the larger man sprang to his feet, and Patrolman
+  Mora, seeing that he was about to run away, seized him. The Negro took a
+  firm hold on the officer, and a scuffle ensued. Mora, noting that he was
+  not being assisted by his brother officers, drew his billy and struck
+  the Negro on the head. The blow had but little effect upon the man, for
+  he broke away and started down the street. When about ten feet away, the
+  Negro drew his revolver and opened fire on the officer, firing three or
+  four shots. The third shot struck Mora in the right hip, and was
+  subsequently found to have taken an upward course. Although badly
+  wounded, Mora drew his pistol and returned the fire. At his third shot
+  the Negro was noticed to stagger, but he did not fall. He continued his
+  flight. At this moment Sergeant Aucoin seized the other Negro, who
+  proved to be a youth, Leon Pierce. As soon as Officer Mora was shot he
+  sank to the sidewalk, and the other officer ran to the nearest
+  telephone, and sent in a call for the ambulance. Upon its arrival the
+  wounded officer was placed in it and conveyed to the hospital. An
+  examination by the house surgeon revealed the fact that the bullet had
+  taken an upward course. In the opinion of the surgeon the wound was a
+  dangerous one.
+
+But the best proof of the fact that the officers accosted the two colored
+men and without any warrant or other justification attempted to arrest
+them, and did actually seize and begin to club one of them, is shown by
+Officer Mora's own statement. The officer was wounded and had every reason
+in the world to make his side of the story as good as possible. His
+statement was made to a _Picayune_ reporter and the same was published on
+the twenty-fifth inst., and is as follows:
+
+  I was in the neighborhood of Dryades and Washington Streets, with
+  Sergeant Aucoin and Officer Cantrell, when three Negro women came up and
+  told us that there were two suspicious-looking Negroes sitting on a step
+  on Dryades Street, between Washington and Sixth. We went to the place
+  indicated and found two Negroes. We interrogated them as to who they
+  were, what they were doing and how long they had been here. They replied
+  that they were working for some one and had been in town three days. At
+  about this stage the larger of the two Negroes got up and I grabbed him.
+  The Negro pulled, but I held fast, and he finally pulled me into the
+  street. Here I began using my billet, and the Negro jerked from my grasp
+  and ran. He then pulled a gun and fired. I pulled my gun and returned
+  the fire, each of us firing about three shots. I saw the Negro stumble
+  several times, and I thought I had shot him, but he ran away and I don't
+  know whether any of my shots took effect. Sergeant Aucoin in the
+  meantime held the other man fast. The man was about ten feet from me
+  when he fired, and the three Negresses who told us about the men stood
+  away about twenty-five feet from the shooting.
+
+Thus far in the proceeding the Monday night episode results in Officer
+Mora lying in the station wounded in the hip; Leonard Pierce, one of the
+colored men, locked up in the station, and Robert Charles, the other
+colored man, a fugitive, wounded in the leg and sought for by the entire
+police force of New Orleans. Not sought for, however, to be placed under
+arrest and given a fair trial and punished if found guilty according to
+the law of the land, but sought for by a host of enraged, vindictive and
+fearless officers, who were coolly ordered to kill him on sight. This
+order is shown by the _Picayune_ of the twenty-sixth inst., in which the
+following statement appears:
+
+  In talking to the sergeant about the case, the captain asked about the
+  Negro's fighting ability, and the sergeant answered that Charles, though
+  he called him Robinson then, was a desperate man, and it would be best
+  to shoot him before he was given a chance to draw his pistol upon any of
+  the officers.
+
+This instruction was given before anybody had been killed, and the only
+evidence that Charles was a desperate man lay in the fact that he had
+refused to be beaten over the head by Officer Mora for sitting on a step
+quietly conversing with a friend. Charles resisted an absolutely unlawful
+attack, and a gun fight followed. Both Mora and Charles were shot, but
+because Mora was white and Charles was black, Charles was at once declared
+to be a desperado, made an outlaw, and subsequently a price put upon his
+head and the mob authorized to shoot him like a dog, on sight.
+
+The New Orleans _Picayune_ of Wednesday morning said:
+
+  But he has gone, perhaps to the swamps, and the disappointment of the
+  bluecoats in not getting the murderer is expressed in their curses, each
+  man swearing that the signal to halt that will be offered Charles will
+  be a shot.
+
+In that same column of the _Picayune_ it was said:
+
+  Hundreds of policemen were about; each corner was guarded by a squad,
+  commanded either by a sergeant or a corporal, and every man had the word
+  to shoot the Negro as soon as he was sighted. He was a desperate black
+  and would be given no chance to take more life.
+
+Legal sanction was given to the mob or any man of the mob to kill Charles
+at sight by the Mayor of New Orleans, who publicly proclaimed a reward of
+two hundred and fifty dollars, not for the arrest of Charles, not at all,
+but the reward was offered for Charles's body, "dead or alive." The
+advertisement was as follows:
+
+  +$250 REWARD+
+
+  Under the authority vested in me by law, I hereby offer, in the name of
+  the city of New Orleans, $250 reward for the capture and delivery, dead
+  or alive, to the authorities of the city, the body of the Negro
+  murderer,
+
+  +ROBERT CHARLES+,
+
+  who, on Tuesday morning, July 24, shot and killed
+
+  Police Captain John T. Day and Patrolman Peter J. Lamb, and wounded
+
+  Patrolman August T. Mora.
+
+  PAUL CAPDEVIELLE, Mayor
+
+This authority, given by the sergeant to kill Charles on sight, would have
+been no news to Charles, nor to any colored man in New Orleans, who, for
+any purpose whatever, even to save his life, raised his hand against a
+white man. It is now, even as it was in the days of slavery, an
+unpardonable sin for a Negro to resist a white man, no matter how unjust
+or unprovoked the white man's attack may be. Charles knew this, and
+knowing to be captured meant to be killed, he resolved to sell his life as
+dearly as possible.
+
+The next step in the terrible tragedy occurred between 2:30 and 5 o'clock
+Tuesday morning, about four hours after the affair on Dryades Street. The
+man hunt, which had been inaugurated soon after Officer Mora had been
+carried to the station, succeeded in running down Robert Charles, the
+wounded fugitive, and located him at 2023 4th Street. It was nearly 2
+o'clock in the morning when a large detail of police surrounded the block
+with the intent to kill Charles on sight. Capt. Day had charge of the
+squad of police. Charles, the wounded man, was in his house when the
+police arrived, fully prepared, as results afterward showed, to die in his
+own home. Capt. Day started for Charles's room. As soon as Charles got
+sight of him there was a flash, a report, and Day fell dead in his tracks.
+In another instant Charles was standing in the door, and seeing Patrolman
+Peter J. Lamb, he drew his gun, and Lamb fell dead. Two other officers,
+Sergeant Aucoin and Officer Trenchard, who were in the squad, seeing their
+comrades, Day and Lamb, fall dead, concluded to raise the siege, and both
+disappeared into an adjoining house, where they blew out their lights so
+that their cowardly carcasses could be safe from Charles's deadly aim. The
+calibre of their courage is well shown by the fact that they concluded to
+save themselves from any harm by remaining prisoners in that dark room
+until daybreak, out of reach of Charles's deadly rifle. Sergeant Aucoin,
+who had been so brave a few hours before when seeing the two colored men
+sitting on the steps, talking together on Dryades Street, and supposing
+that neither was armed, now showed his true calibre. Now he knew that
+Charles had a gun and was brave enough to use it, so he hid himself in a
+room two hours while Charles deliberately walked out of his room and into
+the street after killing both Lamb and Day. It is also shown, as further
+evidence of the bravery of some of New Orleans' "finest," that one of
+them, seeing Capt. Day fall, ran seven blocks before he stopped,
+afterwards giving the excuse that he was hunting for a patrol box.
+
+At daybreak the officers felt safe to renew the attack upon Charles, so
+they broke into his room, only to find that--what they probably very well
+knew--he had gone. It appears that he made his escape by crawling through
+a hole in the ceiling to a little attic in his house. Here he found that
+he could not escape except by a window which led into an alley, which had
+no opening on 4th Street. He scaled the fence and was soon out of reach.
+
+It was now 5 o'clock Tuesday morning, and a general alarm was given.
+Sergeant Aucoin and Corporal Trenchard, having received a new supply of
+courage by returning daylight, renewed their effort to capture the man
+that they had allowed to escape in the darkness. Citizens were called upon
+to participate in the man hunt and New Orleans was soon the scene of
+terrible excitement. Officers were present everywhere, and colored men
+were arrested on all sides upon the pretext that they were impertinent and
+"game niggers." An instance is mentioned in the _Times-Democrat_ of the
+twenty-fifth and shows the treatment which unoffending colored men
+received at the hands of some of the officers. This instance shows
+Corporal Trenchard, who displayed such remarkable bravery on Monday night
+in dodging Charles's revolver, in his true light. It shows how brave a
+white man is when he has a gun attacking a Negro who is a helpless
+prisoner. The account is as follows:
+
+  The police made some arrests in the neighborhood of the killing of the
+  two officers. Mobs of young darkies gathered everywhere. These Negroes
+  talked and joked about the affair, and many of them were for starting a
+  race war on the spot. It was not until several of these little gangs
+  amalgamated and started demonstrations that the police commenced to
+  act. Nearly a dozen arrests were made within an hour, and everybody in
+  the vicinity was in a tremor of excitement.
+
+  It was about 1 o'clock that the Negroes on Fourth Street became very
+  noisy, and George Meyers, who lives on Sixth Street, near Rampart,
+  appeared to be one of the prime movers in a little riot that was rapidly
+  developing. Policeman Exnicios and Sheridan placed him under arrest, and
+  owing to the fact that the patrol wagon had just left with a number of
+  prisoners, they walked him toward St. Charles Avenue in order to get a
+  conveyance to take him to the Sixth Precinct station.
+
+  A huge crowd of Negroes followed the officers and their prisoners.
+  Between Dryades and Baronne, on Sixth, Corporal Trenchard met the trio.
+  He had his pistol in his hand and he came on them running. The Negroes
+  in the wake of the officers, and prisoner took to flight immediately.
+  Some disappeared through gates and some over fences and into yards, for
+  Trenchard, visibly excited, was waving his revolver in the air and was
+  threatening to shoot. He joined the officers in their walk toward St.
+  Charles Street, and the way he acted led the white people who were
+  witnessing the affair to believe that his prisoner was the wanted Negro.
+  At every step he would punch him or hit him with the barrel of his
+  pistol, and the onlookers cried, "Lynch him!" "Kill him!" and other
+  expressions until the spectators were thoroughly wrought up. At St.
+  Charles Street Trenchard desisted, and, calling an empty ice wagon,
+  threw the Negro into the body of the vehicle and ordered Officer
+  Exnicios to take him to the Sixth Precinct station.
+
+  The ride to the station was a wild one. Exnicios had all he could do to
+  watch his prisoner. A gang climbed into the wagon and administered a
+  terrible thrashing to the black en route. It took a half hour to reach
+  the police station, for the mule that was drawing the wagon was not
+  overly fast. When the station was reached a mob of nearly 200 howling
+  white youths was awaiting it. The noise they made was something
+  terrible. Meyers was howling for mercy before he reached the ground. The
+  mob dragged him from the wagon, the officer with him. Then began a
+  torrent of abuse for the unfortunate prisoner.
+
+  The station door was but thirty feet away, but it took Exnicios nearly
+  five minutes to fight his way through the mob to the door. There were no
+  other officers present, and the station seemed to be deserted. Neither
+  the doorman nor the clerk paid any attention to the noise on the
+  outside. As the result, the maddened crowd wrought their vengeance on
+  the Negro. He was punched, kicked, bruised and torn. The clothes were
+  ripped from his back, while his face after that few minutes was
+  unrecognizable.
+
+This was the treatment accorded and permitted to a helpless prisoner
+because he was black. All day Wednesday the man hunt continued. The
+excitement caused by the deaths of Day and Lamb became intense. The
+officers of the law knew they were trailing a man whose aim was deadly and
+whose courage they had never seen surpassed. Commenting upon the
+marksmanship of the man which the paper styled a fiend, the
+_Times-Democrat_ of Wednesday said:
+
+  One of the extraordinary features of the tragedy was the marksmanship
+  displayed by the Negro desperado. His aim was deadly and his coolness
+  must have been something phenomenal. The two shots that killed Captain
+  Day and Patrolman Lamb struck their victims in the head, a circumstance
+  remarkable enough in itself, considering the suddenness and fury of the
+  onslaught and the darkness that reigned in the alley way.
+
+  Later on Charles fired at Corporal Perrier, who was standing at least
+  seventy-five yards away. The murderer appeared at the gate, took
+  lightning aim along the side of the house, and sent a bullet whizzing
+  past the officer's ear. It was a close shave, and a few inches'
+  deflection would no doubt have added a fourth victim to the list.
+
+  At the time of the affray there is good reason to believe that Charles
+  was seriously wounded, and at any event he had lost quantities of blood.
+  His situation was as critical as it is possible to imagine, yet he shot
+  like an expert in a target range. The circumstance shows the desperate
+  character of the fiend, and his terrible dexterity with weapons makes
+  him one of the most formidable monsters that has ever been loose upon
+  the community.
+
+Wednesday New Orleans was in the hands of a mob. Charles, still sought for
+and still defending himself, had killed four policemen, and everybody knew
+that he intended to die fighting. Unable to vent its vindictiveness and
+bloodthirsty vengeance upon Charles, the mob turned its attention to other
+colored men who happened to get in the path of its fury. Even colored
+women, as has happened many times before, were assaulted and beaten and
+killed by the brutal hoodlums who thronged the streets. The reign of
+absolute lawlessness began about 8 o'clock Wednesday night. The mob
+gathered near the Lee statue and was soon making its way to the place
+where the officers had been shot by Charles. Describing the mob, the
+_Times-Democrat_ of Thursday morning says:
+
+  The gathering in the square, which numbered about 700, eventually became
+  in a measure quiet, and a large, lean individual, in poor attire and
+  with unshaven face, leaped upon a box that had been brought for the
+  purpose, and in a voice that under no circumstances could be heard at a
+  very great distance, shouted: "Gentlemen, I am the Mayor of Kenner." He
+  did not get a chance for some minutes to further declare himself, for
+  the voice of the rabble swung over his like a huge wave over a sinking
+  craft. He stood there, however, wildly waving his arms and demanded a
+  hearing, which was given him when the uneasiness of the mob was quieted
+  for a moment or so.
+
+  "I am from Kenner, gentlemen, and I have come down to New Orleans
+  tonight to assist you in teaching the blacks a lesson. I have killed a
+  Negro before, and in revenge of the wrong wrought upon you and yours, I
+  am willing to kill again. The only way that you can teach these Niggers
+  a lesson and put them in their place is to go out and lynch a few of
+  them as an object lesson. String up a few of them, and the others will
+  trouble you no more. That is the only thing to do--kill them, string
+  them up, lynch them! I will lead you, if you will but follow. On to the
+  Parish Prison and lynch Pierce!"
+
+  They bore down on the Parish Prison like an avalanche, but the avalanche
+  split harmlessly on the blank walls of the jail, and Remy Klock sent out
+  a brief message: "You can't have Pierce, and you can't get in." Up to
+  that time the mob had had no opposition, but Klock's answer chilled them
+  considerably. There was no deep-seated desperation in the crowd after
+  all, only, that wild lawlessness which leads to deeds of cruelty, but
+  not to stubborn battle. Around the corner from the prison is a row of
+  pawn and second-hand shops, and to these the mob took like the ducks to
+  the proverbial mill-pond, and the devastation they wrought upon Mr.
+  Fink's establishment was beautiful in its line.
+
+  Everything from breast pins to horse pistols went into the pockets of
+  the crowd, and in the melee a man was shot down, while just around the
+  corner somebody planted a long knife in the body of a little newsboy for
+  no reason as yet shown. Every now and then a Negro would be flushed
+  somewhere in the outskirts of the crowd and left beaten to a pulp. Just
+  how many were roughly handled will never be known, but the unlucky
+  thirteen had been severely beaten and maltreated up to a late hour, a
+  number of those being in the Charity Hospital under the bandages and
+  courtplaster of the doctors.
+
+The first colored man to meet death at the hands of the mob was a
+passenger on a street car. The mob had broken itself into fragments after
+its disappointment at the jail, each fragment looking for a Negro to
+kill. The bloodthirsty cruelty of one crowd is thus described by the
+_Times-Democrat_:
+
+  "We will get a Nigger down here, you bet!" was the yelling boast that
+  went up from a thousand throats, and for the first time the march of the
+  mob was directed toward the downtown sections. The words of the rioters
+  were prophetic, for just as Canal Street was reached a car on the
+  Villere line came along.
+
+  "Stop that car!" cried half a hundred men. The advance guard, heeding
+  the injunction, rushed up to the slowly moving car, and several, seizing
+  the trolley, jerked it down.
+
+  "Here's a Nigro!" said half a dozen men who sprang upon the car.
+
+  The car was full of passengers at the time, among them several women.
+  When the trolley was pulled down and the car thrown in total darkness,
+  the latter began to scream, and for a moment or so it looked as if the
+  life of every person in the car was in peril, for some of the crowd with
+  demoniacal yells of "There he goes!" began to fire their weapons
+  indiscriminately. The passengers in the car hastily jumped to the ground
+  and joined the crowd, as it was evidently the safest place to be.
+
+  "Where's that Nigger?" was the query passed along the line, and with
+  that the search began in earnest. The Negro, after jumping off the car,
+  lost himself for a few moments in the crowd, but after a brief search he
+  was again located. The slight delay seemed, if possible, only to whet
+  the desire of the bloodthirsty crowd, for the reappearance of the Negro
+  was the signal for a chorus of screams and pistol shots directed at the
+  fugitive. With the speed of a deer, the man ran straight from the corner
+  of Canal and Villere to Customhouse Street. The pursuers, closely
+  following, kept up a running fire, but notwithstanding the fact that
+  they were right at the Negro's heels their aim was poor and their
+  bullets went wide of the mark.
+
+  The Negro, on reaching Customhouse Street, darted from the sidewalk out
+  into the middle of the street. This was the worst maneuver that he could
+  have made, as it brought him directly under the light from an arc lamp,
+  located on a nearby corner. When the Negro came plainly in view of the
+  foremost of the closely following mob they directed a volley at him.
+  Half a dozen pistols flashed simultaneously, and one of the bullets
+  evidently found its mark, for the Negro stopped short, threw up his
+  hands, wavered for a moment, and then started to run again. This stop,
+  slight as it was, proved fatal to the Negro's chances, for he had not
+  gotten twenty steps farther when several of the men in advance of the
+  others reached his side. A burly fellow, grabbing him with one hand,
+  dealt him a terrible blow on the head with the other. The wounded man
+  sank to the ground. The crowd pressed around him and began to beat him
+  and stamp him. The men in the rear pressed forward and those beating the
+  man were shoved forward. The half-dead Negro, when he was freed from his
+  assailants, crawled over to the gutter. The men behind, however, stopped
+  pushing when those in front yelled, "We've got him," and then it was
+  that the attack on the bleeding Negro was resumed. A vicious kick
+  directed at the Negro's head sent him into the gutter, and for a moment
+  the body sank from view beneath the muddy, slimy water. "Pull him out;
+  don't let him drown," was the cry, and instantly several of the men
+  around the half-drowned Negro bent down and drew the body out. Twisting
+  the body around they drew the head and shoulders up on the street, while
+  from the waist down the Negro's body remained under the water. As soon
+  as the crowd saw that the Negro was still alive they again began to beat
+  and kick him. Every few moments they would stop and striking matches
+  look into the man's face to see if he still lived. To better see if he
+  was dead they would stick lighted matches to his eyes. Finally,
+  believing he was dead they left him and started out to look for other
+  Negroes. Just about this time some one yelled, "He ain't dead," and the
+  men came back and renewed the attack. While the men were beating and
+  pounding the prostrate form with stones and sticks a man in the crowd
+  ran up, and crying, "I'll fix the d--- Negro," poked the muzzle of a
+  pistol almost against the body and fired. This shot must have ended the
+  man's life, for he lay like a stone, and realizing that they were
+  wasting energy in further attacks, the men left their victim lying in
+  the street.
+
+The same paper, on the same day, July 26, describes the brutal butchery of
+an aged colored man early in the morning:
+
+  Baptiste Philo, a Negro, seventy-five years of age, was a victim of mob
+  violence at Kerlerec and North Peters Streets about 2:30 o'clock this
+  morning. The old man is employed about the French Market, and was on his
+  way there when he was met by a crowd and desperately shot. The old man
+  found his way to the Third Precinct police station, where it was found
+  that he had received a ghastly wound in the abdomen. The ambulance was
+  summoned and he was conveyed to the Charity Hospital. The students
+  pronounced the wound fatal after a superficial examination.
+
+Mob rule continued Thursday, its violence increasing every hour, until 2
+p.m., when the climax seemed to be reached. The fact that colored men and
+women had been made the victims of brutal mobs, chased through the
+streets, killed upon the highways and butchered in their homes, did not
+call the best element in New Orleans to active exertion in behalf of law
+and order. The killing of a few Negroes more or less by irresponsible mobs
+does not cut much figure in Louisiana. But when the reign of mob law
+exerts a depressing influence upon the stock market and city securities
+begin to show unsteady standing in money centers, then the strong arm of
+the good white people of the South asserts itself and order is quickly
+brought out of chaos.
+
+It was so with New Orleans on that Thursday. The better element of the
+white citizens began to realize that New Orleans in the hands of a mob
+would not prove a promising investment for Eastern capital, so the better
+element began to stir itself, not for the purpose of punishing the
+brutality against the Negroes who had been beaten, or bringing to justice
+the murderers of those who had been killed, but for the purpose of saving
+the city's credit. The _Times-Democrat_, upon this phase of the situation
+on Friday morning says:
+
+  When it became known later in the day that State bonds had depreciated
+  from a point to a point and a half on the New York market a new phase of
+  seriousness was manifest to the business community. Thinking men
+  realized that a continuance of unchecked disorder would strike a body
+  blow to the credit of the city and in all probability would complicate
+  the negotiation of the forthcoming improvement bonds. The bare thought
+  that such a disaster might be brought about by a few irresponsible boys,
+  tramps and ruffians, inflamed popular indignation to fever pitch. It was
+  all that was needed to bring to the aid of the authorities the active
+  personal cooperation of the entire better element.
+
+With the financial credit of the city at stake, the good citizens rushed
+to the rescue, and soon the Mayor was able to mobilize a posse of 1,000
+willing men to assist the police in maintaining order, but rioting still
+continued in different sections of the city. Colored men and women were
+beaten, chased and shot whenever they made their appearance upon the
+street. Late in the night a most despicable piece of villainy occurred on
+Rousseau Street, where an aged colored woman was killed by the mob. The
+_Times-Democrat_ thus describes, the murder:
+
+  Hannah Mabry, an old Negress, was shot and desperately wounded shortly
+  after midnight this morning while sleeping in her home at No. 1929
+  Rousseau Street. It was the work of a mob, and was evidently well
+  planned so far as escape was concerned, for the place was reached by
+  police officers, and a squad of the volunteer police within a very short
+  time after the reports of the shots, but not a prisoner was secured. The
+  square was surrounded, but the mob had scattered in several directions,
+  and, the darkness of the neighborhood aiding them, not one was taken.
+
+  At the time the mob made the attack on the little house there were also
+  in it David Mabry, the sixty-two-year-old husband of the wounded woman;
+  her son, Harry Mabry; his wife, Fannie, and an infant child. The young
+  couple with their babe could not be found after the whole affair was
+  over, and they either escaped or were hustled off by the mob. A careful
+  search of the whole neighborhood was made, but no trace of them could be
+  found.
+
+  The little place occupied by the Mabry family is an old cottage on the
+  swamp side of Rousseau Street. It is furnished with slat shutters to
+  both doors and windows. These shutters had been pulled off by the mob
+  and the volleys fired through the glass doors. The younger Mabrys,
+  father, mother and child, were asleep in the first room at the time.
+  Hannah Mabry and her old husband were sleeping in the next room. The old
+  couple occupied the same bed, and it is miraculous that the old man did
+  not share the fate of his spouse.
+
+  Officer Bitterwolf, who was one of the first on the scene, said that he
+  was about a block and a half away with Officers Fordyce and Sweeney.
+  There were about twenty shots fired, and the trio raced to the cottage.
+  They saw twenty or thirty men running down Rousseau Street. Chase was
+  given and the crowd turned toward the river and scattered into several
+  vacant lots in the neighborhood.
+
+  The volunteer police stationed at the Sixth Precinct had about five
+  blocks to run before they arrived. They also moved on the reports of the
+  firing, and in a remarkably short time the square was surrounded, but no
+  one could be taken. As they ran to the scene they were assailed on every
+  hand with vile epithets and the accusation of "Nigger lovers."
+
+  Rousseau Street, where the cottage is situated, is a particularly dark
+  spot, and no doubt the members of the mob were well acquainted with the
+  neighborhood, for the officers said that they seemed to sink into the
+  earth, so completely and quickly did they disappear after they had
+  completed their work, which was complete with the firing of the volley.
+
+  Hannah Mabry was taken to the Charity Hospital in the ambulance, where
+  it was found on examination that she had been shot through the right
+  lung, and that the wound was a particularly serious one.
+
+  Her old husband was found in the little wrecked home well nigh
+  distracted with fear and grief. It was he who informed the police that
+  at the time of the assault the younger Mabrys occupied the front room.
+  As he ran about the little home as well as his feeble condition would
+  permit he severely lacerated his feet on the glass broken from the
+  windows and door. He was escorted to the Sixth Precinct station, where
+  he was properly cared for. He could not realize why his little family
+  had been so murderously attacked, and was inconsolable when his wife was
+  driven off in the ambulance piteously moaning in her pain.
+
+  The search for the perpetrators of the outrage was thorough, but both
+  police and armed force of citizens had only their own efforts to rely
+  on. The residents of the neighborhood were aroused by the firing, but
+  they would give no help in the search and did not appear in the least
+  concerned over the affair. Groups were on almost every doorstep, and
+  some of them even jeered in a quiet way at the men who were voluntarily
+  attempting to capture the members of the mob. Absolutely no information
+  could be had from any of them, and the whole affair had the appearance
+  of being the work of roughs who either lived in the vicinity, or their
+  friends.
+
+
++DEATH OF CHARLES+
+
+Friday witnessed the final act in the bloody drama begun by the three
+police officers, Aucoin, Mora and Cantrelle. Betrayed into the hands of
+the police, Charles, who had already sent two of his would-be murderers to
+their death, made a last stand in a small building, 1210 Saratoga Street,
+and, still defying his pursuers, fought a mob of twenty thousand people,
+single-handed and alone, killing three more men, mortally wounding two
+more and seriously wounding nine others. Unable to get to him in his
+stronghold, the besiegers set fire to his house of refuge. While the
+building was burning Charles was shooting, and every crack of his
+death-dealing rifle added another victim to the price which he had placed
+upon his own life. Finally, when fire and smoke became too much for flesh
+and blood to stand, the long sought for fugitive appeared in the door,
+rifle in hand, to charge the countless guns that were drawn upon him.
+With a courage which was indescribable, he raised his gun to fire again,
+but this time it failed, for a hundred shots riddled his body, and he fell
+dead face fronting to the mob. This last scene in the terrible drama is
+thus described in the _Times-Democrat_ of July 26:
+
+  Early yesterday afternoon, at 3 o'clock or thereabouts, Police Sergeant
+  Gabriel Porteus was instructed by Chief Gaster to go to a house at No.
+  1210 Saratoga Street, and search it for the fugitive murderer, Robert
+  Charles. A private "tip" had been received at the headquarters that the
+  fiend was hiding somewhere on the premises.
+
+  Sergeant Porteus took with him Corporal John R. Lally and Officers
+  Zeigel and Essey. The house to which they were directed is a small,
+  double frame cottage, standing flush with Saratoga Street, near the
+  corner of Clio. It has two street entrances and two rooms on each side,
+  one in front and one in the rear. It belongs to the type of cheap little
+  dwellings commonly tenanted by Negroes.
+
+  Sergeant Porteus left Ziegel and Essey to guard the outside and went
+  with Corporal Lally to the rear house, where he found Jackson and his
+  wife in the large room on the left. What immediately ensued is only
+  known by the Negroes. They say the sergeant began to question them about
+  their lodgers and finally asked them whether they knew anything about
+  Robert Charles. They strenuously denied all knowledge of his
+  whereabouts.
+
+  The Negroes lied. At that very moment the hunted and desperate murderer
+  lay concealed not a dozen feet away. Near the rear, left-hand corner of
+  the room is a closet or pantry, about three feet deep, and perhaps eight
+  feet long. The door was open and Charles was crouching, Winchester in
+  hand, in the dark further end.
+
+  Near the closet door was a bucket of water, and Jackson says that
+  Sergeant Porteous walked toward it to get a drink. At the next moment a
+  shot rang out and the brave officer fell dead. Lally was shot directly
+  afterward. Exactly how and where will never be known, but the
+  probabilities are that the black fiend sent a bullet into him before he
+  recovered from his surprise at the sudden onslaught. Then the murderer
+  dashed out of the back door and disappeared.
+
+  The neighborhood was already agog with the tragic events of the two
+  preceding days, and the sound of the shots was a signal for wild and
+  instant excitement. In a few moments a crowd had gathered and people
+  were pouring in by the hundred from every point of the compass. Jackson
+  and his wife had fled and at first nobody knew what had happened, but
+  the surmise that Charles had recommenced his bloody work was on every
+  tongue and soon some of the bolder found their way to the house in the
+  rear. There the bleeding forms of the two policemen told the story.
+
+  Lally was still breathing, and a priest was sent for to administer the
+  last rites. Father Fitzgerald responded, and while he was bending over
+  the dying man the outside throng was rushing wildly through the
+  surrounding yards and passageways searching for the murderer. "Where is
+  he?" "What has become of him?" were the questions on every lip.
+
+  Suddenly the answer came in a shot from the room directly overhead. It
+  was fired through a window facing Saratoga Street, and the bullet struck
+  down a young man named Alfred J. Bloomfield, who was standing in the
+  narrow passage-way between the two houses. He fell on his knees and a
+  second bullet stretched him dead.
+
+  When he fled from the closet Charles took refuge in the upper story of
+  the house. There are four windows on that floor, two facing toward
+  Saratoga Street and two toward Rampart. The murderer kicked several
+  breaches in the frail central partition, so he could rush from side to
+  side, and like a trapped beast, prepared to make his last stand.
+
+  Nobody had dreamed that he was still in the house, and when Bloomfield
+  was shot there was a headlong stampede. It was some minutes before the
+  exact situation was understood. Then rifles and pistols began to speak,
+  and a hail of bullets poured against the blind frontage of the old
+  house. Every one hunted some coign of vantage, and many climbed to
+  adjacent roofs. Soon the glass of the four upper windows was shattered
+  by flying lead. The fusillade sounded like a battle, and the excitement
+  upon the streets was indescribable.
+
+  Throughout all this hideous uproar Charles seems to have retained a
+  certain diabolical coolness. He kept himself mostly out of sight, but
+  now and then he thrust the gleaming barrel of his rifle through one of
+  the shattered window panes and fired at his besiegers. He worked the
+  weapon with incredible rapidity, discharging from three to five
+  cartridges each time before leaping back to a place of safety. These
+  replies came from all four windows indiscriminately, and showed that he
+  was keeping a close watch in every direction. His wonderful marksmanship
+  never failed him for a moment, and when he missed it was always by the
+  narrowest margin only.
+
+  On the Rampart Street side of the house there are several sheds,
+  commanding an excellent range of the upper story. Detective Littleton,
+  Andrew Van Kuren of the Workhouse force and several others climbed upon
+  one of these and opened fire on the upper windows, shooting whenever
+  they could catch a glimpse of the assassin. Charles responded with his
+  rifle, and presently Van Kuren climbed down to find a better position.
+  He was crossing the end of the shed when he was killed.
+
+  Another of Charles's bullets found its billet in the body of Frank
+  Evans, an ex-member of the police force. He was on the Rampart Street
+  side firing whenever he had an opportunity. Officer J.W. Bofill and A.S.
+  Leclerc were also wounded in the fusillade.
+
+  While the events thus briefly outlined were transpiring time was a-wing,
+  and the cooler headed in the crowd began to realize that some quick and
+  desperate expedient must be adopted to insure the capture of the fiend
+  and to avert what might be a still greater tragedy than any yet enacted.
+  For nearly two hours the desperate monster had held his besiegers at
+  bay, darkness would soon be at hand and no one could predict what might
+  occur if he made a dash for liberty in the dark.
+
+  At this critical juncture it was suggested that the house be fired. The
+  plan came as an inspiration, and was adopted as the only solution of the
+  situation. The wretched old rookery counted for nothing against the
+  possible continued sacrifice of human life, and steps were immediately
+  taken to apply the torch. The fire department had been summoned to the
+  scene soon after the shooting began; its officers were warned to be
+  ready to prevent a spread of the conflagration, and several men rushed
+  into the lower right-hand room and started a blaze in one corner.
+
+  They first fired an old mattress, and soon smoke was pouring out in
+  dense volumes. It filled the interior of the ramshackle structure, and
+  it was evident that the upper story would soon become untenable. An
+  interval of tense excitement followed, and all eyes were strained for a
+  glimpse of the murderer when he emerged.
+
+  Then came the thrilling climax. Smoked out of his den, the desperate
+  fiend descended the stairs and entered the lower room. Some say he
+  dashed into the yard, glaring around vainly for some avenue of escape;
+  but, however that may be, he was soon a few moments later moving about
+  behind the lower windows. A dozen shots were sent through the wall in
+  the hope of reaching him, but he escaped unscathed. Then suddenly the
+  door on the right was flung open and he dashed out. With head lowered
+  and rifle raised ready to fire on the instant, Charles dashed straight
+  for the rear door of the front cottage. To reach it he had to traverse a
+  little walk shaded by a vineclad arbor. In the back room, with a cocked
+  revolver in his hand, was Dr. C.A. Noiret, a young medical student, who
+  was aiding the citizens' posse. As he sprang through the door Charles
+  fired a shot, and the bullet whizzed past the doctor's head. Before it
+  could be repeated Noiret's pistol cracked and the murderer reeled,
+  turned half around and fell on his back. The doctor sent another ball
+  into his body as he struck the floor, and half a dozen men, swarming
+  into the room from the front, riddled the corpse with bullets.
+
+  Private Adolph Anderson of the Connell Rifles was the first man to
+  announce the death of the wretch. He rushed to the street door, shouted
+  the news to the crowd, and a moment later the bleeding body was dragged
+  to the pavement and made the target of a score of pistols. It was shot,
+  kicked and beaten almost out of semblance to humanity....
+
+  The limp dead body was dropped at the edge of the sidewalk and from
+  there dragged to the muddy roadway by half a hundred hands. There in the
+  road more shots were fired into the body. Corporal Trenchard, a
+  brother-in-law of Porteus, led the shooting into the inanimate clay.
+  With each shot there was a cheer for the work that had been done and
+  curses and imprecations on the inanimate mass of riddled flesh that was
+  once Robert Charles.
+
+  Cries of "Burn him! Burn him!" were heard from Clio Street all the way
+  to Erato Street, and it was with difficulty that the crowd was
+  restrained from totally destroying the wretched dead body. Some of those
+  who agitated burning even secured a large vessel of kerosene, which had
+  previously been brought to the scene for the purpose of firing Charles's
+  refuge, and for a time it looked as though this vengeance might be
+  wreaked on the body. The officers, however, restrained this move,
+  although they were powerless to prevent the stamping and kicking of the
+  body by the enraged crowd.
+
+  After the infuriated citizens had vented their spleen on the body of the
+  dead Negro it was loaded into the patrol wagon. The police raised the
+  body of the heavy black from the ground and literally chucked it into
+  the space on the floor of the wagon between the seats. They threw it
+  with a curse hissed more than uttered and born of the bitterness which
+  was rankling in their breasts at the thought of Charles having taken so
+  wantonly the lives of four of the best of their fellow-officers.
+
+  When the murderer's body landed in the wagon it fell in such a position
+  that the hideously mutilated head, kicked, stamped and crushed, hung
+  over the end.
+
+  As the wagon moved off, the followers, who were protesting against its
+  being carried off, declaring that it should be burned, poked and struck
+  it with sticks, beating it into such a condition that it was utterly
+  impossible to tell what the man ever looked like.
+
+  As the patrol wagon rushed through the rough street, jerking and
+  swaying from one side of the thoroughfare to the other, the gory,
+  mud-smeared head swayed and swung and jerked about in a sickening
+  manner, the dark blood dripping on the steps and spattering the body of
+  the wagon and the trousers of the policemen standing on the step.
+
+
++MOB BRUTALITY+
+
+The brutality of the mob was further shown by the unspeakable cruelty with
+which it beat, shot and stabbed to death an unoffending colored man, name
+unknown, who happened to be walking on the street with no thought that he
+would be set upon and killed simply because he was a colored man. The
+_Times-Democrat_'s description of the outrage is as follows:
+
+  While the fight between the Negro desperado and the citizens was in
+  progress yesterday afternoon at Clio and Saratoga Streets another
+  tragedy was being enacted downtown in the French quarter, but it was a
+  very one-sided affair. The object of the white man's wrath was, of
+  course, a Negro, but, unlike Charles, he showed no fight, but tried to
+  escape from the furious mob which was pursuing him, and which finally
+  put an end to his existence in a most cruel manner.
+
+  The Negro, whom no one seemed to know--at any rate no one could be found
+  in the vicinity of the killing who could tell who he was--was walking
+  along the levee, as near as could be learned, when he was attacked by a
+  number of white longshoremen or screwmen. For what reason, if there was
+  any reason other than the fact that he was a Negro, could not be
+  learned, and immediately they pounced upon him he broke ground and
+  started on a desperate run for his life.
+
+  The hunted Negro started off the levee toward the French Vegetable
+  Market, changed his course out the sidewalk toward Gallatin Street. The
+  angry, yelling mob was close at his heels, and increasing steadily as
+  each block was traversed. At Gallatin Street he turned up that
+  thoroughfare, doubled back into North Peters Street and ran into the
+  rear of No. 1216 of that street, which is occupied by Chris Reuter as a
+  commission store and residence.
+
+  He rushed frantically through the place and out on to the gallery on the
+  Gallatin Street side. From this gallery he jumped to the street and fell
+  flat on his back on the sidewalk. Springing to his feet as soon as
+  possible, with a leaden, hail fired by the angry mob whistling about
+  him, he turned to his merciless pursuers in an appealing way, and,
+  throwing up one hand, told them not to shoot any more, that they could
+  take him as he was.
+
+  But the hail of lead continued, and the unfortunate Negro finally
+  dropped to the sidewalk, mortally wounded. The mob then rushed upon him,
+  still continuing the fusillade, and upon reaching his body a number of
+  Italians, who had joined the howling mob, reached down and stabbed him
+  in the back and buttock with big knives. Others fired shots into his
+  head until his teeth were shot out, three shots having been fired into
+  his mouth. There were bullet wounds all over his body.
+
+  Others who witnessed the affair declared that the man was fired at as he
+  was running up the stairs leading to the living apartments above the
+  store, and that after jumping to the sidewalk and being knocked down by
+  a bullet he jumped up and ran across the street, then ran back and tried
+  to get back into the commission store. The Italians, it is said, were
+  all drunk, and had been shooting firecrackers. Tiring of this, they
+  began shooting at Negroes, and when the unfortunate man who was killed
+  ran by they joined in the chase.
+
+  No one was arrested for the shooting, the neighborhood having been
+  deserted by the police, who were sent up to the place where Charles was
+  fighting so desperately. No one could or would give the names of any of
+  those who had participated in the chase and the killing, nor could any
+  one be found who knew who the Negro was. The patrol wagon was called and
+  the terribly mutilated body sent to the morgue and the coroner notified.
+
+  The murdered Negro was copper colored, about 5 feet 11 inches in height,
+  about 35 years of age, and was dressed in blue overalls and a brown
+  slouch hat. At 10:30 o'clock the vicinity of the French Market was very
+  quiet. Squads of special officers were patrolling the neighborhood, and
+  there did not seem to be any prospects of disorder.
+
+During the entire time the mob held the city in its hands and went about
+holding up street cars and searching them, taking from them colored men to
+assault, shoot and kill, chasing colored men upon the public square,
+through alleys and into houses of anybody who would take them in, breaking
+into the homes of defenseless colored men and women and beating aged and
+decrepit men and women to death, the police and the legally constituted
+authorities showed plainly where their sympathies were, for in no case
+reported through the daily papers does there appear the arrest, trial and
+conviction of one of the mob for any of the brutalities which occurred.
+The ringleaders of the mob were at no time disguised. Men were chased,
+beaten and killed by white brutes, who boasted of their crimes, and the
+murderers still walk the streets of New Orleans, well known and absolutely
+exempt from prosecution. Not only were they exempt from prosecution by the
+police while the town was in the hands of the mob, but even now that law
+and order is supposed to resume control, these men, well known, are not
+now, nor ever will be, called to account for the unspeakable brutalities
+of that terrible week. On the other hand, the colored men who were beaten
+by the police and dragged into the station for purposes of intimidation,
+were quickly called up before the courts and fined or sent to jail upon
+the statement of the police. Instances of Louisiana justice as it is
+dispensed in New Orleans are here quoted from the _Times-Democrat_ of July
+26:
+
+  +Justice Dealt Out to Folk Who Talked Too Much+
+
+  All the Negroes and whites who were arrested in the vicinity of
+  Tuesday's tragedy had a hard time before Recorder Hughes yesterday. Lee
+  Jackson was the first prisoner, and the evidence established that he
+  made his way to the vicinity of the crime and told his Negro friends
+  that he thought a good many more policemen ought to be killed. Jackson
+  said he was drunk when he made the remark. He was fined $25 or thirty
+  days.
+
+  John Kennedy was found wandering about the street Tuesday night with an
+  open razor in his hand, and he was given $25 or thirty days.
+
+  Edward McCarthy, a white man, who arrived only four days since from New
+  York, went to the scene of the excitement at the corner of Third and
+  Rampart Streets, and told the Negroes that they were as good as any
+  white man. This remark was made by McCarthy, as another white man said
+  the Negroes should be lynched. McCarthy told the recorder that he
+  considered a Negro as good as a white in body and soul. He was fined $25
+  or thirty days.
+
+  James Martin, Simon Montegut, Eddie McCall, Alex Washington and Henry
+  Turner were up for failing to move on. Martin proved that he was at the
+  scene to assist the police and was discharged. Montegut, being a
+  cripple, was also released, but the others were fined $25 or thirty days
+  each.
+
+  Eddie Williams for refusing to move on was given $25 or thirty days.
+
+  Matilda Gamble was arrested by the police for saying that two officers
+  were killed and it was a pity more were not shot. She was given $25 or
+  thirty days.
+
+
++INSOLENT BLACKS+
+
+"Recorder Hughes received Negroes in the first recorder's office yesterday
+morning in a way that they will remember for a long time, and all of them
+were before the magistrate for having caused trouble through incendiary
+remarks concerning the death of Captain Day and Patrolman Lamb."
+
+"Lee Jackson was before the recorder and was fined $25 or thirty days. He
+was lippy around where the trouble happened Tuesday morning, and some
+white men punched him good and hard and the police took him. Then the
+recorder gave him a dose, and now he is in the parish prison."
+
+"John Kennedy was another black who got into trouble. He said that the
+shooting of the police by Charles was a good thing, and for this he was
+pounded. Patrolman Lorenzo got him and saved him from being lynched, for
+the black had an open razor. He was fined $25 or thirty days."
+
+"Edward McCarthy, a white man, mixed up with the crowd, and an expression
+of sympathy nearly cost him his head, for some whites about started for
+him, administering licks and blows with fists and umbrellas. The recorder
+fined him $25 or thirty days. He is from New York."
+
+"Then James Martin, a white man, and Simon Montegut, Eddie Call, Henry
+Turner and Alex Washington were before the magistrate for having failed to
+move on when the police ordered them from the square where the bluecoats
+were Tuesday, waiting in the hope of catching Charles. All save Martin and
+Montegut were fined."
+
+"Eddie Williams, a little Negro who was extremely fresh with the police,
+was fined $10 or ten days."
+
+
++SHOCKING BRUTALITY+
+
+The whole city was at the mercy of the mob and the display of brutality
+was a disgrace to civilization. One instance is described in the
+_Picayune_ as follows:
+
+  A smaller party detached itself from the mob at Washington and Rampart
+  Streets, and started down the latter thoroughfare. One of the foremost
+  spied a Negro, and immediately there was a rush for the unfortunate
+  black man. With the sticks they had torn from fences on the line of
+  march the young outlaws attacked the black and clubbed him unmercifully,
+  acting more like demons than human beings. After being severely beaten
+  over the head, the Negro started to run with the whole gang at his
+  heels. Several revolvers were brought into play and pumped their lead at
+  the refugee. The Negro made rapid progress and took refuge behind the
+  blinds of a little cottage in Rampart Street, but he had been seen, and
+  the mob hauled him from his hiding place and again commenced beating
+  him. There were more this time, some twenty or thirty, all armed with
+  sticks and heavy clubs, and under their incessant blows the Negro could
+  not last long. He begged for mercy, and his cries were most pitiful, but
+  a mob has no heart, and his cries were only answered with more blows.
+
+  "For God's sake, boss, I ain't done nothin'. Don't kill me. I swear I
+  ain't done nothin'."
+
+  The white brutes turned
+
++  A DEAF EAR TO THE PITYING CRIES+
+
+  of the black wretch and the drubbing continued. The cries subsided into
+  moans, and soon the black swooned away into unconsciousness. Still not
+  content with their heartless work, they pulled the Negro out and kicked
+  him into the gutter. For the time those who had beaten the black seemed
+  satisfied and left him groaning in the gutter, but others came up, and,
+  regretting that they had not had a hand in the affair, they determined
+  to evidence their bravery to their fellows and beat the man while he was
+  in the gutter, hurling rocks and stones at his black form. One
+  thoughtless white brute, worse even than the black slayer of the police
+  officers, thought to make himself a hero in the eyes of his fellows and
+  fired his revolver repeatedly into the helpless wretch. It was dark and
+  the fellow probably aimed carelessly. After firing three or four shots
+  he also left without knowing what extent of injury he inflicted on the
+  black wretch who was left lying in the gutter.
+
+
+
++MURDER ON THE LEVEE+
+
+
+One part of the crowd made a raid on the tenderloin district, hoping to
+find there some belated Negro for a sacrifice. They were urged on by the
+white prostitutes, who applauded their murderous mission. Says an account:
+
+  The red light district was all excitement. Women--that is, the white
+  women--were out on their stoops and peeping over their galleries and
+  through their windows and doors, shouting to the crowd to go on with
+  their work, and kill Negroes for them.
+
+  "Our best wishes, boys," they encouraged; and the mob answered with
+  shouts, and whenever a Negro house was sighted a bombardment was started
+  on the doors and windows.
+
+No colored men were found on the streets until the mob reached Custom
+House Place and Villiers Streets. Here a victim was found and brutally put
+to death. The _Picayune_ description is as follows:
+
+  Some stragglers had run a Negro into a car at the corner of Bienville
+  and Villere Streets. He was seeking refuge in the conveyance, and he
+  believed that the car would not be stopped and could speed along. But
+  the mob determined to stop the car, and ordered the motorman to halt. He
+  put on his brake. Some white men were in the car.
+
+  "Get out, fellows," shouted several of the mob.
+
+  "All whites fall out," was the second cry, and the poor Negro understood
+  that it was meant that he should stay in the car.
+
+  He wanted to save his life. The poor fellow crawled under the seats. But
+  some one in the crowd saw him and yelled that he was hiding. Two or
+  three men climbed through the windows with their pistols; others jumped
+  over the motorman's board, and dozens tumbled into the rear of the car.
+  Big, strong hands got the Negro by the shirt. He was dragged out of the
+  conveyance, and was pushed to the street. Some fellow ran up and struck
+  him with a club. The blow was heavy, but it did not fell him, and the
+  Negro ran toward Canal Street, stealing along the wall of the Tulane
+  Medical Building. Fifty men ran after him, caught the poor fellow and
+  hurried him back into the crowd. Fists were aimed at him, then clubs
+  went upon his shoulders, and finally the black plunged into the gutter.
+
+  A gun was fired, and the Negro, who had just gotten to his feet, dropped
+  again. He tried to get up, but a volley was sent after him, and in a
+  little while he was dead.
+
+  The crowd looked on at the terrible work. Then the lights in the houses
+  of ill-fame began to light up again, and women peeped out of the blinds.
+  The motorman was given the order to go on. The gong clanged and the
+  conveyance sped out of the way. For half an hour the crowd held their
+  place at the corner, then the patrol wagon came and the body was picked
+  up and hurried to the morgue.
+
+  Coroner Richard held an autopsy on the body of the Negro who was forced
+  out of car 98 of the Villere line and shot down. It was found that he
+  was wounded four times, the most serious wound being that which struck
+  him in the right side, passing through the lungs, and causing
+  hemorrhages, which brought about death.
+
+  Nobody tried to identify the poor fellow and his name is unknown.
+
+
++A VICTIM IN THE MARKET+
+
+
+Soon after the murder of the man on the street car many of the same mob
+marched down to the market place. There they found a colored market man
+named Louis Taylor, who had gone to begin his early morning's work. He was
+at once set upon by the mob and killed. The _Picayune_ account says:
+
+  Between 1 and 2 o'clock this morning a mob of several hundred men and
+  boys, made up of participants in many of the earlier affairs, marched on
+  the French Market. Louis Taylor, a Negro vegetable carrier, who is about
+  thirty years of age, was sitting at the soda water stand. As soon as the
+  mob saw him fire was opened and the Negro took to his heels. He ran
+  directly into another section of the mob and any number of shots were
+  fired at him. He fell, face down, on the floor of the market.
+
+  The police in the neighborhood rallied hurriedly and found the victim of
+  mob violence seemingly lifeless. Before they arrived the Negro had been
+  beaten severely about the head and body. The ambulance was summoned and
+  Taylor was carried to the charity hospital, where it was found that he
+  had been shot through the abdomen and arm. The examination was a hurried
+  one, but it sufficed to show that Taylor was mortally wounded.
+
+  After shooting Taylor the members of the mob were pluming themselves on
+  their exploit. "The Nigger was at the soda water stand and we commenced
+  shooting him," said one of the rioters. "He put his hands up and ran,
+  and we shot until he fell. I understand that he is still alive. If he
+  is, he is a wonder. He was certainly shot enough to be killed."
+
+  The members of the mob readily admitted that they had taken part in the
+  assaults which marked the earlier part of the evening.
+
+  "We were up on Jackson Avenue and killed a Nigger on Villere Street. We
+  came down here, saw a nigger and killed him, too." This was the way they
+  told the story.
+
+  "Boys, we are out of ammunition," said someone.
+
+  "Well, we will keep on like we are, and if we can't get some before
+  morning, we will take it. We have got to keep this thing up, now we have
+  started."
+
+  This declaration was greeted by a chorus of applauding yells, and the
+  crowd started up the levee. Half of the men in the crowd, and they were
+  all of them young, were drunk.
+
+  Taylor, when seen at the charity hospital, was suffering greatly, and
+  presented a pitiable spectacle. His clothing was covered with blood, and
+  his face was beaten almost into a pulp. He said that he had gone to the
+  market to work and was quietly sitting down when the mob came and began
+  to fire on him. He was not aware at first that the crowd was after him.
+  When he saw its purpose he tried to run, but fell. He didn't know any of
+  the men in the crowd. There is hardly a chance that Taylor will recover.
+
+  The police told the crowd to move on, but no attempt was made to arrest
+  anyone.
+
+
++A GRAY-HAIRED VICTIM+
+
+The bloodthirsty barbarians, having tasted blood, continued their hunt and
+soon ran across an old man of seventy-five years. His life had been spent
+in hard work about the French market, and he was well known as an
+unoffending, peaceable and industrious old man.
+
+But that made no difference to the mob. He was a Negro, and with a
+fiendishness that was worse than that of cannibals they beat his life out.
+The report says:
+
+  There was another gang of men parading the streets in the lower part of
+  the city, looking for any stray Negro who might be on the streets. As
+  they neared the corner of Dauphine and Kerlerec, a square below
+  Esplanade Avenue, they came upon Baptiste Thilo, an aged Negro, who
+  works in the French Market.
+
+  Thilo for years has been employed by the butchers and fish merchants to
+  carry baskets from the stalls to the wagons, and unload the wagons as
+  they arrive in the morning. He was on his way to the market, when the
+  mob came upon him. One of the gang struck the old Negro, and as he fell,
+  another in the crowd, supposed to be a young fellow, fired a shot. The
+  bullet entered the body just below the right nipple.
+
+  As the Negro fell the crowd looked into his face and they discovered
+  then that the victim was very old. The young man who did the shooting
+  said: "Oh, he is an old Negro. I'm sorry that I shot him."
+
+  This is all the old Negro received in the way of consolation.
+
+  He was left where he fell, but later staggered to his feet and made his
+  way to the third precinct station. There the police summoned the
+  ambulance and the students pronounced the wound very dangerous. He was
+  carried to the hospital as rapidly as possible.
+
+  There was no arrest.
+
+Just before daybreak the mob found another victim. He, too, was on his way
+to market, driving a meat wagon. But little is told of his treatment,
+nothing more than the following brief statement:
+
+  At nearly 3 o'clock this morning a report was sent to the Third Precinct
+  station that a Negro was lying on the sidewalk at the corner of Decatur
+  and St. Philip. The man had been pulled off of a meat wagon and riddled
+  with bullets.
+
+  When the police arrived he was insensible and apparently dying. The
+  ambulance students attended the Negro and pronounced the wounds fatal.
+
+  There was nothing found which would lead to the discovery of his
+  identity.
+
+
++FUN IN GRETNA+
+
+If there are any persons so deluded as to think that human life in the
+South is valued any more than the life of a brute, he will be speedily
+undeceived by reading the accounts of unspeakable barbarism committed by
+the mob in and around New Orleans. In no other civilized country in the
+world, nay, more, in no land of barbarians would it be possible to
+duplicate the scenes of brutality that are reported from New Orleans. In
+the heat of blind fury one might conceive how a mad mob might beat and
+kill a man taken red-handed in a brutal murder. But it is almost past
+belief to read that civilized white people, men who boast of their
+chivalry and blue blood, actually had fun in beating, chasing and shooting
+men who had no possible connection with any crime.
+
+But this actually happened in Gretna, a few miles from New Orleans. In its
+description of the scenes of Tuesday night, the _Picayune_ mentions the
+brutal chase of several colored men whom the mob sought to kill. In the
+instances mentioned, the paper said:
+
+  Gretna had its full share of excitement between 8 and 11 o'clock last
+  night, in connection with a report that spread through the town that a
+  Negro resembling the slayer of Police Captain Day, of New Orleans, had
+  been seen on the outskirts of the place.
+
+  It is true that a suspicious-looking Negro was observed by the residents
+  of Madison and Amelia Streets lurking about the fences of that
+  neighborhood just after dark, and shortly before 8 o'clock John Fist, a
+  young white man, saw the Negro on Fourth Street. He followed the darkey
+  a short distance, and, coming upon Robert Moore, who is known about town
+  as the "black detective," Fist pointed the Negro out and Moore at once
+  made a move toward the stranger. The latter observed Moore making in his
+  direction, and, without a word, he sped in the direction of the Brooklyn
+  pasture, Moore following and firing several shots at him. In a few
+  minutes a half hundred white men, including Chief of Police Miller,
+  Constable Dannenhauer, Patrolman Keegan and several special officers,
+  all well-armed, joined in the chase, but in the darkness the Negro
+  escaped.
+
+  Just as the pursuing party reached town again, two of the residents of
+  Lafayette Avenue, Peter Leson and Robert Henning, reported that they had
+  just chased and shot at a Negro, who had been seen in the yard of the
+  former's house. They were positive the Negro had not escaped from the
+  square. Their report was enough to set the appetite of the crowd on
+  edge, and the square was quickly surrounded, while several dozens of
+  men, armed with lanterns and revolvers, made a search of every yard and
+  under every house in the square. No Negro was found.
+
+  The crowd of armed men was constantly swelling, and at 10 o'clock it had
+  reached the proportions of a small army. At 10:30 o'clock an outbound
+  freight train is due to pass through Gretna on the Texas and Pacific
+  Road, and the crowd, believing that Captain Day's slayer might be aboard
+  one of the cars attempting to leave the scene of his crime, resolved to
+  inspect the train. As the train stopped at the Madison Street crossing
+  the engineer was requested to pull very slowly through the town, in
+  order that the trucks of the cars might be examined. There was a string
+  of armed men on each side of the railroad track and in a few moments a
+  Negro was espied riding between two cars. A half dozen weapons were
+  pointed at him and he was ordered to come out. He sprang out with
+  alacrity and was pounced upon almost before he reached the ground.
+  Robert Moore grabbed him and pushed an ugly-looking Derringer under his
+  nose and the Negro threw up both hands. Constable Dannenhauer and
+  Patrolman Keegan took charge of him and hustled him off to jail, where
+  he was locked up. The Negro does not at all resemble Robert Charles, but
+  it was best for his sake that he was placed under lock and key. The
+  crowd was not in a humor to let any Negro pass muster last night. The
+  prisoner gave his name as Luke Wallace.
+
+  But now came the real excitement. The train had slowed down almost to a
+  standstill, in the very heart of town. Somebody shouted: "There he goes,
+  on top of the train!" And sure enough, somebody was going. It was a
+  Negro, too, and he was making a bee-line for the front end of the train.
+  A veritable shower of bullets, shot and rifle balls greeted the flying
+  form, but on it sped. The locomotive had stopped in the middle of the
+  square between La voisier and Newton Streets, and the Negro, flying with
+  the speed of the wind along the top of the cars, reached the first car
+  of the train and jumped to the tender and then into the cab. As he did
+  several white men standing at the locomotive made a rush into the cab.
+  The Negro sprang swiftly out of the other side, on to the sidewalk. But
+  there were several more men, and as he realized that he was rushing
+  right into their arms he made a spring to leap over the fence of Mrs.
+  Linden's home, on the wood side of the track. Before the Negro got to
+  the top one white man had hold of his legs, while another rushed up,
+  pistol in hand. The man who was holding the darkey's legs was jostled
+  out of the way and the man with the pistol, standing directly beneath
+  the Negro, sent two bullets at him.
+
+  There was a wild scramble, and the vision of a fleeing form in the
+  Linden yard, but that was the last seen of the black man. The yard was
+  entered and searched, and neighboring yards were also searched, but not
+  even the trace of blood was found. It is almost impossible to believe
+  that the Negro was not wounded, for the man who fired at him held the
+  pistol almost against the Negro's body.
+
+  The shots brought out almost everybody--white--in town, and though there
+  was nothing to show for the exciting work, except the arrest of the
+  Negro, who doesn't answer the description of the man wanted, Gretna's
+  male population had its little fan and felt amply repaid for all the
+  trouble it was put to, and all the ammunition it wasted.
+
+
++BRUTALITY IN NEW ORLEANS+
+
+Mob rule reigned supreme Wednesday, and the scenes that were enacted
+challenge belief. How many colored men and women were abused and injured
+is not known, for those who escaped were glad to make a place of refuge
+and took no time to publish their troubles. The mob made no attempt to
+find Charles; its only purpose was to pursue, beat and kill any colored
+man or woman who happened to come in sight. Speaking editorially, the
+_Picayune_ of Thursday, the twenty-sixth of July, said:
+
+
++ESCAPED WITH THEIR LIVES+
+
+At the Charity Hospital Wednesday night more than a score of people were
+treated for wounds received at the hands of the mob. Some were able to
+tell of their mistreatment, and their recitals are briefly given in the
+_Picayune_ as follows:
+
+  Alex. Ruffin, who is quite seriously injured, is a Pullman car porter, a
+  native of Chicago. He reached New Orleans at 9:20 o'clock last night,
+  and after finishing his work, boarded a Henry Clay Avenue car to go to
+  Delachaise Street, where he has a sick son.
+
+  "I hadn't ridden any way," said he, "when I saw a lot of white folks.
+  They were shouting to 'Get the Niggers.' I didn't know they were after
+  every colored man they saw, and sat still. Two or three men jumped on
+  the car and started at me. One of them hit me over the head with a
+  slungshot, and they started to shooting at me. I jumped out of the car
+  and ran, although I had done nothing. They shot me in the arm and in the
+  leg. I would certainly have been killed had not some gentleman taken my
+  part. If I had known New Orleans was so excited I would never have left
+  my car."
+
+  George Morris is the name of a Negro who was badly injured by a mob
+  which went through the Poydras Market. Morris is employed as watchman
+  there. He heard the noise of the passing crowd and looked out to see
+  what the matter was. As soon as the mob saw him its members started
+  after him.
+
+  "One man hit me over the head with a club," said George, after his
+  wounds had been dressed, "and somebody cut me in the back. I didn't
+  hardly think what was the matter at first, but when I saw they were
+  after me I ran for my life. I ran to the coffee stand, where I work, for
+  protection, but they were right after me, and somebody shot me in the
+  back. At last the police got me away from the crowd. Just before I was
+  hit a friend of mine, who was in the crowd, said, 'You had better go
+  home, Nigger; they're after your kind.' I didn't know then what he
+  meant. I found out pretty quick."
+
+  Morris is at the hospital. He is a perfect wreck, and while he will
+  probably get well, he will have had a close call.
+
+  Esther Fields is a Negro washerwoman who lives at South Claiborne and
+  Toledano Streets. She was at home when she heard a big noise and went
+  out to investigate. She ran into the arms of the mob, and was beaten
+  into insensibility in less time than it takes to tell it. Esther is
+  being treated at the charity hospital, and should be able to get about
+  in a few days. The majority of her bruises are about the head.
+
+  T.P. Sanders fell at the hands of the Jackson Avenue mob. He lives at
+  1927 Jackson Avenue, and was sitting in front of his home when he saw
+  the crowd marching out the street. He stayed to see what the excitement
+  was all about, and was shot in the knee and thorax and horribly beaten
+  about the head before the mob came to the conclusion that he had been
+  done for, and passed on. The ambulance was called and he was picked up
+  and carried to the charity hospital, where his wounds were dressed and
+  pronounced serious.
+
+  Oswald McMahon is nothing more than a boy. He was shot in the leg and
+  afterward carried to the hospital. His injuries are very slight.
+
+  Dan White is another charity hospital patient. He is a Negro roustabout
+  and was sitting in the bar room at Poydras and Franklin Streets when a
+  mob passed along and espied him. He was shot in the hand, and would have
+  been roughly dealt with had some policeman not been luckily near and
+  rescued him.
+
+  In addition to the Negroes who suffered from the violence of the mob
+  there were several patients treated at the hospital during the night who
+  had been with the rioters and had been struck by stray bullets or
+  injured in scuffles. None of this class were hurt to any extent. They
+  got their wounds dressed and went out again.
+
+
++WAS CHARLES A DESPERADO?+
+
+The press of the country has united in declaring that Robert Charles was a
+desperado. As usual, when dealing with a negro, he is assumed to be guilty
+because he is charged. Even the most conservative of journals refuse to
+ask evidence to prove that the dead man was a criminal, and that his life
+had been given over to lawbreaking. The minute that the news was flashed
+across the country that he had shot a white man it was at once declared
+that he was a fiend incarnate, and that when he was killed the community
+would be ridden of a black-hearted desperado. The reporters of the New
+Orleans papers, who were in the best position to trace the record of this
+man's life, made every possible effort to find evidence to prove that he
+was a villain unhung. With all the resources at their command, and
+inspired by intense interest to paint him as black a villain as possible,
+these reporters signally failed to disclose a single indictment which
+charged Robert Charles with a crime. Because they failed to find any legal
+evidence that Charles was a lawbreaker and desperado his accusers gave
+full license to their imagination and distorted the facts that they had
+obtained, in every way possible, to prove a course of criminality, which
+the records absolutely refuse to show.
+
+Charles had his first encounter with the police Monday night, in which he
+was shot in the street duel which was begun by the police after Officer
+Mora had beaten Charles three or four times over the head with his billy
+in an attempt to make an illegal arrest. In defending himself against the
+combined attack of two officers with a billy and their guns upon him,
+Charles shot Officer Mora and escaped.
+
+Early Tuesday morning Charles was traced to Dryades Street by officers who
+were instructed to kill him on sight. There, again defending himself, he
+shot and killed two officers. This, of course, in the eyes of the American
+press, made him a desperado. The New Orleans press, in substantiating the
+charges that he was a desperado, make statements which will be interesting
+to examine.
+
+In the first place the _New Orleans Times-Democrat_, of July 25, calls
+Charles a "ravisher and a daredevil." It says that from all sources that
+could be searched "the testimony was cumulative that the character of the
+murderer, Robert Charles, is that of a daredevil and a fiend in human
+form." Then in the same article it says:
+
+  The belongings of Robert Charles which were found in his room were a
+  complete index to the character of the man. Although the room and its
+  contents were in a state of chaos on account of the frenzied search for
+  clews by officers and citizens, an examination of his personal effects
+  revealed the mental state of the murderer and the rancor in his heart
+  toward the Caucasian race. Never was the adage, "A little learning is a
+  dangerous thing," better exemplified than in the case of the negro who
+  shot to death the two officers.
+
+His room was searched, and the evidence upon which the charge that he was
+a desperado consisted of pamphlets in support of Negro emigration to
+Liberia. On his mantel-piece there was found a bullet mold and an outfit
+for reloading cartridges. There were also two pistol scabbards and a
+bottle of cocaine. The other evidences that Charles was a desperado the
+writer described as follows:
+
+  In his room were found negro periodicals and other "race" propaganda,
+  most of which was in the interest of the negro's emigration to Liberia.
+  There were Police Gazettes strewn about his room and other papers of a
+  similar character. Well-worn textbooks, bearing his name written in his
+  own scrawling handwriting, and well-filled copybooks found in his trunk
+  showed that he had burnt the midnight oil, and was desirous of improving
+  himself intellectually in order that he might conquer the hated white
+  race. Much of the literature found among his chattels was of a
+  superlatively vituperative character, and attacked the white race in
+  unstinted language and asserted the equal rights of the Negro.
+
+  Charles was evidently the local agent of the _Voice of Missions_, a
+  "religious" paper, published at Atlanta, as great bundles of that sheet
+  were found. It is edited by one Bishop Turner, and seems to be the
+  official organ of all haters of the white race. Its editorials are
+  anarchistic in the extreme, and urge upon the negro that the sooner he
+  realizes that he is as good as the white man the better it will be for
+  him. The following verses were clipped from the journal; they were
+  marked "till forbidden," and appeared in several successive numbers:
+
+
+        OUR SENTIMENTS
+
+        H.M.T.
+
+        My country, 'tis of thee,
+        Dear land of Africa,
+          Of thee we sing.
+        Land where our fathers died,
+        Land of the Negro's pride,
+          God's truth shall ring.
+
+        My native country, thee,
+        Land of the black and free,
+          Thy name I love;
+        To see thy rocks and rills,
+        Thy woods and matchless hills,
+          Like that above.
+
+        When all thy slanderous ghouls,
+        In the bosom of sheol,
+          Forgotten lie,
+        Thy monumental name shall live,
+        And suns thy royal brow shall gild,
+        Upheaved to heaven high,
+          O'ertopping thrones.
+
+  There were no valuables in his room, and if he was a professional thief
+  he had his headquarters for storing his plunder at some other place than
+  his room on Fourth Street. Nothing was found in his room that could lead
+  to the belief that he was a thief, except fifty or more small bits of
+  soap. The inference was that every place he visited he took all of the
+  soap lying around, as all of the bits were well worn and had seen long
+  service on the washstand.
+
+  His wearing apparel was little more than rags, and financially he was
+  evidently not in a flourishing condition. He was in no sense a skilled
+  workman, and his room showed, in fact, that he was nothing more than a
+  laborer.
+
+  The "philosopher in the garret" was a dirty wretch, and his room, his
+  bedding and his clothing were nasty and filthy beyond belief. His object
+  in life seemed to have been the discomfiture of the white race, and to
+  this purpose he devoted himself with zeal. He declared himself to be a
+  "patriot," and wished to be the Moses of his race.
+
+Under the title of "The Making of a Monster," the reporter attempts to
+give "something of the personality of the archfiend, Charles." Giving his
+imagination full vent the writer says:
+
+  It is only natural that the deepest interest should attach to the
+  personality of Robert Charles. What manner of man was this fiend
+  incarnate? What conditions developed him? Who were his preceptors? From
+  what ancestral strain, if any, did he derive his ferocious hatred of the
+  whites, his cunning, his brute courage, the apostolic zeal which he
+  displayed in spreading the propaganda of African equality? These are
+  questions involving one of the most remarkable psychological problems of
+  modern times.
+
+In answer to the questions which he propounds, the reporter proceeds to
+admit that he did not learn anything of a very desperate nature connected
+with Charles. He says:
+
+  Although Charles was a familiar figure to scores of Negroes in New
+  Orleans, and they had been more or less intimately acquainted with him
+  for over two years, curiously little can be learned of his habits or
+  mode of life. Since the perpetration of his terrible series of crimes it
+  goes without saying that his former friends are inclined to be reticent,
+  but it is reasonably certain that they have very little to tell. In
+  regard to himself, Charles was singularly reticent for a Negro. He did
+  not even indulge in the usual lying about his prowess and his
+  adventures. This was possibly due to the knowledge that he was wanted
+  for a couple of murders. The man had sense enough to know that it would
+  be highly unwise to excite any curiosity about his past.
+
+  When Charles first came to New Orleans he worked here and there as a day
+  laborer. He was employed at different times in a sawmill, on the street
+  gangs, as a roustabout on the levee, as a helper at the sugar works and
+  as a coal shoveler in the engine room of the St. Charles Hotel. At each
+  of the places where he worked he was known as a quiet, rather surly
+  fellow, who had little to say to anybody, and generally performed his
+  tasks in morose silence. He managed to convey the impression, however,
+  of being a man of more than ordinary intelligence.
+
+  A Negro named William Butts, who drives a team on the levee and lives on
+  Washington Street, near Baronne, told a _Times-Democrat_ reporter
+  yesterday that Charles got a job about a year ago as agent for a
+  Liberian Immigration Society, which has headquarters at Birmingham, and
+  was much elated at the prospect of making a living without hard labor.
+
+According to the further investigations of this reporter, Charles was also
+agent for Bishop Turner's _Voice of Missions_, the colored missionary
+organ of the African Methodist Church, edited by H.M. Turner, of Atlanta,
+Georgia. Concerning his service as agent for the _Voice of Missions_, the
+reporter says:
+
+  He secured a number of subscribers and visited them once a month to
+  collect the installments. In order to insure regular payments it was
+  necessary to keep up enthusiasm, which was prone to wane, and Charles
+  consequently became an active and continual preacher of the propaganda
+  of hatred. Whatever may have been his private sentiments at the outset,
+  this constant harping on one string must eventually have had a powerful
+  effect upon his own mind.
+
+  Exactly how he received his remuneration is uncertain, but he told
+  several of his friends that he got a "big commission." Incidentally he
+  solicited subscribers for a Negro paper called the _Voice of the
+  Missions_, and when he struck a Negro who did not want to go to Africa
+  himself, he begged contributions for the "good of the cause."
+
+  In the course of time Charles developed into a fanatic on the subject of
+  the Negro oppression and neglected business to indulge in wild tirades
+  whenever he could find a listener. He became more anxious to make
+  converts than to obtain subscribers, and the more conservative darkies
+  began to get afraid of him. Meanwhile he got into touch with certain
+  agitators in the North and made himself a distributing agent for their
+  literature, a great deal of which he gave away. Making money was a
+  secondary consideration to "the cause."
+
+  One of the most enthusiastic advocates of the Liberian scheme is the
+  colored Bishop H.M. Turner, of Atlanta. Turner is a man of unusual
+  ability, has been over to Africa personally several times, and has made
+  himself conspicuous by denouncing laws which he claimed discriminated
+  against the blacks. Charles was one of the bishop's disciples and
+  evidence has been found that seems to indicate they were in
+  correspondence.
+
+This was all that the _Times-Democrat_'s reporters could find after the
+most diligent search to prove that Charles was the fiend incarnate which
+the press of New Orleans and elsewhere declared him to be.
+
+The reporters of the _New Orleans Picayune_ were no more successful than
+their brethren of the _Times-Democrat_. They, too, were compelled to
+substitute fiction for facts in their attempt to prove Charles a
+desperado. In the issue of the twenty-sixth of July it was said that
+Charles was well known in Vicksburg, and was there a consort of thieves.
+They mentioned that a man named Benson Blake was killed in 1894 or 1895,
+and that four Negroes were captured, and two escaped. Of the two escaped
+they claim that Charles was one. The four negroes who were captured were
+put in jail, and as usual, in the high state of civilization which
+characterizes Mississippi, the right of the person accused of crime to an
+indictment by legal process and a legal trial by jury was considered an
+useless formality if the accused happened to be black. A mob went to the
+jail that night, the four colored men were delivered to the mob, and all
+four were hanged in the court-house yard. The reporters evidently assumed
+that Charles was guilty, if, in fact, he was ever there, because the other
+four men were lynched. They did not consider it was a fact of any
+importance that Charles was never indicted. They called him a murderer on
+general principles.
+
+
++DIED IN SELF-DEFENSE+
+
+The life, character and death of Robert Charles challenges the thoughtful
+consideration of all fair-minded people. In the frenzy of the moment, when
+nearly a dozen men lay dead, the victims of his unerring and death-dealing
+aim, it was natural for a prejudiced press and for citizens in private
+life to denounce him as a desperado and a murderer. But sea depths are not
+measured when the ocean rages, nor can absolute justice be determined
+while public opinion is lashed into fury. There must be calmness to insure
+correctness of judgment. The fury of the hour must abate before we can
+deal justly with any man or any cause.
+
+That Charles was not a desperado is amply shown by the discussion in the
+preceding chapter. The darkest pictures which the reporters could paint of
+Charles were quoted freely, so that the public might find upon what
+grounds the press declared him to be a lawbreaker. Unquestionably the
+grounds are wholly insufficient. Not a line of evidence has been presented
+to prove that Charles was the fiend which the first reports of the New
+Orleans charge him to be.
+
+Nothing more should be required to establish his good reputation, for the
+rule is universal that a reputation must be assumed to be good until it is
+proved bad. But that rule does not apply to the Negro, for as soon as he
+is suspected the public judgment immediately determines that he is guilty
+of whatever crime he stands charged. For this reason, as a matter of duty
+to the race, and the simple justice to the memory of Charles, an
+investigation has been made of the life and character of Charles before
+the fatal affray which led to his death.
+
+Robert Charles was not an educated man. He was a student who faithfully
+investigated all the phases of oppression from which his race has
+suffered. That he was a student is amply shown by the _Times-Democrat_
+report of the twenty-fifth, which says:
+
+"Well-worn textbooks, bearing his name written in his own scrawling
+handwriting, and well-filled copy-books found in his trunk, showed that he
+had burned the midnight oil, and desired to improve himself intellectually
+in order that he might conquer the hated white race." From this quotation
+it will be seen that he spent the hours after days of hard toil in trying
+to improve himself, both in the study of textbooks and in writing.
+
+He knew that he was a student of a problem which required all the
+intelligence that a man could command, and he was burning his midnight
+oil gathering knowledge that he might better be able to come to an
+intelligent solution. To his aid in the study of this problem he sought
+the aid of a Christian newspaper, the _Voice of Missions_, the organ of
+the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was in communication with its
+editor, who is a bishop, and is known all over this country as a man of
+learning, a lover of justice and the defender of law and order. Charles
+could receive from Bishop Turner not a word of encouragement to be other
+than an earnest, tireless and God-fearing student of the complex problems
+which affected the race.
+
+For further help and assistance in his studies, Charles turned to an
+organization which has existed and flourished for many years, at all times
+managed by men of high Christian standing and absolute integrity. These
+men believe and preach a doctrine that the best interests of the Negro
+will be subserved by an emigration from America back to the Fatherland,
+and they do all they can to spread the doctrine of emigration and to give
+material assistance to those who desire to leave America and make their
+future homes in Africa. This organization is known as "The International
+Migration Society." It has its headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. From
+this place it issues pamphlets, some of which were found, in the home of
+Robert Charles, and which pamphlets the reporters of the New Orleans
+papers declare to be incendiary and dangerous in their doctrine and
+teaching.
+
+Nothing could be further from the truth. Copies of any and all of them may
+be secured by writing to D.J. Flummer, who is President and in charge of
+the home office in Birmingham, Alabama. Three of the pamphlets found in
+Charles's room are named respectively:
+
+First, _Prospectus of the Liberian Colonization Society_; which pamphlet
+in a few brief pages tells of the work of the society, plans, prices and
+terms of transportation of colored people who choose to go to Africa.
+These pages are followed by a short, conservative discussion of the Negro
+question, and close with an argument that Africa furnishes the best asylum
+for the oppressed Negroes in this country.
+
+The second pamphlet is entitled _Christian Civilization of Africa_. This
+is a brief statement of the advantages of the Republic of Liberia, and an
+argument in support of the superior conditions which colored people may
+attain to by leaving the South and settling in Liberia.
+
+The third pamphlet is entitled _The Negro and Liberia_. This is a larger
+document than the other two, and treats more exhaustively the question of
+emigration, but from the first page to the last there is not an
+incendiary line or sentence. There is not even a suggestion of violence in
+all of its thirty-two pages, and not a word which could not be preached
+from every pulpit in the land.
+
+If it is true that the workman is known by his tools, certainly no harm
+could ever come from the doctrines which were preached by Charles or the
+papers and pamphlets distributed by him. Nothing ever written in the
+_Voice of Missions_, and nothing ever published in the pamphlets above
+alluded to in the remotest way suggest that a peaceable man should turn
+lawbreaker, or that any man should dye his hands in his brother's blood.
+
+In order to secure as far as possible positive information about the life
+and character of Robert Charles, it was plain that the best course to
+pursue was to communicate with those with whom he had sustained business
+relations. Accordingly a letter was forwarded to Mr. D.J. Flummer, who is
+president of the colonization society, in which letter he was asked to
+state in reply what information he had of the life and character of Robert
+Charles. The result was a very prompt letter in response, the text of
+which is as follows:
+
+  Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 21, 1900
+
+  Mrs. Ida B. Wells Barnett, Chicago, Ill.:
+
+  Dear Madam--Replying to your favor of recent date requesting me to write
+  you giving such information as I may have concerning the life, habits
+  and character of Robert Charles, who recently shot and killed police
+  officers in New Orleans, I wish to say that my knowledge of him is only
+  such as I have gained from his business connection with the
+  International Migration Society during the past five or six years,
+  during which time I was president of the society.
+
+  He having learned that the purpose of this society was to colonize the
+  colored people in Liberia, West Africa, and thereby lessen or destroy
+  the friction and prejudice existing in this country between the two
+  races, set about earnestly and faithfully distributing the literature
+  that we issued from time to time. He always appeared to be mild but
+  earnest in his advocacy of emigration, and never to my knowledge used
+  any method or means that would in the least appear unreasonable, and had
+  always kept within the bounds of law and order in advocating emigration.
+
+  The work he performed for this society was all gratuitous, and
+  apparently prompted from his love of humanity, and desires to be
+  instrumental in building up a Negro Nationality in Africa.
+
+  If he ever violated a law before the killing of the policemen, I do not
+  know of it.
+
+  Yours, very truly,
+
+  D.J. Flummer
+
+Besides this statement, Mr. Flummer enclosed a letter received by the
+Society two days before the tragedy at New Orleans. This letter was
+written by Robert Charles, and it attests his devotion to the cause of
+emigration which he had espoused. Memoranda on the margin of the letter
+show that the order was filled by mailing the pamphlets. It is very
+probable that these were the identical pamphlets which were found by the
+mob which broke into the room of Robert Charles and seized upon these
+harmless documents and declared they were sufficient evidence to prove
+Charles a desperado. In the light of subsequent events the letter of
+Charles, which follows, sounds like a voice from the tomb:
+
+New Orleans, July 30,1900
+
+  Mr. D.J. Flummer:
+
+  Dear Sir--I received your last pamphlets and they are all given out. I
+  want you to send me some more, and I enclose you the stamps. I think I
+  will go over in Greenville, Miss., and give my people some pamphlets
+  over there.
+
+  Yours truly,
+
+  Robert Charles
+
+The latest word of information comes from New Orleans from a man who knew
+Charles intimately for six years. For obvious reasons, his name is
+withheld. In answer to a letter sent him he answers as follows:
+
+  New Orleans, Aug. 23, 1900
+
+  Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett:
+
+  Dear Madam--It affords me great pleasure to inform you as far as I know
+  of Robert Charles. I have been acquainted with him about six years in
+  this city. He never has, as I know, given any trouble to anyone. He was
+  quiet and a peaceful man and was very frank in speaking. He was too much
+  of a hero to die; few call be found to equal him. I am very sorry to
+  say that I do not know anything of his birthplace, nor his parents, but
+  enclosed find letter from his uncle, from which you may find more
+  information. You will also find one of the circulars in which Charles
+  was in possession of which was styled as a crazy document. Let me say,
+  until our preachers preach this document we will always be slaves. If
+  you can help circulate this "crazy" doctrine I would be glad to have you
+  do so, for I shall never rest until I get to that heaven on earth; that
+  is, the west coast of Africa, in Liberia.
+
+  With best wishes to you I still remain, as always, for the good of the
+  race,
+
+  ----
+
+By only those whose anger and vindictiveness warp their judgment is Robert
+Charles a desperado. Their word is not supported by the statement of a
+single fact which justifies their judgment and no criminal record shows
+that he was ever indicted for any offense, much less convicted of crime.
+On the contrary, his work for many years had been with Christian people,
+circulating emigration pamphlets and active as agent for a mission
+publication. Men who knew him say that he was a law-abiding, quiet,
+industrious, peaceable man. So he lived.
+
+So he lived and so he would have died had not he raised his hand to resent
+unprovoked assault and unlawful arrest that fateful Monday night. That
+made him an outlaw, and being a man of courage he decided to die with his
+face to the foe. The white people of this country may charge that he was a
+desperado, but to the people of his own race Robert Charles will always be
+regarded as the hero of New Orleans.
+
+
++BURNING HUMAN BEINGS ALIVE +
+
+Not only has life been taken by mobs in the past twenty years, but the
+ordinary procedure of hanging and shooting have been improved upon during
+the past ten years. Fifteen human beings have been burned to death in the
+different parts of the country by mobs. Men, women and children have gone
+to see the sight, and all have approved the barbarous deeds done in the
+high light of the civilization and Christianity of this country.
+
+In 1891 Ed Coy was burned to death in Texarkana, Ark. He was charged with
+assaulting a white woman, and after the mob had securely tied him to a
+tree, the men and boys amused themselves for some time sticking knives
+into Coy's body and slicing off pieces, of flesh. When they had amused
+themselves sufficiently, they poured coal oil over him and the women in
+the case set fire to him. It is said that fifteen thousand people stood by
+and saw him burned. This was on a Sunday night, and press reports told how
+the people looked on while the Negro burned to death.
+
+Feb. 1, 1893, Henry Smith was burned to death in Paris, Texas. The entire
+county joined in that exhibition. The district attorney himself went for
+the prisoner and turned him over to the mob. He was placed upon a float
+and drawn by four white horses through the principal streets of the city.
+Men, women and children stood at their doors and waved their handkerchiefs
+and cheered the echoes. They knew that the man was to be burned to death
+because the newspaper had declared for three days previous that this would
+be so. Excursions were run by all the railroads, and the mayor of the town
+gave the children a holiday so that they might see the sight.
+
+Henry Smith was charged with having assaulted and murdered a little white
+girl. He was an imbecile, and while he had killed the child, there was no
+proof that he had criminally assaulted her. He was tied to a stake on a
+platform which had been built ten feet high, so that everybody might see
+the sight. The father and brother and uncle of the little white girl that
+had been murdered was upon that platform about fifty minutes entertaining
+the crowd of ten thousand persons by burning the victim's flesh with
+red-hot irons. Their own newspapers told how they burned his eyes out and,
+ran the red-hot iron down his throat, cooking his tongue, and how the
+crowd cheered wild delight. At last, having declared themselves satisfied,
+coal oil was poured over him and he was burned to death, and the mob
+fought over the ashes for bones and pieces of his clothes.
+
+July 7, 1893, in Bardwell, Ky., C.J. Miller was burned to ashes. Since his
+death this man has been found to be absolutely innocent of the murder of
+the two white girls with which he was charged. But the mob would wait for
+no justification. They insisted that, as they were not sure he was the
+right man, they would compromise the matter by hanging him instead of
+burning. Not to be outdone, they took the body down and made a huge
+bonfire out of it.
+
+July 22, 1893, at Memphis, Tenn., the body of Lee Walker was dragged
+through the street and burned before the court house. Walker had
+frightened some girls in a wagon along a country road by asking them to
+let him ride in their wagon. They cried out; some men working in a field
+near by said it was at attempt of assault, and of course began to look for
+their prey. There was never any charge of rape; the women only declared
+that he attempted an assault. After he was apprehended and put in jail and
+perfectly helpless, the mob dragged him out, shot him, cut him, beat him
+with sticks, built a fire and burned the legs off, then took the trunk of
+the body down and dragged further up the street, and at last burned it
+before the court house.
+
+Sept. 20, 1893, at Roanoke, Va., the body of a Negro who had quarreled
+with a white woman was burned in the presence of several thousand persons.
+These people also wreaked their vengeance upon this helpless victim of the
+mob's wrath by sticking knives into him, kicking him and beating him with
+stones and otherwise mutilating him before life was extinct.
+
+June 11, 1898, at Knoxville, Ark., James Perry was shut up in a cabin
+because he had smallpox and burned to death. He had been quarantined in
+this cabin when it was declared that he had this disease and the doctor
+sent for. When the physician arrived he found only a few smoldering
+embers. Upon inquiry some railroad hands who were working nearby revealed
+the fact that they had fastened the door of the cabin and set fire to the
+cabin and burned man and hut together.
+
+Feb. 22, 1898, at Lake City, S.C., Postmaster Baker and his infant child
+were burned to death by a mob that had set fire to his house. Mr. Baker's
+crime was that he had refused to give up the post office, to which he had
+been appointed by the National Government. The mob had tried to drive him
+away by persecution and intimidation. Finding that all else had failed,
+they went to his home in the dead of night and set fire to his house, and
+as the family rushed forth they were greeted by a volley of bullets. The
+father and his baby were shot through the open door and wounded so badly
+that they fell back in the fire and were burned to death. The remainder of
+the family, consisting of the wife and five children, escaped with their
+lives from the burning house, but all of them were shot, one of the number
+made a cripple for life.
+
+Jan. 7, 1898, two Indians were tied to a tree at Maud Post Office, Indian
+Territory, and burned to death by a white mob. They were charged with
+murdering a white woman. There was no proof of their guilt except the
+unsupported word of the mob. Yet they were tied to a tree and slowly
+roasted to death. Their names were Lewis McGeesy and Hond Martin. Since
+that time these boys have been found to be absolutely innocent of the
+charge. Of course that discovery is too late to be of any benefit to them,
+but because they were Indians the Indian Commissioner demanded and
+received from the United States Government an indemnity of $13,000.
+
+April 23, 1899, at Palmetto, Ga., Sam Hose was burned alive in the
+presence of a throng, on Sunday afternoon. He was charged with killing a
+man named Cranford, his employer, which he admitted he did because his
+employer was about to shoot him. To the fact of killing the employer was
+added the absolutely false charge that Hose assaulted the wife. Hose was
+arrested and no trial was given him. According to the code of reasoning of
+the mob, none was needed. A white man had been killed and a white woman
+was said to have been assaulted. That was enough. When Hose was found he
+had to die.
+
+The Atlanta Constitution, in speaking of the murder of Cranford, said that
+the Negro who was suspected would be burned alive. Not only this, but it
+offered $500 reward for his capture. After he had been apprehended, it was
+publicly announced that he would be burned alive. Excursion trains were
+run and bulletins were put up in the small towns. The Governor of Georgia
+was in Atlanta while excursion trains were being made up to take visitors
+to the burning. Many fair ladies drove out in their carriages on Sunday
+afternoon to witness the torture and burning of a human being. Hose's ears
+were cut off, then his toes and fingers, and passed round to the crowd.
+His eyes were put out, his tongue torn out and flesh cut in strips by
+knives. Finally they poured coal oil on him and burned him to death. They
+dragged his half-consumed trunk out of the flames, cut it open, extracted
+his heart and liver, and sold slices for ten cents each for souvenirs, all
+of which was published most promptly in the daily papers of Georgia and
+boasted over by the people of that section.
+
+Oct. 19, 1889, at Canton, Miss., Joseph Leflore was burned to death. A
+house had been entered and its occupants murdered during the absence of
+the husband and father. When the discovery was made, it was immediately
+supposed that the crime was the work of a Negro, and the motive that of
+assaulting white women.
+
+Bloodhounds were procured and they made a round of the village and
+discovered only one colored man absent from his home. This was taken to be
+proof sufficient that he was the perpetrator of the deed. When he returned
+home he was apprehended, taken into the yard of the house that had been
+burned down, tied to a stake, and was slowly roasted to death.
+
+Dec. 6, 1899, at Maysville, Ky., Wm. Coleman also was burned to death. He
+was slowly roasted, first one foot and then the other, and dragged out of
+the fire so that the torture might be prolonged. All of this without a
+shadow of proof or scintilla of evidence that the man had committed the
+crime.
+
+Thus have the mobs of this country taken the lives of their victims within
+the past ten years. In every single instance except one these burnings
+were witnessed by from two thousand to fifteen thousand people, and no one
+person in all these crowds throughout the country had the courage to raise
+his voice and speak out against the awful barbarism of burning human
+beings to death.
+
+Men and women of America, are you proud of this record which the
+Anglo-Saxon race has made for itself? Your silence seems to say that you
+are. Your silence encourages a continuance of this sort of horror. Only by
+earnest, active, united endeavor to arouse public sentiment can we hope to
+put a stop to these demonstrations of American barbarism.
+
+
++LYNCHING RECORD+
+
+The following table of lynchings has been kept year by year by the Chicago
+Tribune, beginning with 1882, and shows the list of Negroes that have been
+lynched during that time:
+
+1882, Negroes murdered by mobs       52
+1883, Negroes murdered by mobs       39
+1884, Negroes murdered by mobs       53
+1885, Negroes murdered by mobs      164
+1886, Negroes murdered by mobs      136
+1887, Negroes murdered by mobs      128
+1888, Negroes murdered by mobs      143
+1889, Negroes murdered by mobs      127
+1890, Negroes murdered by mobs      171
+1891, Negroes murdered by mobs      192
+1892, Negroes murdered by mobs      241
+1893, Negroes murdered by mobs      200
+1894, Negroes murdered by mobs      190
+1895, Negroes murdered by mobs      171
+1896, Negroes murdered by mobs      131
+1897, Negroes murdered by mobs      156
+1898, Negroes murdered by mobs      127
+1899, Negroes murdered by mobs      107
+
+Of these thousands of men and women who have been put to death without
+judge or jury, less than one-third of them have been even accused of
+criminal assault. The world at large has accepted unquestionably the
+statement that Negroes are lynched only for assaults upon white women. Of
+those who were lynched from 1882 to 1891, the first ten years of the
+tabulated lynching record, the charges are as follows:
+
+Two hundred and sixty-nine were charged with rape; 253 with murder; 44
+with robbery; 37 with incendiarism; 4 with burglary; 27 with race
+prejudice; 13 quarreled with white men; 10 with making threats; 7 with
+rioting; 5 with miscegenation; in 32 cases no reasons were given, the
+victims were lynched on general principles.
+
+During the past five years the record is as follows:
+
+Of the 171 persons lynched in 1895 only 34 were charged with this crime.
+In 1896, out of 131 persons who were lynched, only 34 were said to have
+assaulted women. Of the 156 in 1897, only 32. In 1898, out of 127 persons
+lynched, 24 were charged with the alleged "usual crime." In 1899, of the
+107 lynchings, 16 were said to be for crimes against women. These figures,
+of course, speak for themselves, and to the unprejudiced, fair-minded
+person it is only necessary to read and study them in order to show that
+the charge that the Negro is a moral outlaw is a false one, made for the
+purpose of injuring the Negro's good name and to create public sentiment
+against him.
+
+If public sentiment were alive, as it should be upon the subject, it would
+refuse to be longer hoodwinked, and the voice of conscience would refuse
+to be stilled by these false statements. If the laws of the country were
+obeyed and respected by the white men of the country who charge that the
+Negro has no respect for law, these things could not be, for every
+individual, no matter what the charge, would have a fair trial and an
+opportunity to prove his guilt or innocence before a tribunal of law.
+
+That is all the Negro asks--that is all the friends of law and order need
+to ask, for once the law of the land is supreme, no individual who commits
+crime will escape punishment.
+
+Individual Negroes commit crimes the same as do white men, but that the
+Negro race is peculiarly given to assault upon women, is a falsehood of
+the deepest dye. The tables given above show that the Negro who is saucy
+to white men is lynched as well as the Negro who is charged with assault
+upon women. Less than one-sixth of the lynchings last year, 1899, were
+charged with rape.
+
+The Negro points to his record during the war in rebuttal of this false
+slander. When the white women and children of the South had no protector
+save only these Negroes, not one instance is known where the trust was
+betrayed. It is remarkably strange that the Negro had more respect for
+womanhood with the white men of the South hundreds of miles away, than
+they have today, when surrounded by those who take their lives with
+impunity and burn and torture, even worse than the "unspeakable Turk."
+
+Again, the white women of the North came South years ago, threaded the
+forests, visited the cabins, taught the schools and associated only with
+the Negroes whom they came to teach, and had no protectors near at hand.
+They had no charge or complaint to make of the danger to themselves after
+association with this class of human beings. Not once has the country been
+shocked by such recitals from them as come from the women who are
+surrounded by their husbands, brothers, lovers and friends. If the Negro's
+nature is bestial, it certainly should have proved itself in one of these
+two instances. The Negro asks only justice and an impartial consideration
+of these facts.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Mob Rule in New Orleans, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
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@@ -0,0 +1,4038 @@+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Record, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: The Red Record
+       Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States
+
+Author: Ida B. Wells-Barnett
+
+Release Date: February 8, 2005 [EBook #14977]
+
+Language: English
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED RECORD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Red Record:
+Tabulated Statistics and
+Alleged Causes of Lynching
+in the United States
+
+By Ida B. Wells-Barnett
+
+
+1895
+
+[Transcriber's Note: This pamphlet was first published in 1895 but was
+subsequently reprinted. It's not apparent if the curiosities in spelling
+date back to the original or were introduced later; they have been
+retained as found, and the reader is left to decide. Please verify with
+another source before quoting this material.]
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+HON. FREDERICK DOUGLASS'S LETTER
+
+DEAR MISS WELLS:
+
+Let me give you thanks for your faithful paper on the lynch abomination
+now generally practiced against colored people in the South. There has
+been no word equal to it in convincing power. I have spoken, but my word
+is feeble in comparison. You give us what you know and testify from actual
+knowledge. You have dealt with the facts with cool, painstaking fidelity,
+and left those naked and uncontradicted facts to speak for themselves.
+
+Brave woman! you have done your people and mine a service which can
+neither be weighed nor measured. If the American conscience were only half
+alive, if the American church and clergy were only half Christianized, if
+American moral sensibility were not hardened by persistent infliction of
+outrage and crime against colored people, a scream of horror, shame, and
+indignation would rise to Heaven wherever your pamphlet shall be read.
+
+But alas! even crime has power to reproduce itself and create conditions
+favorable to its own existence. It sometimes seems we are deserted by
+earth and Heaven--yet we must still think, speak and work, and trust in
+the power of a merciful God for final deliverance.
+
+Very truly and gratefully yours,
+FREDERICK DOUGLASS
+Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D.C.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER 1
+The Case Stated      57
+
+CHAPTER 2
+Lynch-Law Statistics      65
+
+CHAPTER 3
+Lynching Imbeciles      73
+
+CHAPTER 4
+Lynching of Innocent Men      84
+
+CHAPTER 5
+Lynched for Anything or Nothing      93
+
+CHAPTER 6
+History of Some Cases of Rape      108
+
+CHAPTER 7
+The Crusade Justified      121
+
+CHAPTER 8
+Miss Willard's Attitude      129
+
+CHAPTER 9
+Lynching Record for 1894      139
+
+CHAPTER 10
+The Remedy      147
+
+
+
+
+1
+
+THE CASE STATED
+
+
+The student of American sociology will find the year 1894 marked by a
+pronounced awakening of the public conscience to a system of anarchy and
+outlawry which had grown during a series of ten years to be so common,
+that scenes of unusual brutality failed to have any visible effect upon
+the humane sentiments of the people of our land.
+
+Beginning with the emancipation of the Negro, the inevitable result of
+unbribled power exercised for two and a half centuries, by the white man
+over the Negro, began to show itself in acts of conscienceless outlawry.
+During the slave regime, the Southern white man owned the Negro body and
+soul. It was to his interest to dwarf the soul and preserve the body.
+Vested with unlimited power over his slave, to subject him to any and all
+kinds of physical punishment, the white man was still restrained from such
+punishment as tended to injure the slave by abating his physical powers
+and thereby reducing his financial worth. While slaves were scourged
+mercilessly, and in countless cases inhumanly treated in other respects,
+still the white owner rarely permitted his anger to go so far as to take a
+life, which would entail upon him a loss of several hundred dollars. The
+slave was rarely killed, he was too valuable; it was easier and quite as
+effective, for discipline or revenge, to sell him "Down South."
+
+But Emancipation came and the vested interests of the white man in the
+Negro's body were lost. The white man had no right to scourge the
+emancipated Negro, still less has he a right to kill him. But the Southern
+white people had been educated so long in that school of practice, in
+which might makes right, that they disdained to draw strict lines of
+action in dealing with the Negro. In slave times the Negro was kept
+subservient and submissive by the frequency and severity of the scourging,
+but, with freedom, a new system of intimidation came into vogue; the Negro
+was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed.
+
+Not all nor nearly all of the murders done by white men, during the past
+thirty years in the South, have come to light, but the statistics as
+gathered and preserved by white men, and which have not been questioned,
+show that during these years more than ten thousand Negroes have been
+killed in cold blood, without the formality of judicial trial and legal
+execution. And yet, as evidence of the absolute impunity with which the
+white man dares to kill a Negro, the same record shows that during all
+these years, and for all these murders only three white men have been
+tried, convicted, and executed. As no white man has been lynched for the
+murder of colored people, these three executions are the only instances of
+the death penalty being visited upon white men for murdering Negroes.
+
+Naturally enough the commission of these crimes began to tell upon the
+public conscience, and the Southern white man, as a tribute to the
+nineteenth-century civilization, was in a manner compelled to give excuses
+for his barbarism. His excuses have adapted themselves to the emergency,
+and are aptly outlined by that greatest of all Negroes, Frederick
+Douglass, in an article of recent date, in which he shows that there have
+been three distinct eras of Southern barbarism, to account for which three
+distinct excuses have been made.
+
+The first excuse given to the civilized world for the murder of
+unoffending Negroes was the necessity of the white man to repress and
+stamp out alleged "race riots." For years immediately succeeding the war
+there was an appalling slaughter of colored people, and the wires usually
+conveyed to northern people and the world the intelligence, first, that an
+insurrection was being planned by Negroes, which, a few hours later, would
+prove to have been vigorously resisted by white men, and controlled with a
+resulting loss of several killed and wounded. It was always a remarkable
+feature in these insurrections and riots that only Negroes were killed
+during the rioting, and that all the white men escaped unharmed.
+
+From 1865 to 1872, hundreds of colored men and women were mercilessly
+murdered and the almost invariable reason assigned was that they met their
+death by being alleged participants in an insurrection or riot. But this
+story at last wore itself out. No insurrection ever materialized; no
+Negro rioter was ever apprehended and proven guilty, and no dynamite ever
+recorded the black man's protest against oppression and wrong. It was too
+much to ask thoughtful people to believe this transparent story, and the
+southern white people at last made up their minds that some other excuse
+must be had.
+
+Then came the second excuse, which had its birth during the turbulent
+times of reconstruction. By an amendment to the Constitution the Negro was
+given the right of franchise, and, theoretically at least, his ballot
+became his invaluable emblem of citizenship. In a government "of the
+people, for the people, and by the people," the Negro's vote became an
+important factor in all matters of state and national politics. But this
+did not last long. The southern white man would not consider that the
+Negro had any right which a white man was bound to respect, and the idea
+of a republican form of government in the southern states grew into
+general contempt. It was maintained that "This is a white man's
+government," and regardless of numbers the white man should rule. "No
+Negro domination" became the new legend on the sanguinary banner of the
+sunny South, and under it rode the Ku Klux Klan, the Regulators, and the
+lawless mobs, which for any cause chose to murder one man or a dozen as
+suited their purpose best. It was a long, gory campaign; the blood chills
+and the heart almost loses faith in Christianity when one thinks of Yazoo,
+Hamburg, Edgefield, Copiah, and the countless massacres of defenseless
+Negroes, whose only crime was the attempt to exercise their right to vote.
+
+But it was a bootless strife for colored people. The government which had
+made the Negro a citizen found itself unable to protect him. It gave him
+the right to vote, but denied him the protection which should have
+maintained that right. Scourged from his home; hunted through the swamps;
+hung by midnight raiders, and openly murdered in the light of day, the
+Negro clung to his right of franchise with a heroism which would have
+wrung admiration from the hearts of savages. He believed that in that
+small white ballot there was a subtle something which stood for manhood as
+well as citizenship, and thousands of brave black men went to their
+graves, exemplifying the one by dying for the other.
+
+The white man's victory soon became complete by fraud, violence,
+intimidation and murder. The franchise vouchsafed to the Negro grew to be
+a "barren ideality," and regardless of numbers, the colored people found
+themselves voiceless in the councils of those whose duty it was to rule.
+With no longer the fear of "Negro Domination" before their eyes, the
+white man's second excuse became valueless. With the Southern governments
+all subverted and the Negro actually eliminated from all participation in
+state and national elections, there could be no longer an excuse for
+killing Negroes to prevent "Negro Domination."
+
+Brutality still continued; Negroes were whipped, scourged, exiled, shot
+and hung whenever and wherever it pleased the white man so to treat them,
+and as the civilized world with increasing persistency held the white
+people of the South to account for its outlawry, the murderers invented
+the third excuse--that Negroes had to be killed to avenge their assaults
+upon women. There could be framed no possible excuse more harmful to the
+Negro and more unanswerable if true in its sufficiency for the white man.
+
+Humanity abhors the assailant of womanhood, and this charge upon the Negro
+at once placed him beyond the pale of human sympathy. With such unanimity,
+earnestness and apparent candor was this charge made and reiterated that
+the world has accepted the story that the Negro is a monster which the
+Southern white man has painted him. And today, the Christian world feels,
+that while lynching is a crime, and lawlessness and anarchy the certain
+precursors of a nation's fall, it can not by word or deed, extend sympathy
+or help to a race of outlaws, who might mistake their plea for justice and
+deem it an excuse for their continued wrongs.
+
+The Negro has suffered much and is willing to suffer more. He recognizes
+that the wrongs of two centuries can not be righted in a day, and he tries
+to bear his burden with patience for today and be hopeful for tomorrow.
+But there comes a time when the veriest worm will turn, and the Negro
+feels today that after all the work he has done, all the sacrifices he has
+made, and all the suffering he has endured, if he did not, now, defend his
+name and manhood from this vile accusation, he would be unworthy even of
+the contempt of mankind. It is to this charge he now feels he must make
+answer.
+
+If the Southern people in defense of their lawlessness, would tell the
+truth and admit that colored men and women are lynched for almost any
+offense, from murder to a misdemeanor, there would not now be the
+necessity for this defense. But when they intentionally, maliciously and
+constantly belie the record and bolster up these falsehoods by the words
+of legislators, preachers, governors and bishops, then the Negro must give
+to the world his side of the awful story.
+
+A word as to the charge itself. In considering the third reason assigned
+by the Southern white people for the butchery of blacks, the question must
+be asked, what the white man means when he charges the black man with
+rape. Does he mean the crime which the statutes of the civilized states
+describe as such? Not by any means. With the Southern white man, any
+mesalliance existing between a white woman and a colored man is a
+sufficient foundation for the charge of rape. The Southern white man says
+that it is impossible for a voluntary alliance to exist between a white
+woman and a colored man, and therefore, the fact of an alliance is a proof
+of force. In numerous instances where colored men have have been lynched
+on the charge of rape, it was positively known at the time of lynching,
+and indisputably proven after the victim's death, that the relationship
+sustained between the man and woman was voluntary and clandestine, and
+that in no court of law could even the charge of assault have been
+successfully maintained.
+
+It was for the assertion of this fact, in the defense of her own race,
+that the writer hereof became an exile; her property destroyed and her
+return to her home forbidden under penalty of death, for writing the
+following editorial which was printed in her paper, the _Free Speech,_ in
+Memphis, Tenn., May 21,1892:
+
+  Eight Negroes lynched since last issue of the _Free Speech_ one at
+  Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday morning where the citizens broke(?)
+  into the penitentiary and got their man; three near Anniston, Ala., one
+  near New Orleans; and three at Clarksville, Ga., the last three for
+  killing a white man, and five on the same old racket--the new alarm
+  about raping white women. The same programme of hanging, then shooting
+  bullets into the lifeless bodies was carried out to the letter. Nobody
+  in this section of the country believes the old threadbare lie that
+  Negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they
+  will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a
+  conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral
+  reputation of their women.
+
+But threats cannot suppress the truth, and while the Negro suffers the
+soul deformity, resultant from two and a half centuries of slavery, he is
+no more guilty of this vilest of all vile charges than the white man who
+would blacken his name.
+
+During all the years of slavery, no such charge was ever made, not even
+during the dark days of the rebellion, when the white man, following the
+fortunes of war went to do battle for the maintenance of slavery. While
+the master was away fighting to forge the fetters upon the slave, he left
+his wife and children with no protectors save the Negroes themselves. And
+yet during those years of trust and peril, no Negro proved recreant to his
+trust and no white man returned to a home that had been dispoiled.
+
+Likewise during the period of alleged "insurrection," and alarming "race
+riots," it never occurred to the white man, that his wife and children
+were in danger of assault. Nor in the Reconstruction era, when the hue and
+cry was against "Negro Domination," was there ever a thought that the
+domination would ever contaminate a fireside or strike to death the virtue
+of womanhood. It must appear strange indeed, to every thoughtful and
+candid man, that more than a quarter of a century elapsed before the Negro
+began to show signs of such infamous degeneration.
+
+In his remarkable apology for lynching, Bishop Haygood, of Georgia, says:
+"No race, not the most savage, tolerates the rape of woman, but it may be
+said without reflection upon any other people that the Southern people are
+now and always have been most sensitive concerning the honor of their
+women--their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters." It is not the purpose
+of this defense to say one word against the white women of the South. Such
+need not be said, but it is their misfortune that the chivalrous white men
+of that section, in order to escape the deserved execration of the
+civilized world, should shield themselves by their cowardly and infamously
+false excuse, and call into question that very honor about which their
+distinguished priestly apologist claims they are most sensitive. To
+justify their own barbarism they assume a chivalry which they do not
+possess. True chivalry respects all womanhood, and no one who reads the
+record, as it is written in the faces of the million mulattoes in the
+South, will for a minute conceive that the southern white man had a very
+chivalrous regard for the honor due the women of his own race or respect
+for the womanhood which circumstances placed in his power. That chivalry
+which is "most sensitive concerning the honor of women" can hope for but
+little respect from the civilized world, when it confines itself entirely
+to the women who happen to be white. Virtue knows no color line, and the
+chivalry which depends upon complexion of skin and texture of hair can
+command no honest respect.
+
+When emancipation came to the Negroes, there arose in the northern part of
+the United States an almost divine sentiment among the noblest, purest
+and best white women of the North, who felt called to a mission to educate
+and Christianize the millions of southern exslaves. From every nook and
+corner of the North, brave young white women answered that call and left
+their cultured homes, their happy associations and their lives of ease,
+and with heroic determination went to the South to carry light and truth
+to the benighted blacks. It was a heroism no less than that which calls
+for volunteers for India, Africa and the Isles of the sea. To educate
+their unfortunate charges; to teach them the Christian virtues and to
+inspire in them the moral sentiments manifest in their own lives, these
+young women braved dangers whose record reads more like fiction than fact.
+They became social outlaws in the South. The peculiar sensitiveness of the
+southern white men for women, never shed its protecting influence about
+them. No friendly word from their own race cheered them in their work; no
+hospitable doors gave them the companionship like that from which they had
+come. No chivalrous white man doffed his hat in honor or respect. They
+were "Nigger teachers"--unpardonable offenders in the social ethics of the
+South, and were insulted, persecuted and ostracised, not by Negroes, but
+by the white manhood which boasts of its chivalry toward women.
+
+And yet these northern women worked on, year after year, unselfishly, with
+a heroism which amounted almost to martyrdom. Threading their way through
+dense forests, working in schoolhouse, in the cabin and in the church,
+thrown at all times and in all places among the unfortunate and lowly
+Negroes, whom they had come to find and to serve, these northern women,
+thousands and thousands of them, have spent more than a quarter of a
+century in giving to the colored people their splendid lessons for home
+and heart and soul. Without protection, save that which innocence gives to
+every good woman, they went about their work, fearing no assault and
+suffering none. Their chivalrous protectors were hundreds of miles away in
+their northern homes, and yet they never feared any "great dark-faced
+mobs," they dared night or day to "go beyond their own roof trees." They
+never complained of assaults, and no mob was ever called into existence to
+avenge crimes against them. Before the world adjudges the Negro a moral
+monster, a vicious assailant of womanhood and a menace to the sacred
+precincts of home, the colored people ask the consideration of the silent
+record of gratitude, respect, protection and devotion of the millions of
+the race in the South, to the thousands of northern white women who have
+served as teachers and missionaries since the war.
+
+The Negro may not have known what chivalry was, but he knew enough to
+preserve inviolate the womanhood of the South which was entrusted to his
+hands during the war. The finer sensibilities of his soul may have been
+crushed out by years of slavery, but his heart was full of gratitude to
+the white women of the North, who blessed his home and inspired his soul
+in all these years of freedom. Faithful to his trust in both of these
+instances, he should now have the impartial ear of the civilized world,
+when he dares to speak for himself as against the infamy wherewith he
+stands charged.
+
+It is his regret, that, in his own defense, he must disclose to the world
+that degree of dehumanizing brutality which fixes upon America the blot of
+a national crime. Whatever faults and failings other nations may have in
+their dealings with their own subjects or with other people, no other
+civilized nation stands condemned before the world with a series of crimes
+so peculiarly national. It becomes a painful duty of the Negro to
+reproduce a record which shows that a large portion of the American people
+avow anarchy, condone murder and defy the contempt of civilization. These
+pages are written in no spirit of vindictiveness, for all who give the
+subject consideration must concede that far too serious is the condition
+of that civilized government in which the spirit of unrestrained outlawry
+constantly increases in violence, and casts its blight over a continually
+growing area of territory. We plead not for the colored people alone, but
+for all victims of the terrible injustice which puts men and women to
+death without form of law. During the year 1894, there were 132 persons
+executed in the United States by due form of law, while in the same year,
+197 persons were put to death by mobs who gave the victims no opportunity
+to make a lawful defense. No comment need be made upon a condition of
+public sentiment responsible for such alarming results.
+
+The purpose of the pages which follow shall be to give the record which
+has been made, not by colored men, but that which is the result of
+compilations made by white men, of reports sent over the civilized world
+by white men in the South. Out of their own mouths shall the murderers be
+condemned. For a number of years the _Chicago Tribune_, admittedly one of
+the leading journals of America, has made a specialty of the compilation
+of statistics touching upon lynching. The data compiled by that journal
+and published to the world January 1, 1894, up to the present time has not
+been disputed. In order to be safe from the charge of exaggeration, the
+incidents hereinafter reported have been confined to those vouched for by
+the Tribune.
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+LYNCH-LAW STATISTICS
+
+
+From the record published in the _Chicago Tribune_, January 1, 1894, the
+following computation of lynching statistics is made referring only to the
+colored victims of Lynch Law during the year 1893:
+
+ARSON
+
+Sept. 15, Paul Hill, Carrollton, Ala.; Sept. 15, Paul Archer, Carrollton,
+Ala.; Sept. 15, William Archer, Carrollton, Ala.; Sept. 15, Emma Fair,
+Carrollton, Ala.
+
+
+SUSPECTED ROBBERY
+
+Dec. 23, unknown negro, Fannin, Miss.
+
+
+ASSAULT
+
+Dec. 25, Calvin Thomas, near Brainbridge, Ga.
+
+
+ATTEMPTED ASSAULT
+
+Dec. 28, Tillman Green, Columbia, La.
+
+
+INCENDIARISM
+
+Jan. 26, Patrick Wells, Quincy, Fla.; Feb. 9, Frank Harrell, Dickery,
+Miss.; Feb. 9, William Filder, Dickery, Miss.
+
+
+ATTEMPTED RAPE
+
+Feb. 21, Richard Mays, Springville, Mo.; Aug. 14, Dug Hazleton,
+Carrollton, Ga.; Sept. 1, Judge McNeil, Cadiz, Ky.; Sept. 11, Frank Smith,
+Newton, Miss.; Sept. 16, William Jackson, Nevada, Mo.; Sept. 19, Riley
+Gulley, Pine Apple, Ala.; Oct. 9, John Davis, Shorterville, Ala.; Nov. 8,
+Robert Kennedy, Spartansburg, S.C.
+
+
+BURGLARY
+
+Feb. 16, Richard Forman, Granada, Miss.
+
+
+WIFE BEATING
+
+Oct. 14, David Jackson, Covington, La.
+
+
+ATTEMPTED MURDER
+
+Sept. 21, Thomas Smith, Roanoke, Va.
+
+
+ATTEMPTED ROBBERY
+
+Dec. 12, four unknown negroes, near Selma, Ala.
+
+
+RACE PREJUDICE
+
+Jan. 30, Thomas Carr, Kosciusko, Miss.; Feb. 7, William Butler, Hickory
+Creek, Texas; Aug. 27, Charles Tart, Lyons Station, Miss.; Dec. 7, Robert
+Greenwood, Cross county, Ark.; July 14, Allen Butler, Lawrenceville, Ill.
+
+
+THIEVES
+
+Oct. 24, two unknown negroes, Knox Point, La.
+
+
+ALLEGED BARN BURNING
+
+Nov. 4, Edward Wagner, Lynchburg, Va.; Nov. 4, William Wagner, Lynchburg,
+Va.; Nov. 4, Samuel Motlow, Lynchburg, Va.; Nov. 4, Eliza Motlow,
+Lynchburg, Va.
+
+
+ALLEGED MURDER
+
+Jan. 21, Robert Landry, St. James Parish, La.; Jan. 21, Chicken George,
+St. James Parish, La.; Jan. 21, Richard Davis, St. James Parish, La.; Dec.
+8, Benjamin Menter, Berlin, Ala.; Dec. 8, Robert Wilkins, Berlin, Ala.;
+Dec. 8, Joseph Gevhens, Berlin, Ala.
+
+
+ALLEGED COMPLICITY IN MURDER
+
+Sept. 16, Valsin Julian, Jefferson Parish, La.; Sept. 16, Basil Julian,
+Jefferson Parish, La.; Sept. 16, Paul Julian, Jefferson Parish, La.; Sept.
+16, John Willis, Jefferson Parish, La.
+
+
+MURDER
+
+June 29, Samuel Thorp, Savannah, Ga.; June 29, George S. Riechen,
+Waynesboro, Ga.; June 30, Joseph Bird, Wilberton, I.T.; July 1, James
+Lamar, Darien, Ga.; July 28, Henry Miller, Dallas, Texas; July 28, Ada
+Hiers, Walterboro, S.C.; July 28, Alexander Brown, Bastrop, Texas; July
+30, W.G. Jamison, Quincy, Ill.; Sept. 1, John Ferguson, Lawrens, S.C.;
+Sept. 1, Oscar Johnston, Berkeley, S.C.; Sept. 1, Henry Ewing, Berkeley,
+S.C.; Sept. 8, William Smith, Camden, Ark.; Sept. 15, Staples Green,
+Livingston, Ala.; Sept. 29, Hiram Jacobs, Mount Vernon, Ga.; Sept. 29,
+Lucien Mannet, Mount Vernon, Ga.; Sept. 29, Hire Bevington, Mount Vernon,
+Ga.; Sept. 29, Weldon Gordon, Mount Vernon, Ga.; Sept. 29, Parse
+Strickland, Mount Vernon, Ga.; Oct. 20, William Dalton, Cartersville, Ga.;
+Oct. 27, M.B. Taylor, Wise Court House, Va.; Oct. 27, Isaac Williams,
+Madison, Ga.; Nov. 10, Miller Davis, Center Point, Ark.; Nov. 14, John
+Johnston, Auburn, N.Y.
+
+Sept. 27, Calvin Stewart, Langley, S.C.; Sept. 29, Henry Coleman, Denton,
+La.; Oct. 18, William Richards, Summerfield, Ga.; Oct. 18, James Dickson,
+Summerfield, Ga.; Oct. 27, Edward Jenkins, Clayton county, Ga.; Nov. 9,
+Henry Boggs, Fort White, Fla.; Nov. 14, three unknown negroes, Lake City
+Junction, Fla.; Nov. 14, D.T. Nelson, Varney, Ark.; Nov. 29, Newton Jones,
+Baxley, Ga.; Dec. 2, Lucius Holt, Concord, Ga.; Dec. 10, two unknown
+negroes, Richmond, Ala.; July 12, Henry Fleming, Columbus, Miss.; July 17,
+unknown negro, Briar Field, Ala.; July 18, Meredith Lewis, Roseland, La.
+July 29, Edward Bill, Dresden, Tenn.; Aug. 1, Henry Reynolds, Montgomery,
+Tenn.; Aug. 9, unknown negro, McCreery, Ark.; Aug. 12, unknown negro,
+Brantford, Fla.; Aug. 18, Charles Walton, Morganfield, Ky; Aug. 21,
+Charles Tait, near Memphis, Tenn.; Aug. 28, Leonard Taylor, New Castle,
+Ky; Sept. 8, Benjamin Jackson, Quincy, Miss.; Sept. 14, John Williams,
+Jackson, Tenn.
+
+
+SELF-DEFENSE
+
+July 30, unknown negro, Wingo, Ky.
+
+
+POISONING WELLS
+
+Aug. 18, two unknown negroes, Franklin Parish, La.
+
+
+ALLEGED WELL POISONING
+
+Sept. 15, Benjamin Jackson, Jackson, Miss.; Sept. 15, Mahala Jackson,
+Jackson, Miss.; Sept. 15, Louisa Carter, Jackson, Miss.; Sept. 15, W.A.
+Haley, Jackson, Miss.; Sept. 16, Rufus Bigley, Jackson, Miss.
+
+
+INSULTING WHITES
+
+Feb. 18, John Hughes, Moberly, Mo.; June 2, Isaac Lincoln, Fort Madison,
+S.C.
+
+
+MURDEROUS ASSAULT
+
+April 20, Daniel Adams, Selina, Kan.
+
+
+NO OFFENSE
+
+July 21, Charles Martin, Shelby Co., Tenn.; July 30, William Steen, Paris,
+Miss.; Aug. 31, unknown negro, Yarborough, Tex.; Sept. 30, unknown negro,
+Houston, Tex.; Dec. 28, Mack Segars, Brantley, Ala.
+
+
+ALLEGED RAPE
+
+July 7, Charles T. Miller, Bardwell, Ky.; Aug. 10, Daniel Lewis, Waycross,
+Ga.; Aug. 10, James Taylor, Waycross, Ga.; Aug. 10, John Chambers,
+Waycross, Ga.
+
+
+ALLEGED STOCK POISONING
+
+Dec. 16, Henry G. Givens, Nebro, Ky.
+
+
+SUSPECTED MURDER
+
+Dec. 23, Sloan Allen, West Mississippi.
+
+
+SUSPICION OF RAPE
+
+Feb. 14, Andy Blount, Chattanooga, Tenn.
+
+
+TURNING STATE'S EVIDENCE
+
+Dec. 19, William Ferguson, Adele, Ga.
+
+
+RAPE
+
+Jan. 19, James Williams, Pickens Co., Ala.; Feb. 11, unknown negro, Forest
+Hill, Tenn.; Feb. 26, Joseph Hayne, or Paine, Jellico, Tenn.; Nov. 1,
+Abner Anthony, Hot Springs, Va.; Nov. 1, Thomas Hill, Spring Place, Ga.;
+April 24, John Peterson, Denmark, S.C.; May 6, Samuel Gaillard, ----,
+S.C.; May 10, Haywood Banks, or Marksdale, Columbia, S.C.; May 12, Israel
+Halliway, Napoleonville, La.; May 12, unknown negro, Wytheville, Va.; May
+31, John Wallace, Jefferson Springs, Ark.; June 3, Samuel Bush, Decatur,
+Ill.; June 8, L.C. Dumas, Gleason, Tenn.; June 13, William Shorter,
+Winchester, Va.; June 14, George Williams, near Waco, Tex.; June 24,
+Daniel Edwards, Selina or Selma, Ala.; June 27, Ernest Murphy, Daleville,
+Ala.; July 6, unknown negro, Poplar Head, La.; July 6, unknown negro,
+Poplar Head, La.; July 12, Robert Larkin, Oscola, Tex.; July 17, Warren
+Dean, Stone Creek, Ga.; July 21, unknown negro, Brantford, Fla.; July 17,
+John Cotton, Connersville, Ark.; July 22, Lee Walker, New Albany, Miss.;
+July 26, ---- Handy, Suansea, S.C.; July 30, William Thompson, Columbia,
+S.C.; July 28, Isaac Harper, Calera, Ala.; July 30, Thomas Preston,
+Columbia, S.C.; July 30, Handy Kaigler, Columbia, S.C.; Aug. 13, Monroe
+Smith, Springfield, Ala.; Aug. 19, negro tramp, near Paducah, Ky.; Aug.
+21, John Nilson, near Leavenworth, Kan.; Aug. 23, Jacob Davis, Green Wood,
+S.C.; Sept. 2, William Arkinson, McKenney, Ky.; Sept. 16, unknown negro,
+Centerville, Ala.; Sept. 16, Jessie Mitchell, Amelia C.H., Va.; Sept. 25,
+Perry Bratcher, New Boston, Tex.; Oct. 9, William Lacey, Jasper, Ala.;
+Oct. 22, John Gamble, Pikesville, Tenn.
+
+
+OFFENSES CHARGED ARE AS FOLLOWS
+
+Rape, 39; attempted rape, 8; alleged rape, 4; suspicion of rape, 1;
+murder, 44; alleged murder, 6; alleged complicity in murder, 4; murderous
+assault, 1; attempted murder, 1; attempted robbery, 4; arson, 4;
+incendiarism, 3; alleged stock poisoning, 1; poisoning wells, 2; alleged
+poisoning wells, 5; burglary, 1; wife beating, 1; self-defense, 1;
+suspected robbery, 1; assault and battery, 1; insulting whites, 2;
+malpractice, 1; alleged barn burning, 4; stealing, 2; unknown offense, 4;
+no offense, 1; race prejudice, 4; total, 159.
+
+
+LYNCHINGS BY STATES
+
+Alabama, 25; Arkansas, 7; Florida, 7; Georgia, 24; Indian Territory, 1;
+Illinois, 3; Kansas, 2; Kentucky, 8; Louisiana, 18; Mississippi, 17;
+Missouri, 3; New York, 1; South Carolina, 15; Tennessee, 10; Texas, 8;
+Virginia, 10.
+
+
+RECORD FOR THE YEAR 1892
+
+While it is intended that the record here presented shall include
+specially the lynchings of 1893, it will not be amiss to give the record
+for the year preceding. The facts contended for will always appear
+manifest--that not one-third of the victims lynched were charged with
+rape, and further that the charges made embraced a range of offenses from
+murders to misdemeanors.
+
+In 1892 there were 241 persons lynched. The entire number is divided among
+the following states:
+
+Alabama, 22; Arkansas, 25; California, 3; Florida, 11; Georgia, 17; Idaho,
+8; Illinois, 1; Kansas, 3; Kentucky, 9; Louisiana, 29; Maryland, 1;
+Mississippi, 16; Missouri, 6; Montana, 4; New York, 1; North Carolina, 5;
+North Dakota, 1; Ohio, 3; South Carolina, 5; Tennessee, 28; Texas, 15;
+Virginia, 7; West Virginia, 5; Wyoming, 9; Arizona Territory, 3; Oklahoma,
+2.
+
+Of this number 160 were of Negro descent. Four of them were lynched in New
+York, Ohio and Kansas; the remainder were murdered in the South. Five of
+this number were females. The charges for which they were lynched cover a
+wide range. They are as follows:
+
+Rape, 46; murder, 58; rioting, 3; race prejudice, 6; no cause given, 4;
+incendiarism, 6; robbery, 6; assault and battery, 1; attempted rape, 11;
+suspected robbery, 4; larceny, 1; self-defense, 1; insulting women, 2;
+desperadoes, 6; fraud, 1; attempted murder, 2; no offense stated, boy and
+girl, 2.
+
+In the case of the boy and girl above referred to, their father, named
+Hastings, was accused of the murder of a white man; his fourteen-year-old
+daughter and sixteen-year-old son were hanged and their bodies filled with
+bullets, then the father was also lynched. This was in November, 1892, at
+Jonesville, Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+LYNCHING IMBECILES
+
+_(An Arkansas Butchery)_
+
+
+The only excuse which capital punishment attempts to find is upon the
+theory that the criminal is past the power of reformation and his life is
+a constant menace to the community. If, however, he is mentally
+unbalanced, irresponsible for his acts, there can be no more inhuman act
+conceived of than the wilful sacrifice of his life. So thoroughly is that
+principle grounded in the law, that all civilized society surrounds human
+life with a safeguard, which prevents the execution of a criminal who is
+insane, even if sane at the time of his criminal act. Should he become
+insane after its commission the law steps in and protects him during the
+period of his insanity. But Lynch Law has no such regard for human life.
+Assuming for itself an absolute supremacy over the law of the land, it has
+time and again dyed its hands in the blood of men who were imbeciles. Two
+or three noteworthy cases will suffice to show with what inhuman ferocity
+irresponsible men have been put to death by this system of injustice.
+
+An instance occurred during the year 1892 in Arkansas, a report of which
+is given in full in the _Arkansas Democrat_, published at Little Rock, in
+that state, on the eleventh day of February of that year. The paper
+mentioned is perhaps one of the leading weeklies in that state and the
+account given in detail has every mark of a careful and conscientious
+investigation. The victims of this tragedy were a colored man, named Hamp
+Biscoe, his wife and a thirteen-year-old son. Hamp Biscoe, it appears, was
+a hard working, thrifty farmer, who lived near England, Arkansas, upon a
+small farm with his family. The investigation of the tragedy was
+conducted by a resident of Arkansas named R.B. Caries, a white man, who
+furnished the account to the _Arkansas Democrat_ over his own signature.
+He says the original trouble which led to the lynching was a quarrel
+between Biscoe and a white man about a debt. About six years after Biscoe
+preempted his land, a white man made a demand of $100 upon him for
+services in showing him the land and making the sale. Biscoe denied the
+service and refused to pay the demand. The white man, however, brought
+suit, obtained judgment for the hundred dollars and Biscoe's farm was sold
+to pay the judgment.
+
+The suit, judgment and subsequent legal proceedings appear to have driven
+Biscoe almost crazy and brooding over his wrongs he grew to be a confirmed
+imbecile. He would allow but few men, white or colored, to come upon his
+place, as he suspected every stranger to be planning to steal his farm. A
+week preceding the tragedy, a white man named Venable, whose farm adjoined
+Biscoe's, let down the fence and proceeded to drive through Biscoe's
+field. The latter saw him; grew very excited, cursed him and drove him
+from his farm with bitter oaths and violent threats. Venable went away and
+secured a warrant for Biscoe's arrest. This warrant was placed in the
+hands of a constable named John Ford, who took a colored deputy and two
+white men out to Biscoe's farm to make the arrest. When they arrived at
+the house Biscoe refused to be arrested and warned them he would shoot if
+they persisted in their attempt to arrest him. The warning was unheeded by
+Ford, who entered upon the premises, when Biscoe, true to his word, fired
+upon him. The load tore a part of his clothes from his body, one shot
+going through his arm and entering his breast. After he had fallen, Ford
+drew his revolver and shot Biscoe in the head and his wife through the
+arm. The Negro deputy then began firing and struck Biscoe in the small of
+the back. Ford's wound was not dangerous and in a few days he was able to
+be around again. Biscoe, however, was so severely shot that he was unable
+to stand after the firing was over.
+
+Two other white men hearing the exchange of shots went to the rescue of
+the officers, forced open the door of Biscoe's cabin and arrested him, his
+wife and thirteen-year-old son, and took them, together with a babe at the
+breast, to a small frame house near the depot and put them under guard.
+The subsequent proceedings were briefly told by Mr. Carlee in the columns
+of the _Arkansas Democrat_ above mentioned, from whose account the
+following excerpt is taken:
+
+  It was rumored here that the Negroes were to be lynched that night, but
+  I do not think it was generally credited, as it was not believed that
+  Ford was greatly hurt and the Negro was held to be fatally injured and
+  crazy at that. But that night, about 8 o'clock, a party of perhaps
+  twelve or fifteen men, a number of whom were known to the guards, came
+  to the house and told the Negro guards they would take care of the
+  prisoners now, and for them to leave; as they did not obey at once they
+  were persuaded to leave with words that did not admit of delay.
+
+  The woman began to cry and said, "You intend to kill us to get our
+  money." They told her to hush (she was heavy with child and had a child
+  at her breast) as they intended to give her a nice present. The guards
+  heard no more, but hastened to a Negro church near by and urged the
+  preacher to go up and stop the mob. A few minutes after, the shooting
+  began, perhaps about forty shots being fired. The white men then left
+  rapidly and the Negroes went to the house. Hamp Biscoe and his wife were
+  killed, the baby had a slight wound across the upper lip; the boy was
+  still alive and lived until after midnight, talking rationally and
+  telling who did the shooting.
+
+  He said when they came in and shot his father, he attempted to run out
+  of doors and a young man shot him in the bowels and that he fell. He saw
+  another man shoot his mother and a taller young man, whom he did not
+  know, shoot his father. After they had killed them, the young man who
+  had shot his mother pulled off her stockings and took $220 in currency
+  that she had hid there. The men then came to the door where the boy was
+  lying and one of them turned him over and put his pistol to his breast
+  and shot him again. This is the story the dying boy told as near as I
+  can get it. It is quite singular that the guards and those who had
+  conversed with him were not required to testify. The woman was known to
+  have the money as she had exposed it that day. She also had $36 in
+  silver, which the plunderer of the body did not get. The Negro was
+  undoubtedly insane and had been for several years. The citizens of this
+  community condemn the murder and have no sympathy with it. The Negro was
+  a well-to-do farmer, but had become crazed because he was convinced some
+  plot had been made to steal his land and only a few days ago declared
+  that he expected to die in defense of his home in a short time and he
+  did not care how soon. The killing of a woman with the child at her
+  breast and in her condition, and also a young boy, was extremely brutal.
+  As for Hamp Biscoe he was dangerous and should long have been confined
+  in the insane asylum. Such were the facts as near as I can get them and
+  you can use them as you see fit, but I would prefer you would suppress
+  the names charged by the Negroes with the killing.
+
+Perhaps the civilized world will think, that with all these facts laid
+before the public, by a writer who signs his name to his communication, in
+a land where grand juries are sworn to investigate, where judges and
+juries are sworn to administer the law and sheriffs are paid to execute
+the decrees of the courts, and where, in fact, every instrument of
+civilization is supposed to work for the common good of all citizens, that
+this matter was duly investigated, the criminals apprehended and the
+punishment meted out to the murderers. But this is a mistake; nothing of
+the kind was done or attempted. Six months after the publication, above
+referred to, an investigator, writing to find out what had been done in
+the matter, received the following reply:
+
+  OFFICE OF
+  S.S. GLOVER,
+  SHERIFF AND COLLECTOR,
+  LONOKE COUNTY.
+
+  Lonoke, Ark., 9-12-1892
+
+  Geo. Washington, Esq.,
+  Chicago, Ill.
+
+  DEAR SIR:--The parties who killed Hamp Briscoe February the ninth, have
+  never been arrested. The parties are still in the county. It was done by
+  some of the citizens, and those who know will not tell.
+
+  S.S. GLOVER, Sheriff
+
+Thus acts the mob with the victim of its fury, conscious that it will
+never be called to an account. Not only is this true, but the moral
+support of those who are chosen by the people to execute the law, is
+frequently given to the support of lawlessness and mob violence. The press
+and even the pulpit, in the main either by silence or open apology, have
+condoned and encouraged this state of anarchy.
+
+
+TORTURED AND BURNED IN TEXAS
+
+Never In the history of civilization has any Christian people stooped to
+such shocking brutality and indescribable barbarism as that which
+characterized the people of Paris, Texas, and adjacent communities on the
+first of February, 1893. The cause of this awful outbreak of human passion
+was the murder of a four-year-old child, daughter of a man named Vance.
+This man, Vance, had been a police officer in Paris for years, and was
+known to be a man of bad temper, overbearing manner and given to harshly
+treating the prisoners under his care. He had arrested Smith and, it is
+said, cruelly mistreated him. Whether or not the murder of his child was
+an art of fiendish revenge, it has not been shown, but many persons who
+know of the incident have suggested that the secret of the attack on the
+child lay in a desire for revenge against its father.
+
+In the same town there lived a Negro, named Henry Smith, a well-known
+character, a kind of roustabout, who was generally considered a harmless,
+weak-minded fellow, not capable of doing any important work, but
+sufficiently able to do chores and odd jobs around the houses of the white
+people who cared to employ him. A few days before the final tragedy, this
+man, Smith, was accused of murdering Myrtle Vance. The crime of murder was
+of itself bad enough, and to prove that against Smith would have been
+amply sufficient in Texas to have committed him to the gallows, but the
+finding of the child so exasperated the father and his friends, that they
+at once shamefully exaggerated the facts and declared that the babe had
+been ruthlessly assaulted and then killed. The truth was bad enough, but
+the white people of the community made it a point to exaggerate every
+detail of the awful affair, and to inflame the public mind so that nothing
+less than immediate and violent death would satisfy the populace. As a
+matter of fact, the child was not brutally assaulted as the world has been
+told in excuse for the awful barbarism of that day. Persons who saw the
+child after its death, have stated, under the most solemn pledge to truth,
+that there was no evidence of such an assault as was published at that
+time, only a slight abrasion and discoloration was noticeable and that
+mostly about the neck. In spite of this fact, so eminent a man as Bishop
+Haygood deliberately and, it must also appear, maliciously falsified the
+fact by stating that the child was torn limb from limb, or to quote his
+own words, "First outraged with demoniacal cruelty and then taken by her
+heels and torn asunder in the mad wantonness of gorilla ferocity."
+
+Nothing is farther from the truth than that statement. It is a
+coldblooded, deliberate, brutal falsehood which this Christian(?) Bishop
+uses to bolster up the infamous plea that the people of Paris were driven
+to insanity by learning that the little child had been viciously
+assaulted, choked to death, and then torn to pieces by a demon in human
+form. It was a brutal murder, but no more brutal than hundreds of murders
+which occur in this country, and which have been equalled every year in
+fiendishness and brutality, and for which the death penalty is prescribed
+by law and inflicted only after the person has been legally adjudged
+guilty of the crime. Those who knew Smith, believe that Vance had at some
+time given him cause to seek revenge and that this fearful crime was the
+outgrowth of his attempt to avenge himself of some real or fancied wrong.
+That the murderer was known as an imbecile, had no effect whatever upon
+the people who thirsted for his blood. They determined to make an example
+of him and proceeded to carry out their purpose with unspeakably greater
+ferocity than that which characterized the half-crazy object of their
+revenge.
+
+For a day or so after the child was found in the woods, Smith remained in
+the vicinity as if nothing had happened, and when finally becoming aware
+that he was suspected, he made an attempt to escape. He was apprehended,
+however, not far from the scene of his crime and the news flashed across
+the country that the white Christian people of Paris, Texas and the
+communities thereabout had deliberately determined to lay aside all forms
+of law and inaugurate an entirely new form of punishment for the murder.
+They absolutely refused to make any inquiry as to the sanity or insanity
+of their prisoner, but set the day and hour when in the presence of
+assembled thousands they put their helpless victim to the stake, tortured
+him, and then burned him to death for the delectation and satisfaction of
+Christian people.
+
+Lest it might be charged that any description of the deeds of that day are
+exaggerated, a white man's description which was published in the white
+journals of this country is used. The _New York Sun_ of February 2, 1893,
+contains an account, from which we make the following excerpt:
+
+  PARIS, Tex., Feb. 1, 1893.--Henry Smith, the negro ravisher of
+  four-year-old Myrtle Vance, has expiated in part his awful crime by
+  death at the stake. Ever since the perpetration of his awful crime this
+  city and the entire surrounding country has been in a wild frenzy of
+  excitement. When the news came last night that he had been captured at
+  Hope, Ark., that he had been identified by B.B. Sturgeon, James T.
+  Hicks, and many other of the Paris searching party, the city was wild
+  with joy over the apprehension of the brute. Hundreds of people poured
+  into the city from the adjoining country and the word passed from lip
+  to lip that the punishment of the fiend should fit the crime that death
+  by fire was the penalty Smith should pay for the most atrocious murder
+  and terrible outrage in Texas history. Curious and sympathizing alike,
+  they came on train and wagons, on horse, and on foot to see if the frail
+  mind of a man could think of a way to sufficiently punish the
+  perpetrator of so terrible a crime. Whisky shops were closed, unruly
+  mobs were dispersed, schools were dismissed by a proclamation from the
+  mayor, and everything was done in a business-like manner.
+
+
+MEETING OF CITIZENS
+
+About 2 o'clock Friday a mass meeting was called at the courthouse and
+captains appointed to search for the child. She was found mangled beyond
+recognition, covered with leaves and brush as above mentioned. As soon as
+it was learned upon the recovery of the body that the crime was so
+atrocious the whole town turned out in the chase. The railroads put up
+bulletins offering free transportation to all who would join in the
+search. Posses went in every direction, and not a stone was left unturned.
+Smith was tracked to Detroit on foot, where he jumped on a freight train
+and left for his old home in Hempstead county, Arkansas. To this county he
+was tracked and yesterday captured at Clow, a flag station on the Arkansas
+& Louisiana railway about twenty miles north of Hope. Upon being
+questioned the fiend denied everything, but upon being stripped for
+examination his undergarments were seen to be spattered with blood and a
+part of his shirt was torn off. He was kept under heavy guard at Hope last
+night, and later on confessed the crime.
+
+This morning he was brought through Texarkana, where 5,000 people awaited
+the train, anxious to see a man who had received the fate of Ed. Coy. At
+that place speeches were made by prominent Paris citizens, who asked that
+the prisoner be not molested by Texarkana people, but that the guard be
+allowed to deliver him up to the outraged and indignant citizens of Paris.
+Along the road the train gathered strength from the various towns, the
+people crowded upon the platforms and tops of coaches anxious to see the
+lynching and the negro who was soon to be delivered to an infuriated mob.
+
+
+BURNED AT THE STAKE
+
+Arriving here at 12 o'clock the train was met by a surging mass of
+humanity 10,000 strong. The negro was placed upon a carnival float in
+mockery of a king upon his throne, and, followed by an immense crowd, was
+escorted through the city so that all might see the most inhuman monster
+known in current history. The line of march was up Main Street to the
+square, around the square down Clarksville street to Church Street, thence
+to the open prairies about 300 yards from the Texas & Pacific depot. Here
+Smith was placed upon a scaffold, six feet square and ten feet high,
+securely bound, within the view of all beholders. Here the victim was
+tortured for fifty minutes by red-hot iron brands thrust against his
+quivering body. Commencing at the feet the brands were placed against him
+inch by inch until they were thrust against the face. Then, being
+apparently dead, kerosene was poured upon him, cottonseed hulls placed
+beneath him and set on fire. In less time than it takes to relate it, the
+tortured man was wafted beyond the grave to another fire, hotter and more
+terrible than the one just experienced.
+
+Curiosity seekers have carried away already all that was left of the
+memorable event, even to pieces of charcoal. The cause of the crime was
+that Henry Vance when a deputy policeman, in the course of his duty was
+called to arrest Henry Smith for being drunk and disorderly. The Negro was
+unruly, and Vance was forced to use his club. The Negro swore vengeance,
+and several times assaulted Vance. In his greed for revenge, last
+Thursday, he grabbed up the little girl and committed the crime. The
+father is prostrated with grief and the mother now lies at death's door,
+but she has lived to see the slayer of her innocent babe suffer the most
+horrible death that could be conceived.
+
+
+TORTURE BEYOND DESCRIPTION
+
+Words to describe the awful torture inflicted upon Smith cannot be found.
+The Negro, for a long time after starting on the journey to Paris, did not
+realize his plight. At last when he was told that he must die by slow
+torture he begged for protection. His agony was awful. He pleaded and
+writhed in bodily and mental pain. Scarcely had the train reached Paris
+than this torture commenced. His clothes were torn off piecemeal and
+scattered in the crowd, people catching the shreds and putting them away
+as mementos. The child's father, her brother, and two uncles then gathered
+about the Negro as he lay fastened to the torture platform and thrust hot
+irons into his quivering flesh. It was horrible--the man dying by slow
+torture in the midst of smoke from his own burning flesh. Every groan from
+the fiend, every contortion of his body was cheered by the thickly packed
+crowd of 10,000 persons. The mass of beings 600 yards in diameter, the
+scaffold being the center. After burning the feet and legs, the hot
+irons--plenty of fresh ones being at hand--were rolled up and down Smith's
+stomach, back, and arms. Then the eyes were burned out and irons were
+thrust down his throat.
+
+The men of the Vance family having wreaked vengeance, the crowd piled all
+kinds of combustible stuff around the scaffold, poured oil on it and set
+it afire. The Negro rolled and tossed out of the mass, only to be pushed
+back by the people nearest him. He tossed out again, and was roped and
+pulled back. Hundreds of people turned away, but the vast crowd still
+looked calmly on. People were here from every part of this section. They
+came from Dallas, Fort Worth, Sherman, Denison, Bonham, Texarkana, Fort
+Smith, Ark., and a party of fifteen came from Hempstead county, Arkansas,
+where he was captured. Every train that came in was loaded to its utmost
+capacity, and there were demands at many points for special trains to
+bring the people here to see the unparalleled punishment for an
+unparalleled crime. When the news of the burning went over the country
+like wildfire, at every country town anvils boomed forth the announcement.
+
+
+SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN AN ASYLUM
+
+It may not be amiss in connection with this awful affair, in proof of our
+assertion that Smith was an imbecile, to give the testimony of a
+well-known colored minister, who lived at Paris, Texas, at the time of the
+lynching. He was a witness of the awful scenes there enacted, and
+attempted, in the name of God and humanity, to interfere in the programme.
+He barely escaped with his life, was driven out of the city and became an
+exile because of his actions. Reverend King was in New York about the
+middle of February, and he was there interviewed for a daily paper for
+that city, and we quote his account as an eye witness of the affair. Said
+he:
+
+  I was ridden out of Paris on a rail because I was the only man in Lamar
+  county to raise my voice against the lynching of Smith. I opposed the
+  illegal measures before the arrival of Henry Smith as a prisoner, and I
+  was warned that I might meet his fate if I was not careful; but the
+  sense of justice made me bold, and when I saw the poor wretch trembling
+  with fear, and got so near him that I could hear his teeth chatter, I
+  determined to stand by him to the last.
+
+  I hated him for his crime, but two crimes do not make a virtue; and in
+  the brief conversation I had with Smith I was more firmly convinced than
+  ever that he was irresponsible.
+
+  I had known Smith for years, and there were times when Smith was out of
+  his head for weeks. Two years ago I made an effort to have him put in an
+  asylum, but the white people were trying to fasten the murder of a young
+  colored girl upon him, and would not listen. For days before the murder
+  of the little Vance girl, Smith was out of his head and dangerous. He
+  had just undergone an attack of delirium tremens and was in no condition
+  to be allowed at large. He realized his condition, for I spoke with him
+  not three weeks ago, and in answer to my exhortations, he promised to
+  reform. The next time I saw him was on the day of his execution.
+
+  "Drink did it! drink did it," he sobbed. Then bowing his face in his
+  hands, he asked: "Is it true, did I kill her? Oh, my God, my God!" For a
+  moment he seemed to forget the awful fate that awaited him, and his body
+  swayed to and fro with grief. Some one seized me by the shoulder and
+  hurled me back, and Smith fell writhing to the ground in terror as four
+  men seized his arms to drag him to the float on which he was to be
+  exhibited before he was finally burned at the stake.
+
+  I followed the procession and wept aloud as I saw little children of my
+  own race follow the unfortunate man and taunt him with jeers. Even at
+  the stake, children of both sexes and colors gathered in groups, and
+  when the father of the murdered child raised the hissing iron with which
+  he was about to torture the helpless victim, the children became as
+  frantic as the grown people and struggled forward to obtain places of
+  advantage.
+
+  It was terrible. One little tot scarcely older than little Myrtle Vance
+  clapped her baby hands as her father held her on his shoulders above the
+  heads of the people.
+
+  "For God's sake," I shouted, "send the children home."
+
+  "No, no," shouted a hundred maddened voices; "let them learn a lesson."
+
+  I love children, but as I looked about the little faces distorted with
+  passion and the bloodshot eyes of the cruel parents who held them high
+  in their arms, I thanked God that I have none of my own.
+
+  As the hot iron sank deep into poor Henry's flesh a hideous yell rent
+  the air, and, with a sound as terrible as the cry, of lost souls on
+  judgment day, 20,000 maddened people took up the victim's cry of agony
+  and a prolonged howl of maddened glee rent the air.
+
+  No one was himself now. Every man, woman and child in that awful crowd
+  was worked up to a greater frenzy than that which actuated Smith's
+  horrible crime. The people were capable of any new atrocity now, and as
+  Smith's yells became more and more frequent, it was difficult to hold
+  the crowd back, so anxious were the savages to participate in the
+  sickening tortures.
+
+  For half an hour I tried to pray as the beads of agony rolled down my
+  forehead and bathed my face.
+
+  For an instant a hush spread over the people. I could stand no more, and
+  with a superhuman effort dashed through the compact mass of humanity and
+  stood at the foot of the burning scaffold.
+
+  "In the name of God," I cried, "I command you to cease this torture."
+
+  The heavy butt of a Winchester rifle descended on my head and I fell to
+  the ground. Rough hands seized me and angry men bore me away, and I was
+  thankful.
+
+  At the outskirts of the crowd I was attacked again, and then several
+  men, no doubt glad to get away from the fearful place, escorted me to my
+  home, where I was allowed to take a small amount of clothing. A jeering
+  crowd gathered without, and when I appeared at the door ready hands
+  seized me and I was placed upon a rail, and, with curses and oaths,
+  taken to the railway station and placed upon a train. As the train moved
+  out some one thrust a roll of bills into my hand and said, "God bless
+  you, but it was no use."
+
+When asked if he should ever return to Paris, Mr. King said: "I shall
+never go south again. The impressions of that awful day will stay with me
+forever."
+
+
+LYNCHING OF INNOCENT MEN
+
+(Lynched on Account of Relationship)
+
+If no other reason appealed to the sober sense of the American people to
+check the growth of Lynch Law, the absolute unreliability and recklessness
+of the mob in inflicting punishment for crimes done, should do so. Several
+instances of this spirit have occurred in the year past. In Louisiana,
+near New Orleans, in July, 1893, Roselius Julian, a colored man, shot and
+killed a white judge, named Victor Estopinal. The cause of the shooting
+has never been definitely ascertained. It is claimed that the Negro
+resented an insult to his wife, and the killing of the white man was an
+act of a Negro (who dared) to defend his home. The judge was killed in the
+court house, and Julian, heavily armed, made his escape to the swamps near
+the city. He has never been apprehended, nor has any information ever been
+gleaned as to his whereabouts. A mob determined to secure the fugitive
+murderer and burn him alive. The swamps were hunted through and through in
+vain, when, being unable to wreak their revenge upon the murderer, the mob
+turned its attention to his unfortunate relatives. Dispatches from New
+Orleans, dated September 19, 1893, described the affair as follows:
+
+  Posses were immediately organized and the surrounding country was
+  scoured, but the search was fruitless so far as the real criminal was
+  concerned. The mother, three brothers and two sisters of the Negro were
+  arrested yesterday at the Black Ridge in the rear of the city by the
+  police and taken to the little jail on Judge Estopinal's place about
+  Southport, because of the belief that they were succoring the fugitive.
+
+  About 11 o'clock twenty-five men, some armed with rifles and shotguns,
+  came up to the jail. They unlocked the door and held a conference among
+  themselves as to what they should do. Some were in favor of hanging the
+  five, while others insisted that only two of the brothers should be
+  strung up. This was finally agreed to, and the two doomed negroes were
+  hurried to a pasture one hundred yards distant, and there asked to take
+  their last chance of saving their lives by making a confession, but the
+  Negroes made no reply. They were then told to kneel down and pray. One
+  did so, the other remained standing, but both prayed fervently. The
+  taller Negro was then hoisted up. The shorter Negro stood gazing at the
+  horrible death of his brother without flinching. Five minutes later he
+  was also hanged. The mob decided to take the remaining brother out to
+  Camp Parapet and hang him there. The other two were to be taken out and
+  flogged, with an order to get out of the parish in less than half an
+  hour. The third brother, Paul, was taken out to the camp, which is about
+  a mile distant in the interior, and there he was hanged to a tree.
+
+Another young man, who was in no way related to Julian, who perhaps did
+not even know the man and who was entirely innocent of any offense in
+connection therewith, was murdered by the same mob. The same paper says:
+
+  During the search for Julian on Saturday one branch of the posse visited
+  the house of a Negro family in the neighborhood of Camp Parapet, and
+  failing to find the object of their search, tried to induce John Willis,
+  a young Negro, to disclose the whereabouts of Julian. He refused to do
+  so, or could not do so, and was kicked to death by the gang.
+
+
+AN INDIANA CASE
+
+Almost equal to the ferocity of the mob which killed the three brothers,
+Julian and the unoffending, John Willis, because of the murder of Judge
+Estopinal, was the action of a mob near Vincennes, Ind. In this case a
+wealthy colored man, named Allen Butler, who was well known in the
+community, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of the entire country,
+was made the victim of a mob and hung because his son had become unduly
+intimate with a white girl who was a servant around his house. There was
+no pretense that the facts were otherwise than as here stated. The woman
+lived at Butler's house as a servant, and she and Butler's son fell in
+love with each other, and later it was found that the girl was in a
+delicate condition. It was claimed, but with how much truth no one has
+ever been able to tell, that the father had procured an abortion, or
+himself had operated on the girl, and that she had left the house to go
+back to her home. It was never claimed that the father was in any way
+responsible for the action of his son, but the authorities procured the
+arrest of both father and son, and at the preliminary examination the
+father gave bail to appear before the Grand Jury when it should convene.
+On the same night, however, the mob took the matter in hand and with the
+intention of hanging the son. It assembled near Sumner, while the boy, who
+had been unable to give bail, was lodged in jail at Lawrenceville. As it
+was impossible to reach Lawrenceville and hang the son, the leaders of the
+mob concluded they would go to Butler's house and hang him. Butler was
+found at his home, taken out by the mob and hung to a tree. This was in
+the lawabiding state of Indiana, which furnished the United States its
+last president and which claims all the honor, pride and glory of northern
+civilization. None of the leaders of the mob were apprehended, and no
+steps whatever were taken to bring the murderers to justice.
+
+
+KILLED FOR HIS STEPFATHER'S CRIME
+
+An account has been given of the cremation of Henry Smith, at Paris,
+Texas, for the murder of the infant child of a man named Vance. It would
+appear that human ferocity was not sated when it vented itself upon a
+human being by burning his eyes out, by thrusting a red-hot iron down his
+throat, and then by burning his body to ashes. Henry Smith, the victim of
+these savage orgies, was beyond all the power of torture, but a few miles
+outside of Paris, some members of the community concluded that it would be
+proper to kill a stepson named William Butler as a partial penalty for the
+original crime. This young man, against whom no word has ever been said,
+and who was in fact an orderly, peaceable boy, had been watched with the
+severest scrutiny by members of the mob who believed he knew something of
+the whereabouts of Smith. He declared from the very first that he did not
+know where his stepfather was, which statement was well proven to be a
+fact after the discovery of Smith in Arkansas, whence he had fled through
+swamps and woods and unfrequented places. Yet Butler was apprehended,
+placed under arrest, and on the night of February 6, taken out on Hickory
+Creek, five miles southeast of Paris, and hung for his stepfather's crime.
+After his body was suspended in the air, the mob filled it with bullets.
+
+
+LYNCHED BECAUSE THE JURY ACQUITTED HIM
+
+The entire system of the judiciary of this country is in the hands of
+white people. To this add the fact of the inherent prejudice against
+colored people, and it will be clearly seen that a white jury is certain
+to find a Negro prisoner guilty if there is the least evidence to warrant
+such a finding.
+
+Meredith Lewis was arrested in Roseland, La., in July of last year. A
+white jury found him not guilty of the crime of murder wherewith he stood
+charged. This did not suit the mob. A few nights after the verdict was
+rendered, and he declared to be innocent, a mob gathered in his vicinity
+and went to his house. He was called, and suspecting nothing, went
+outside. He was seized and hurried off to a convenient spot and hanged by
+the neck until he was dead for the murder of a woman of which the jury had
+said he was innocent.
+
+
+LYNCHED AS A SCAPEGOAT
+
+Wednesday, July 5, about 10 o'clock in the morning, a terrible crime was
+committed within four miles of Wickliffe, Ky. Two girls, Mary and Ruby
+Ray, were found murdered a short distance from their home. The news of
+this terrible cowardly murder of two helpless young girls spread like wild
+fire, and searching parties scoured the territory surrounding Wickliffe
+and Bardwell. Two of the searching party, the Clark brothers, saw a man
+enter the Dupoyster cornfield; they got their guns and fired at the
+fleeing figure, but without effect; he got away, but they said he was a
+white man or nearly so. The search continued all day without effect, save
+the arrest of two or three strange Negroes. A bloodhound was brought from
+the penitentiary and put on the trail which he followed from the scene of
+the murder to the river and into the boat of a fisherman named Gordon.
+Gordon stated that he had ferried one man and only one across the river
+about about half past six the evening of July 5; that his passenger sat in
+front of him, and he was a white man or a very bright mulatto, who could
+not be told from a white man. The bloodhound was put across the river in
+the boat, and he struck a trail again at Bird's Point on the Missouri
+side, ran about three hundred yards to the cottage of a white farmer named
+Grant and there lay down refusing to go further.
+
+Thursday morning a brakesman on a freight train going out of Sikeston,
+Mo., discovered a Negro stealing a ride; he ordered him off and had hot
+words which terminated in a fight. The brakesman had the Negro arrested.
+When arrested, between 11 and 12 o'clock, he had on a dark woolen shirt,
+light pants and coat, and no vest. He had twelve dollars in paper, two
+silver dollars and ninety-five cents in change; he had also four rings in
+his pockets, a knife and a razor which were rusted and stained. The
+Sikeston authorities immediately jumped to the conclusion that this man
+was the murderer for whom the Kentuckians across the river were searching.
+They telegraphed to Bardwell that their prisoner had on no coat, but wore
+a blue vest and pants which would perhaps correspond with the coat found
+at the scene of the murder, and that the names of the murdered girls were
+in the rings found in his possession.
+
+As soon as this news was received, the sheriffs of Ballard and Carlisle
+counties and a posse(?) of thirty well-armed and determined Kentuckians,
+who had pledged their word the prisoner should be taken back to the scene
+of the supposed crime, to be executed there if proved to be the guilty
+man, chartered a train and at nine o'clock Thursday night started for
+Sikeston. Arriving there two hours later, the sheriff at Sikeston, who had
+no warrant for the prisoner's arrest and detention, delivered him into the
+hands of the mob without authority for so doing, and accompanied them to
+Bird's Point. The prisoner gave his name as Miller, his home at
+Springfield, and said he had never been in Kentucky in his life, but the
+sheriff turned him over to the mob to be taken to Wickliffe, that Frank
+Gordon, the fisherman, who had put a man across the river might identify
+him.
+
+In other words, the protection of the law was withdrawn from C.J. Miller,
+and he was given to a mob by this sheriff at Sikeston, who knew that the
+prisoner's life depended on one man's word. After an altercation with the
+train men, who wanted another $50 for taking the train back to Bird's
+Point, the crowd arrived there at three o'clock, Friday morning. Here was
+anchored _The Three States_, a ferryboat plying between Wickliffe, Ky,
+Cairo, Ill., and Bird's Point, Mo. This boat left Cairo at twelve o'clock,
+Thursday, with nearly three hundred of Cairo's best(?) citizens and thirty
+kegs of beer on board. This was consumed while the crowd and the
+bloodhound waited for the prisoner.
+
+When the prisoner was on board _The Three States_ the dog was turned
+loose, and after moving aimlessly around, followed the crowd to where
+Miller sat handcuffed and there stopped. The crowd closed in on the pair
+and insisted that the brute had identified him because of that action.
+When the boat reached Wickliffe, Gordon, the fisherman, was called on to
+say whether the prisoner was the man he ferried over the river the day of
+the murder.
+
+[Illustration: Lynching of C.J. Miller, at Bardwell, Kentucky, July 7,
+1893.]
+
+The sheriff of Ballard County informed him, sternly that if the prisoner
+was not the man, he (the fisherman) would be held responsible as knowing
+who the guilty man was. Gordon stated before, that the man he ferried
+across was a white man or a bright colored man; Miller was a dark brown
+skinned man, with kinky hair, "neither yellow nor black," says the _Cairo
+Evening Telegram_ of Friday, July 7. The fisherman went up to Miller from
+behind, looked at him without speaking for fully five minutes, then slowly
+said, "Yes, that's the man I crossed over." This was about six o'clock,
+Friday morning, and the crowd wished to hang Miller then and there. But
+Mr. Ray, the father of the girls, insisted that he be taken to Bardwell,
+the county seat of Ballard, and twelve miles inland. He said he thought a
+white man committed the crime, and that he was not satisfied that was the
+man. They took him to Bardwell and at ten o'clock, this same excited,
+unauthorized mob undertook to determine Miller's guilt. One of the Clark
+brothers who shot at a fleeing man in the Dupoyster cornfield, said the
+prisoner was the same man; the other said he was not, but the testimony of
+the first was accepted. A colored woman who had said she gave breakfast to
+a colored man clad in a blue flannel suit the morning of the murder, said
+positively that she had never seen Miller before. The gold rings found in
+his possession had no names in them, as had been asserted, and Mr. Ray
+said they did not belong to his daughters. Meantime a funeral pyre for the
+purpose of burning Miller to death had been erected in the center of the
+village. While the crowd swayed by passion was clamoring that he be burnt,
+Miller stepped forward and made the following statement: "My name is
+C.J. Miller. I am from Springfield, Ill.; my wife lives at 716 N. 2d
+Street. I am here among you today, looked upon as one of the most brutal
+men before the people. I stand here surrounded by men who are excited, men
+who are not willing to let the law take its course, and as far as the
+crime is concerned, I have committed no crime, and certainly no crime
+gross enough to deprive me of my life and liberty to walk upon the green
+earth."
+
+A telegram was sent to the chief of the police at Springfield, Ill.,
+asking if one C.J. Miller lived there. An answer in the negative was
+returned. A few hours after, it was ascertained that a man named Miller,
+and his wife, did live at the number the prisoner gave in his speech, but
+the information came to Bardwell too late to do the prisoner any good.
+Miller was taken to jail, every stitch of clothing literally torn from his
+body and examined again. On the lower left side of the bosom of his shirt
+was found a dark reddish spot about the size of a dime. Miller said it was
+paint which he had gotten on him at Jefferson Barracks. This spot was only
+on the right side, and could not be seen from the under side at all, thus
+showing it had not gone through the cloth as blood or any liquid substance
+would do.
+
+Chief-of-Police Mahaney, of Cairo, Ill., was with the prisoner, and he
+took his knife and scraped at the spot, particles of which came off in his
+hand. Miller told them to take his clothes to any expert, and if the spot
+was shown to be blood, they might do anything they wished with him. They
+took his clothes away and were gone some time. After a while they were
+brought back and thrown into the cell without a word. It is needless to
+say that if the spot had been found to be blood, that fact would have been
+announced, and the shirt retained as evidence. Meanwhile numbers of rough,
+drunken men crowded into the cell and tried to force a confession of the
+deed from the prisoner's lips. He refused to talk save to reiterate his
+innocence. To Mr. Mahaney, who talked seriously and kindly to him, telling
+him the mob meant to burn and torture him at three o'clock, Miller said:
+"Burning and torture here lasts but a little while, but if I die with a
+lie on my soul, I shall be tortured forever. I am innocent." For more than
+three hours, all sorts of pressure in the way of threats, abuse and
+urging, was brought to bear to force him to confess to the murder and thus
+justify the mob in its deed of murder. Miller remained firm; but as the
+hour drew near, and the crowd became more impatient, he asked for a
+priest. As none could be procured, he then asked for a Methodist minister,
+who came, prayed with the doomed man, baptized him and exhorted Miller to
+confess. To keep up the flagging spirits of the dense crowd around the
+jail, the rumor went out more than once, that Miller had confessed. But
+the solemn assurance of the minister, chief-of-police, and leading
+editor--who were with Miller all along--is that this rumor is absolutely
+false.
+
+At three o'clock the mob rushed to the jail to secure the prisoner. Mr.
+Ray had changed his mind about the promised burning; he was still in doubt
+as to the prisoner's guilt. He again addressed the crowd to that effect,
+urging them not to burn Miller, and the mob heeded him so far, that they
+compromised on hanging instead of burning, which was agreed to by Mr. Ray.
+There was a loud yell, and a rush was made for the prisoner. He was
+stripped naked, his clothing literally torn from his body, and his shirt
+was tied around his loins. Some one declared the rope was a "white man's
+death," and a log-chain, nearly a hundred feet in length, weighing over
+one hundred pounds, was placed round Miller's neck and body, and he was
+led and dragged through the streets of the village in that condition
+followed by thousands of people. He fainted from exhaustion several times,
+but was supported to the platform where they first intended burning him.
+
+The chain was hooked around his neck, a man climbed the telegraph pole and
+the other end of the chain was passed up to him and made fast to the
+cross-arm. Others brought a long forked stick which Miller was made to
+straddle. By this means he was raised several feet from the ground and
+then let fall. The first fall broke his neck, but he was raised in this
+way and let fall a second time. Numberless shots were fired into the
+dangling body, for most of that crowd were heavily armed, and had been
+drinking all day.
+
+Miller's body hung thus exposed from three to five o'clock, during which
+time, several photographs of him as he hung dangling at the end of the
+chain were taken, and his toes and fingers were cut off. His body was
+taken down, placed on the platform, the torch applied, and in a few
+moments there was nothing left of C.J. Miller save a few bones and ashes.
+Thus perished another of the many victims of Lynch Law, but it is the
+honest and sober belief of many who witnessed the scene that an innocent
+man has been barbarously and shockingly put to death in the glare of the
+nineteenth-century civilization, by those who profess to believe in
+Christianity, law and order.
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+LYNCHED FOR ANYTHING OR NOTHING
+
+(_Lynched for Wife Beating_)
+
+
+In nearly all communities wife beating is punishable with a fine, and in
+no community is it made a felony. Dave Jackson, of Abita, La., was a
+colored man who had beaten his wife. He had not killed her, nor seriously
+wounded her, but as Louisiana lynchers had not filled out their quota of
+crimes, his case was deemed of sufficient importance to apply the method
+of that barbarous people. He was in the custody of the officials, but the
+mob went to the jail and took him out in front of the prison and hanged
+him by the neck until he was dead. This was in Nov. 1893.
+
+
+HANGED FOR STEALING HOGS
+
+Details are very meagre of a lynching which occurred near Knox Point, La.,
+on the twenty-fourth of October, 1893. Upon one point, however, there was
+no uncertainty, and that is, that the persons lynched were Negroes. It was
+claimed that they had been stealing hogs, but even this claim had not been
+subjected to the investigation of a court. That matter was not considered
+necessary. A few of the neighbors who had lost hogs suspected these men
+were responsible for their loss, and made up their minds to furnish an
+example for others to be warned by. The two men were secured by a mob and
+hanged.
+
+
+LYNCHED FOR NO OFFENSE
+
+Perhaps the most characteristic feature of this record of lynch law for
+the year 1893, is the remarkable fact that five human beings were lynched
+and that the matter was considered of so little importance that the
+powerful press bureaus of the country did not consider the matter of
+enough importance to ascertain the causes for which they were hanged. It
+tells the world, with perhaps greater emphasis than any other feature of
+the record, that Lynch Law has become so common in the United States that
+the finding of the dead body of a Negro, suspended between heaven and
+earth to the limb of a tree, is of so slight importance that neither the
+civil authorities nor press agencies consider the matter worth
+investigating. July 21, in Shelby County, Tenn., a colored man by the name
+of Charles Martin was lynched. July 30, at Paris, Mo., a colored man named
+William Steen shared the same fate. December 28, Mack Segars was announced
+to have been lynched at Brantley, Alabama. August 31, at Yarborough,
+Texas, and on September 19, at Houston, a colored man was found lynched,
+but so little attention was paid to the matter that not only was no record
+made as to why these last two men were lynched, but even their names were
+not given. The dispatches simply stated that an unknown Negro was found
+lynched in each case.
+
+There are friends of humanity who feel their souls shrink from any
+compromise with murder, but whose deep and abiding reverence for womanhood
+causes them to hesitate in giving their support to this crusade against
+Lynch Law, out of fear that they may encourage the miscreants whose deeds
+are worse than murder. But to these friends it must appear certain that
+these five men could not have been guilty of any terrible crime. They were
+simply lynched by parties of men who had it in their power to kill them,
+and who chose to avenge some fancied wrong by murder, rather than submit
+their grievances to court.
+
+
+LYNCHED BECAUSE THEY WERE SAUCY
+
+At Moberly, Mo., February 18 and at Fort Madison, S.C., June 2, both in
+1892, a record was made in the line of lynching which should certainly
+appeal to every humanitarian who has any regard for the sacredness of
+human life. John Hughes, of Moberly, and Isaac Lincoln, of Fort Madison,
+and Will Lewis in Tullahoma, Tenn., suffered death for no more serious
+charge than that they "were saucy to white people." In the days of slavery
+it was held to be a very serious matter for a colored person to fail to
+yield the sidewalk at the demand of a white person, and it will not be
+surprising to find some evidence of this intolerance existing in the days
+of freedom. But the most that could be expected as a penalty for acting or
+speaking saucily to a white person would be a slight physical chastisement
+to make the Negro "know his place" or an arrest and fine. But Missouri,
+Tennessee and South Carolina chose to make precedents in their cases and
+as a result both men, after being charged with their offense and
+apprehended, were taken by a mob and lynched. The civil authorities, who
+in either case would have been very quick to satisfy the aggrieved white
+people had they complained and brought the prisoners to court, by imposing
+proper penalty upon them, did not feel it their duty to make any
+investigation after the Negroes were killed. They were dead and out of the
+way and as no one would be called upon to render an account for their
+taking off, the matter was dismissed from the public mind.
+
+
+LYNCHED FOR A QUARREL
+
+One of the most notable instances of lynching for the year 1893, occurred
+about the twentieth of September. It was notable for the fact that the
+mayor of the city exerted every available power to protect the victim of
+the lynching from the mob. In his splendid endeavor to uphold the law, the
+mayor called out the troops, and the result was a deadly fight between the
+militia and mob, nine of the mob being killed. The trouble occurred at
+Roanoke, Va. It is frequently claimed that lynchings occur only in
+sparsely settled districts, and, in fact, it is a favorite plea of
+governors and reverend apologists to couple two arrant falsehoods, stating
+that lynchings occur only because of assaults upon white women, and that
+these assaults occur and the lynchings follow in thinly inhabited
+districts where the power of the law is entirely inadequate to meet the
+emergency. This Roanoke case is a double refutation, for it not only
+disproves the alleged charge that the Negro assaulted a white woman, as
+was telegraphed all over the country at the time, but it also shows
+conclusively that even in one of the largest cities of the old state of
+Virginia, one of the original thirteen colonies, which prides itself of
+being the mother of presidents, it was possible for a lynching to occur in
+broad daylight under circumstances of revolting savagery.
+
+When the news first came from Roanoke of the contemplated lynching, it was
+stated that a big burly Negro had assaulted a white woman, that he had
+been apprehended and that the citizens were determined to summarily
+dispose of his case. Mayor Trout was a man who believed in maintaining the
+majesty of the law, and who at once gave notice that no lynching would be
+permitted in Roanoke, and that the Negro, whose name was Smith, being in
+the custody of the law, should be dealt with according to law; but the mob
+did not pay any attention to the brave words of the mayor. It evidently
+thought that it was only another case of swagger, such as frequently
+characterizes lynching episodes. Mayor Trout, finding immense crowds
+gathering about the city, and fearing an attempt to lynch Smith, called
+out the militia and stationed them at the jail.
+
+It was known that the woman refused to accuse Smith of assaulting her, and
+that his offense consisted in quarreling with her about the change of
+money in a transaction in which he bought something from her market booth.
+Both parties lost their temper, and the result was a row from which Smith
+had to make his escape. At once the old cry was sounded that the woman had
+been assaulted, and in a few hours all the town was wild with people
+thirsting for the assailant's blood. The further incidents of that day may
+well be told by a dispatch from Roanoke under date of the twenty-first of
+September and published in the _Chicago Record_. It says:
+
+  It is claimed by members of the military company that they frequently
+  warned the mob to keep away from the jail, under penalty of being shot.
+  Capt. Bird told them he was under orders to protect the prisoner whose
+  life the mob so eagerly sought, and come what may he would not allow him
+  to be taken by the mob. To this the crowd replied with hoots and
+  derisive jeers. The rioters appeared to become frenzied at the
+  determined stand taken by the men and Captain Bird, and finally a crowd
+  of excited men made a rush for the side door of the jail. The captain
+  directed his men to drive the would-be lynchers back.
+
+  At this moment the mob opened fire on the soldiers. This appeared for a
+  moment to startle the captain and his men. But it was only for a moment.
+  Then he coolly gave the command: "Ready! aim! fire!" The company obeyed
+  to the instant, and poured a volley of bullets into that part of the
+  mob which was trying to batter down the side door of the jail.
+
+  The rioters fell back before the fire of the militia, leaving one man
+  writhing in the agonies of death at the doorstep. There was a lull for a
+  moment. Then the word was quickly passed through the throng in front of
+  the jail and down the street that a man was killed. Then there was an
+  awful rush toward the little band of soldiers. Excited men were yelling
+  like demons.
+
+  The fight became general, and ere it was ended nine men were dead and
+  more than forty wounded.
+
+This stubborn stand on behalf of law and order disconcerted the crowd and
+it fell back in disorder. It did not long remain inactive but assembled
+again for a second assault. Having only a small band of militia, and
+knowing they would be absolutely at the mercy of the thousands who were
+gathering to wreak vengeance upon them, the mayor ordered them to disperse
+and go to their homes, and he himself, having been wounded, was quietly
+conveyed out of the city.
+
+The next day the mob grew in numbers and its rage increased in its
+intensity. There was no longer any doubt that Smith, innocent as he was of
+any crime, would be killed, for with the mayor out of the city and the
+governor of the state using no effort to control the mob, it was only a
+question of a few hours when the assault would be repeated and its victim
+put to death. All this happened as per programme. The description of that
+morning's carnival appeared in the paper above quoted and reads as
+follows:
+
+  A squad of twenty men took the negro Smith from three policemen just
+  before five o'clock this morning and hanged him to a hickory limb on
+  Ninth Avenue, in the residence section of the city. They riddled his
+  body with bullets and put a placard on it saying: "This is Mayor Trout's
+  friend." A coroner's jury of Bismel was summoned and viewed the body and
+  rendered a verdict of death at the hands of unknown men. Thousands of
+  persons visited the scene of the lynching between daylight and eight
+  o'clock when the body was cut down. After the jury had completed its
+  work the body was placed in the hands of officers, who were unable to
+  keep back the mob. Three hundred men tried to drag the body through the
+  streets of the town, but the Rev. Dr. Campbell of the First Presbyterian
+  church and Capt. R.B. Moorman, with pleas and by force prevented them.
+
+  Capt. Moorman hired a wagon and the body was put in it. It was then
+  conveyed to the bank of the Roanoke, about two miles from the scene of
+  the lynching. Here the body was dragged from the wagon by ropes for
+  about 200 yards and burned. Piles of dry brushwood were brought, and the
+  body was placed upon it, and more brushwood piled on the body, leaving
+  only the head bare. The whole pile was then saturated with coal oil and
+  a match was applied. The body was consumed within an hour. The cremation
+  was witnessed by several thousand people. At one time the mob threatened
+  to burn the Negro in Mayor Trout's yard.
+
+Thus did the people of Roanoke, Va., add this measure of proof to maintain
+our contention that it is only necessary to charge a Negro with a crime in
+order to secure his certain death. It was well known in the city before he
+was killed that he had not assaulted the woman with whom he had had the
+trouble, but he dared to have an altercation with a white woman, and he
+must pay the penalty. For an offense which would not in any civilized
+community have brought upon him a punishment greater than a fine of a few
+dollars, this unfortunate Negro was hung, shot and burned.
+
+
+SUSPECTED, INNOCENT AND LYNCHED
+
+Five persons, Benjamin Jackson, his wife, Mahala Jackson, his
+mother-in-law, Lou Carter, Rufus Bigley, were lynched near Quincy, Miss.,
+the charge against them being suspicion of well poisoning. It appears from
+the newspaper dispatches at that time that a family by the name of
+Woodruff was taken ill in September of 1892. As a result of their illness
+one or more of the family are said to have died, though that matter is not
+stated definitely. It was suspected that the cause of their illness was
+the existence of poison in the water, some miscreant having placed poison
+in the well. Suspicion pointed to a colored man named Benjamin Jackson who
+was at once arrested. With him also were arrested his wife and
+mother-in-law and all were held on the same charge.
+
+The matter came up for judicial investigation, but as might have been
+expected, the white people concluded it was unnecessary to wait the result
+of the investigation--that it was preferable to hang the accused first and
+try him afterward. By this method of procedure, the desired result was
+always obtained--the accused was hanged. Accordingly Benjamin Jackson was
+taken from the officers by a crowd of about two hundred people, while the
+inquest was being held, and hanged. After the killing of Jackson, the
+inquest was continued to ascertain the possible connection of the other
+persons charged with the crime. Against the wife and mother-in-law of the
+unfortunate man there was not the slightest evidence and the coroner's
+jury was fair enough to give them their liberty. They were declared
+innocent and returned to their homes. But this did not protect the women
+from the demands of the Christian white people of that section of the
+country. In any other land and with any other people, the fact that these
+two accused persons were women would have pleaded in their favor for
+protection and fair play, but that had no weight with the Mississippi
+Christians nor the further fact that a jury of white men had declared them
+innocent. The hanging of one victim on an unproven charge did not begin to
+satisfy the mob in its bloodthirsty demands and the result was that even
+after the women had been discharged, they were at once taken in charge by
+a mob, which hung them by the neck until they were dead.
+
+Still the mob was not satisfied. During the coroner's investigation the
+name of a fourth person, Rufus Bigley, was mentioned. He was acquainted
+with the Jacksons and that fact, together with some testimony adduced at
+the inquest, prompted the mob to decide that he should die also. Search
+was at once made for him and the next day he was apprehended. He was not
+given over into the hands of the civil authorities for trial nor did the
+coroner's inquest find that he was guilty, but the mob was quite
+sufficient in itself. After finding Bigley, he was strung up to a tree and
+his body left hanging, where it was found next day. It may be remarked
+here in passing that this instance of the moral degradation of the people
+of Mississippi did not excite any interest in the public at large.
+American Christianity heard of this awful affair and read of its details
+and neither press nor pulpit gave the matter more than a passing comment.
+Had it occurred in the wilds of interior Africa, there would have been an
+outcry from the humane people of this country against the savagery which
+would so mercilessly put men and women to death. But it was an evidence of
+American civilization to be passed by unnoticed, to be denied or condoned
+as the requirements of any future emergency might determine.
+
+
+LYNCHED FOR AN ATTEMPTED ASSAULT
+
+With only a little more aggravation than that of Smith who quarreled at
+Roanoke with the market woman, was the assault which operated as the
+incentive to a most brutal lynching in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis is one of
+the queen cities of the south, with a population of about seventy thousand
+souls--easily one of the twenty largest, most progressive and wealthiest
+cities of the United States. And yet in its streets there occurred a scene
+of shocking savagery which would have disgraced the Congo. No woman was
+harmed, no serious indignity suffered. Two women driving to town in a
+wagon, were suddenly accosted by Lee Walker. He claimed that he demanded
+something to eat. The women claimed that he attempted to assault them.
+They gave such an alarm that he ran away. At once the dispatches spread
+over the entire country that a big, burly Negro had brutally assaulted two
+women. Crowds began to search for the alleged fiend. While hunting him
+they shot another Negro dead in his tracks for refusing to stop when
+ordered to do so. After a few days Lee Walker was found, and put in jail
+in Memphis until the mob there was ready for him.
+
+The _Memphis Commercial_ of Sunday, July 23, contains a full account of
+the tragedy from which the following extracts are made:
+
+  At 12 o'clock last night, Lee Walker, who attempted to outrage Miss
+  Mollie McCadden, last Tuesday morning, was taken from the county jail
+  and hanged to a telegraph pole just north of the prison. All day rumors
+  were afloat that with nightfall an attack would be made upon the jail,
+  and as everyone anticipated that a vigorous resistance would be made, a
+  conflict between the mob and the authorities was feared.
+
+  At 10 o'clock Capt. O'Haver, Sergt. Horan and several patrolmen were on
+  hand, but they could do nothing with the crowd. An attack by the mob was
+  made on the door in the south wall, and it yielded. Sheriff McLendon and
+  several of his men threw themselves into the breach, but two or three of
+  the storming party shoved by. They were seized by the police, but were
+  not subdued, the officers refraining from using their clubs. The entire
+  mob might at first have been dispersed by ten policemen who would use
+  their clubs, but the sheriff insisted that no violence be done.
+
+  The mob got an iron rail and used it as a battering ram against the
+  lobby doors. Sheriff McLendon tried to stop them, and some one of the
+  mob knocked him down with a chair. Still he counseled moderation and
+  would not order his deputies and the police to disperse the crowd by
+  force. The pacific policy of the sheriff impressed the mob with the idea
+  that the officers were afraid, or at least would do them no harm, and
+  they redoubled their efforts, urged on by a big switchman. At 12 o'clock
+  the door of the prison was broken in with a rail.
+
+  As soon as the rapist was brought out of the door calls were heard for a
+  rope; then someone shouted, "Burn him!" But there was no time to make a
+  fire. When Walker got into the lobby a dozen of the men began beating
+  and stabbing him. He was half dragged, half carried to the corner of
+  Front Street and the alley between Sycamore and Mill, and hung to a
+  telegraph pole.
+
+  Walker made a desperate resistance. Two men entered his cell first and
+  ordered him to come forth. He refused, and they failing to drag him out,
+  others entered. He scratched and bit his assailants, wounding several of
+  them severely with his teeth. The mob retaliated by striking and cutting
+  him with fists and knives. When he reached the steps leading down to the
+  door he made another stand and was stabbed again and again. By the time
+  he reached the lobby his power to resist was gone, and he was shoved
+  along through the mob of yelling, cursing men and boys, who beat, spat
+  upon and slashed the wretch-like demon. One of the leaders of the mob
+  fell, and the crowd walked ruthlessly over him. He was badly hurt--a
+  jawbone fractured and internal injuries inflicted. After the lynching
+  friends took charge of him.
+
+  The mob proceeded north on Front Street with the victim, stopping at
+  Sycamore Street to get a rope from a grocery. "Take him to the iron
+  bridge on Main Street," yelled several men. The men who had hold of the
+  Negro were in a hurry to finish the job, however, and when they reached
+  the telephone pole at the corner of Front Street and the first alley
+  north of Sycamore they stopped. A hastily improvised noose was slipped
+  over the Negro's head, and several young men mounted a pile of lumber
+  near the pole and threw the rope over one of the iron stepping pins. The
+  Negro was lifted up until his feet were three feet above the ground, the
+  rope was made taut, and a corpse dangled in midair. A big fellow who
+  helped lead the mob pulled the Negro's legs until his neck cracked. The
+  wretch's clothes had been torn off, and, as he swung, the man who pulled
+  his legs mutilated the corpse.
+
+  One or two knife cuts, more or less, made little difference in the
+  appearance of the dead rapist, however, for before the rope was around
+  his neck his skin was cut almost to ribbons. One pistol shot was fired
+  while the corpse was hanging. A dozen voices protested against the use
+  of firearms, and there was no more shooting. The body was permitted to
+  hang for half an hour, then it was cut down and the rope divided among
+  those who lingered around the scene of the tragedy. Then it was
+  suggested that the corpse be burned, and it was done. The entire
+  performance, from the assault on the jail to the burning of the dead
+  Negro was witnessed by a score or so of policemen and as many deputy
+  sheriffs, but not a hand was lifted to stop the proceedings after the
+  jail door yielded.
+
+  As the body hung to the telegraph pole, blood streaming down from the
+  knife wounds in his neck, his hips and lower part of his legs also
+  slashed with knives, the crowd hurled expletives at him, swung the body
+  so that it was dashed against the pole, and, so far from the ghastly
+  sight proving trying to the nerves, the crowd looked on with
+  complaisance, if not with real pleasure. The Negro died hard. The neck
+  was not broken, as the body was drawn up without being given a fall, and
+  death came by strangulation. For fully ten minutes after he was strung
+  up the chest heaved occasionally, and there were convulsive movements of
+  the limbs. Finally he was pronounced dead, and a few minutes later
+  Detective Richardson climbed on a pile of staves and cut the rope. The
+  body fell in a ghastly heap, and the crowd laughed at the sound and
+  crowded around the prostrate body, a few kicking the inanimate carcass.
+
+  Detective Richardson, who is also a deputy coroner, then proceeded to
+  impanel the following jury of inquest: J.S. Moody, A.C. Waldran, B.J.
+  Childs, J.N. House, Nelson Bills, T.L. Smith, and A. Newhouse. After
+  viewing the body the inquest was adjourned without any testimony being
+  taken until 9 o'clock this morning. The jury will meet at the coroner's
+  office, 51 Beale Street, upstairs, and decide on a verdict. If no
+  witnesses are forthcoming, the jury will be able to arrive at a verdict
+  just the same, as all members of it saw the lynching. Then someone
+  raised the cry of "Burn him!" It was quickly taken up and soon resounded
+  from a hundred throats. Detective Richardson, for a long time,
+  single-handed, stood the crowd off. He talked and begged the men not to
+  bring disgrace on the city by burning the body, arguing that all the
+  vengeance possible had been wrought.
+
+  While this was going on a small crowd was busy starting a fire in the
+  middle of the street. The material was handy. Some bundles of staves
+  were taken from the adjoining lumber yard for kindling. Heavier wood was
+  obtained from the same source, and coal oil from a neighboring grocery.
+  Then the cries of "Burn him! Burn him!" were redoubled.
+
+  Half a dozen men seized the naked body. The crowd cheered. They marched
+  to the fire, and giving the body a swing, it was landed in the middle of
+  the fire. There was a cry for more wood, as the fire had begun to die
+  owing to the long delay. Willing hands procured the wood, and it was
+  piled up on the Negro, almost, for a time, obscuring him from view. The
+  head was in plain view, as also were the limbs, and one arm which stood
+  out high above the body, the elbow crooked, held in that position by a
+  stick of wood. In a few moments the hands began to swell, then came
+  great blisters over all the exposed parts of the body; then in places
+  the flesh was burned away and the bones began to show through. It was a
+  horrible sight, one which, perhaps, none there had ever witnessed
+  before. It proved too much for a large part of the crowd and the
+  majority of the mob left very shortly after the burning began.
+
+  But a large number stayed, and were not a bit set back by the sight of a
+  human body being burned to ashes. Two or three white women, accompanied
+  by their escorts, pushed to the front to obtain an unobstructed view,
+  and looked on with astonishing coolness and nonchalance. One man and
+  woman brought a little girl, not over twelve years old, apparently their
+  daughter, to view a scene which was calculated to drive sleep from the
+  child's eyes for many nights, if not to produce a permanent injury to
+  her nervous system. The comments of the crowd were varied. Some remarked
+  on the efficacy of this style of cure for rapists, others rejoiced that
+  men's wives and daughters were now safe from this wretch. Some laughed
+  as the flesh cracked and blistered, and while a large number pronounced
+  the burning of a dead body as a useless episode, not in all that throng
+  was a word of sympathy heard for the wretch himself.
+
+  The rope that was used to hang the Negro, and also that which was used
+  to lead him from the jail, were eagerly sought by relic hunters. They
+  almost fought for a chance to cut off a piece of rope, and in an
+  incredibly short time both ropes had disappeared and were scattered in
+  the pockets of the crowd in sections of from an inch to six inches long.
+  Others of the relic hunters remained until the ashes cooled to obtain
+  such ghastly relics as the teeth, nails, and bits of charred skin of the
+  immolated victim of his own lust. After burning the body the mob tied a
+  rope around the charred trunk and dragged it down Main Street to the
+  courthouse, where it was hanged to a center pole. The rope broke and the
+  corpse dropped with a thud, but it was again hoisted, the charred legs
+  barely touching the ground. The teeth were knocked out and the
+  fingernails cut off as souvenirs. The crowd made so much noise that the
+  police interfered. Undertaker Walsh was telephoned for, who took
+  charge of the body and carried it to his establishment, where it will be
+  prepared for burial in the potter's field today.
+
+[Illustration: Scene of lynching at Clanton, Alabama, August 1891.]
+
+[Illustration: Facsimile of back of photograph. W.R. MARTIN, Traveling
+Photographer. (Handwritten: This S.O.B. was hung at Clanton Ala. Friday
+Aug 21st/91 for murdering a little boy in cold blood for 35¢ in cash. He
+is a good specimen of your "Black Christian hung by White Heathens"
+[illegible] of the Committee.)]
+
+A prelude to this exhibition of nineteenth-century barbarism was the
+following telegram received by the _Chicago Inter Ocean_, at 2 o'clock,
+Saturday afternoon--ten hours before the lynching:
+
+  MEMPHIS TENN., July 22, To _Inter-Ocean_, Chicago.
+
+  Lee Walker, colored man, accused of raping white women, in jail here,
+  will be taken out and burned by whites tonight. Can you send Miss Ida
+  Wells to write it up? Answer. R.M. Martin, with _Public Ledger_.
+
+The _Public Ledger_ is one of the oldest evening daily papers in Memphis,
+and this telegram shows that the intentions of the mob were well known
+long before they were executed. The personnel of the mob is given by the
+_Memphis Appeal-Avalanche_. It says, "At first it seemed as if a crowd of
+roughs were the principals, but as it increased in size, men in all walks
+of life figured as leaders, although the majority were young men."
+
+This was the punishment meted out to a Negro, charged, not with rape, but
+attempted assault, and without any proof as to his guilt, for the women
+were not given a chance to identify him. It was only a little less
+horrible than the burning alive of Henry Smith, at Paris, Texas, February
+1, 1893, or that of Edward Coy, in Texarkana, Texas, February 20, 1892.
+Both were charged with assault on white women, and both were tied to the
+stake and burned while yet alive, in the presence of ten thousand persons.
+In the case of Coy, the white woman in the case applied the match, even
+while the victim protested his innocence.
+
+The cut which is here given is the exact reproduction of the photograph
+taken at the scene of the lynching at Clanton, Alabama, August, 1891. The
+cause for which the man was hanged is given in the words of the mob which
+were written on the back of the photograph, and they are also given. This
+photograph was sent to Judge A.W. Tourgee, of Mayville, N.Y.
+
+In some of these cases the mob affects to believe in the Negro's guilt.
+The world is told that the white woman in the case identifies him, or the
+prisoner "confesses." But in the lynching which took place in Barnwell
+County, South Carolina, April 24, 1893, the mob's victim, John Peterson,
+escaped and placed himself under Governor Tillman's protection; not only
+did he declare his innocence, but offered to prove an alibi, by white
+witnesses. Before his witnesses could be brought, the mob arrived at the
+Governor's mansion and demanded the prisoner. He was given up, and
+although the white woman in the case said he was not the man, he was
+hanged twenty-four hours after, and over a thousand bullets fired into his
+body, on the declaration that "a crime had been committed and someone had
+to hang for it."
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+HISTORY OF SOME CASES OF RAPE
+
+
+It has been claimed that the Southern white women have been slandered
+because, in defending the Negro race from the charge that all colored men,
+who are lynched, only pay penalty for assaulting women. It is certain that
+lynching mobs have not only refused to give the Negro a chance to defend
+himself, but have killed their victim with a full knowledge that the
+relationship of the alleged assailant with the woman who accused him, was
+voluntary and clandestine. As a matter of fact, one of the prime causes of
+the Lynch Law agitation has been a necessity for defending the Negro from
+this awful charge against him. This defense has been necessary because the
+apologists for outlawry insist that in no case has the accusing woman been
+a willing consort of her paramour, who is lynched because overtaken in
+wrong. It is well known, however, that such is the case. In July of this
+year, 1894, John Paul Bocock, a Southern white man living in New York, and
+assistant editor of the _New York Tribune_, took occasion to defy the
+publication of any instance where the lynched Negro was the victim of a
+white woman's falsehood. Such cases are not rare, but the press and people
+conversant with the facts, almost invariably suppress them.
+
+The _New York Sun_ of July 30,1894, contained a synopsis of interviews
+with leading congressmen and editors of the South. Speaker Crisp, of the
+House of Representatives, who was recently a Judge of the Supreme Court of
+Georgia, led in declaring that lynching seldom or never took place, save
+for vile crime against women and children. Dr. Hass, editor of the leading
+organ of the Methodist Church South, published in its columns that it was
+his belief that more than three hundred women had been assaulted by Negro
+men within three months. When asked to prove his charges, or give a single
+case upon which his "belief" was founded, he said that he could do so, but
+the details were unfit for publication. No other evidence but his "belief"
+could be adduced to substantiate this grave charge, yet Bishop Haygood, in
+the _Forum_ of October, 1893, quotes this "belief" in apology for
+lynching, and voluntarily adds: "It is my opinion that this is an
+underestimate." The "opinion" of this man, based upon a "belief," had
+greater weight coming from a man who has posed as a friend to "Our Brother
+in Black," and was accepted as authority. An interview of Miss Frances E.
+Willard, the great apostle of temperance, the daughter of abolitionists
+and a personal friend and helper of many individual colored people, has
+been quoted in support of the utterance of this calumny against a weak and
+defenseless race. In the _New York Voice_ of October 23, 1890, after a
+tour in the South, where she was told all these things by the "best white
+people," she said: "The grogshop is the Negro's center of power. Better
+whisky and more of it is the rallying cry of great, dark-faced mobs. The
+colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt. The grogshop is its
+center of power. The safety of woman, of childhood, the home, is menaced
+in a thousand localities at this moment, so that men dare not go beyond
+the sight of their own roof-tree."
+
+These charges so often reiterated, have had the effect of fastening the
+odium upon the race of a peculiar propensity for this foul crime. The
+Negro is thus forced to a defense of his good name, and this chapter will
+be devoted to the history of some of the cases where assault upon white
+women by Negroes is charged. He is not the aggressor in this fight, but
+the situation demands that the facts be given, and they will speak for
+themselves. Of the 1,115 Negro men, women and children hanged, shot and
+roasted alive from January 1, 1882, to January 1, 1894, inclusive, only
+348 of that number were charged with rape. Nearly 700 of these persons
+were lynched for any other reason which could be manufactured by a mob
+wishing to indulge in a lynching bee.
+
+
+A WHITE WOMAN'S FALSEHOOD
+
+The _Cleveland, Ohio, Gazette_, January 16, 1892, gives an account of one
+of these cases of "rape."
+
+Mrs. J.C. Underwood, the wife of a minister of Elyria, Ohio, accused an
+Afro-American of rape. She told her husband that during his absence in
+1888, stumping the state for the Prohibition Party, the man came to the
+kitchen door, forced his way in the house and insulted her. She tried to
+drive him out with a heavy poker, but he overpowered and chloroformed her,
+and when she revived her clothing was torn and she was in a horrible
+condition. She did not know the man, but could identify him. She
+subsequently pointed out William Offett, a married man, who was arrested,
+and, being in Ohio, was granted a trial.
+
+The prisoner vehemently denied the charge of rape, but confessed he went
+to Mrs. Underwood's residence at her invitation and was criminally
+intimate with her at her request. This availed him nothing against the
+sworn testimony of a minister's wife, a lady of the highest
+respectability. He was found guilty, and entered the penitentiary,
+December 14, 1888, for fifteen years. Sometime afterwards the woman's
+remorse led her to confess to her husband that the man was innocent. These
+are her words: "I met Offett at the postoffice. It was raining. He was
+polite to me, and as I had several bundles in my arms he offered to carry
+them home for me, which he did. He had a strange fascination for me, and I
+invited him to call on me. He called, bringing chestnuts and candy for the
+children. By this means we got them to leave us alone in the room. Then I
+sat on his lap. He made a proposal to me and I readily consented. Why I
+did so I do not know, but that I did is true. He visited me several times
+after that and each time I was indiscreet. I did not care after the first
+time. In fact I could not have resisted, and had no desire to resist."
+
+When asked by her husband why she told him she had been outraged, she
+said: "I had several reasons for telling you. One was the neighbors saw
+the fellow here, another was, I was afraid I had contracted a loathsome
+disease, and still another was that I feared I might give birth to a Negro
+baby. I hoped to save my reputation by telling you a deliberate lie." Her
+husband, horrified by the confession, had Offett, who had already served
+four years, released and secured a divorce.
+
+There have been many such cases throughout the South, with the difference
+that the Southern white men in insensate fury wreak their vengeance
+without intervention of law upon the Negro who consorts with their women.
+
+
+TRIED TO MANUFACTURE AN OUTRAGE
+
+The _Memphis (Tenn.) Ledger_, of June 8, 1892, has the following:
+
+  If Lillie Bailey, a rather pretty white girl, seventeen years of age,
+  who is now at the city hospital, would be somewhat less reserved about
+  her disgrace there would be some very nauseating details in the story of
+  her life. She is the mother of a little coon. The truth might reveal
+  fearful depravity or the evidence of a rank outrage. She will not
+  divulge the name of the man who has left such black evidence of her
+  disgrace, and in fact says it is a matter in which there can be no
+  interest to the outside world. She came to Memphis nearly three months
+  ago, and was taken in at the Woman's Refuge in the southern part of the
+  city. She remained there until a few weeks ago when the child was born.
+  The ladies in charge of the Refuge were horrified. The girl was at once
+  sent to the city hospital, where she has been since May 30. She is a
+  country girl. She came to Memphis from her father's farm, a short
+  distance from Hernando, Miss. Just when she left there she would not
+  say. In fact she says she came to Memphis from Arkansas, and says her
+  home is in that state. She is rather good looking, has blue eyes, a low
+  forehead and dark red hair. The ladies at the Woman's Refuge do not know
+  anything about the girl further than what they learned when she was an
+  inmate of the institution; and she would not tell much. When the child
+  was born an attempt was made to get the girl to reveal the name of the
+  Negro who had disgraced her, she obstinately refused and it was
+  impossible to elicit any information from her on the subject.
+
+Note the wording: "The truth might reveal fearful depravity or rank
+outrage." If it had been a white child or if Lillie Bailey had told a
+pitiful story of Negro outrage, it would have been a case of woman's
+weakness or assault and she could have remained at the Woman's Refuge. But
+a Negro child and to withhold its father's name and thus prevent the
+killing of another Negro "rapist" was a case of "fearful depravity." Had
+she revealed the father's name, he would have been lynched and his taking
+off charged to an assault upon a white woman.
+
+
+BURNED ALIVE FOR ADULTERY
+
+In Texarkana, Arkansas, Edward Coy was accused of assaulting a white
+woman. The press dispatches of February 18, 1892, told in detail how he
+was tied to a tree, the flesh cut from his body by men and boys, and after
+coal oil was poured over him, the woman he had assaulted gladly set fire
+to him, and 15,000 persons saw him burn to death. October 1, the _Chicago
+Inter Ocean_ contained the following account of that horror from the pen
+of the "Bystander" Judge Albion W. Tourgee--as the result of his
+investigations:
+
+  1. The woman who was paraded as victim of violence was of bad character;
+  her husband was a drunkard and a gambler.
+
+  2. She was publicly reported and generally known to have been criminally
+  intimate with Coy for more than a year previous.
+
+  3. She was compelled by threats, if not by violence, to make the charge
+  against the victim.
+
+  4. When she came to apply the match Coy asked her if she would burn him
+  after they had "been sweethearting" so long.
+
+  5. A large majority of the "superior" white men prominent in the affair
+  are the reputed fathers of mulatto children.
+
+  These are not pleasant facts, but they are illustrative of the vital
+  phase of the so-called race question, which should properly be
+  designated an earnest inquiry as to the best methods by which religion,
+  science, law and political power may be employed to excuse injustice,
+  barbarity and crime done to a people because of race and color. There
+  can be no possible belief that these people were inspired by any
+  consuming zeal to vindicate God's law against miscegenationists of the
+  most practical sort. The woman was a willing partner in the victim's
+  guilt, and being of the "superior" race must naturally have been more
+  guilty.
+
+
+NOT IDENTIFIED BUT LYNCHED
+
+February 11, 1893, there occurred in Shelby County, Tennessee, the fourth
+Negro lynching within fifteen months. The three first were lynched in the
+city of Memphis for firing on white men in self-defense. This Negro,
+Richard Neal, was lynched a few miles from the city limits, and the
+following is taken from the _Memphis (Tenn.) Scimitar_:
+
+  As the _Scimitar_ stated on Saturday the Negro, Richard Neal, who raped
+  Mrs. Jack White near Forest Hill, in this county, was lynched by a mob
+  of about 200 white citizens of the neighborhood. Sheriff McLendon,
+  accompanied by Deputies Perkins, App and Harvey and a _Scimitar_
+  reporter, arrived on the scene of the execution about 3:30 in the
+  afternoon. The body was suspended from the first limb of a post oak tree
+  by a new quarter-inch grass rope. A hangman's knot, evidently tied by an
+  expert, fitted snugly under the left ear of the corpse, and a new hame
+  string pinioned the victim's arms behind him. His legs were not tied.
+  The body was perfectly limber when the Sheriff's posse cut it down and
+  retained enough heat to warm the feet of Deputy Perkins, whose road cart
+  was converted into a hearse. On arriving with the body at Forest Hill
+  the Sheriff made a bargain with a stalwart young man with a blonde
+  mustache and deep blue eyes, who told the _Scimitar_ reporter that he
+  was the leader of the mob, to haul the body to Germantown for $3.
+
+  When within half-a-mile of Germantown the Sheriff and posse were
+  overtaken by Squire McDonald of Collierville, who had come down to hold
+  the inquest. The Squire had his jury with him, and it was agreed for the
+  convenience of all parties that he should proceed with the corpse to
+  Germantown and conduct the inquiry as to the cause of death. He did so,
+  and a verdict of death from hanging by parties unknown was returned in
+  due form.
+
+  The execution of Neal was done deliberately and by the best people of
+  the Collierville, Germantown and Forest Hill neighborhoods, without
+  passion or exhibition of anger.
+
+  He was arrested on Friday about ten o'clock, by Constable Bob Cash, who
+  carried him before Mrs. White. She said: "I think he is the man. I am
+  almost certain of it. If he isn't the man he is exactly like him."
+
+  The Negro's coat was torn also, and there were other circumstances
+  against him. The committee returned and made its report, and the
+  chairman put the question of guilt or innocence to a vote.
+
+  All who thought the proof strong enough to warrant execution were
+  invited to cross over to the other side of the road. Everybody but four
+  or five negroes crossed over.
+
+  The committee then placed Neal on a mule with his arms tied behind him,
+  and proceeded to the scene of the crime, followed by the mob. The rope,
+  with a noose already prepared, was tied to the limb nearest the spot
+  where the unpardonable sin was committed, and the doomed man's mule was
+  brought to a standstill beneath it.
+
+  Then Neal confessed. He said he was the right man, but denied that he
+  used force or threats to accomplish his purpose. It was a matter of
+  purchase, he claimed, and said the price paid was twenty-five cents. He
+  warned the colored men present to beware of white women and resist
+  temptation, for to yield to their blandishments or to the passions of
+  men, meant death.
+
+  While he was speaking, Mrs. White came from her home and calling
+  Constable Cash to one side, asked if he could not save the Negro's life.
+  The reply was, "No," and Mrs. White returned to the house.
+
+  When all was in readiness, the husband of Neal's victim leaped upon the
+  mule's back and adjusted the rope around the Negro's neck. No cap was
+  used, and Neal showed no fear, nor did he beg for mercy. The mule was
+  struck with a whip and bounded out from under Neal, leaving him
+  suspended in the air with his feet about three feet from the ground.
+
+
+DELIVERED TO THE MOB BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE
+
+John Peterson, near Denmark, S.C., was suspected of rape, but escaped,
+went to Columbia, and placed himself under Gov. Tillman's protection,
+declaring he too could prove an alibi by white witnesses. A white reporter
+hearing his declaration volunteered to find these witnesses, and
+telegraphed the governor that he would be in Columbia with them on Monday.
+In the meantime the mob at Denmark, learning Peterson's whereabouts, went
+to the governor and demanded the prisoner. Gov. Tillman, who had during
+his canvass for reelection the year before, declared that he would lead a
+mob to lynch a Negro that assaulted a white woman, gave Peterson up to the
+mob. He was taken back to Denmark, and the white girl in the case as
+positively declared that he was not the man. But the verdict of the mob
+was that "the crime had been committed and somebody had to hang for it,
+and if he, Peterson, was not guilty of that he was of some other crime,"
+and he was hung, and his body riddled with 1,000 bullets.
+
+
+LYNCHED AS A WARNING
+
+Alabama furnishes a case in point. A colored man named Daniel Edwards,
+lived near Selma, Alabama, and worked for a family of a farmer near that
+place. This resulted in an intimacy between the young man and a daughter
+of the householder, which finally developed in the disgrace of the girl.
+After the birth of the child, the mother disclosed the fact that Edwards
+was its father. The relationship had been sustained for more than a year,
+and yet this colored man was apprehended, thrown into jail from whence he
+was taken by a mob of one hundred neighbors and hung to a tree and his
+body riddled with bullets. A dispatch which describes the lynching, ends
+as follows. "Upon his back was found pinned this morning the following:
+'Warning to all Negroes that are too intimate with white girls. This the
+work of one hundred best citizens of the South Side.'"
+
+There can be no doubt from the announcement made by this "one hundred best
+citizens" that they understood full well the character of the relationship
+which existed between Edwards and the girl, but when the dispatches were
+sent out, describing the affair, it was claimed that Edwards was lynched
+for rape.
+
+
+SUPPRESSING THE TRUTH
+
+In a county in Mississippi during the month of July the Associated Press
+dispatches sent out a report that the sheriff's eight-year-old daughter
+had been assaulted by a big, black, burly brute who had been promptly
+lynched. The facts which have since been investigated show that the girl
+was more than eighteen years old and that she was discovered by her father
+in this young man's room who was a servant on the place. But these facts
+the Associated Press has not given to the world, nor did the same agency
+acquaint the world with the fact that a Negro youth who was lynched in
+Tuscumbia, Ala., the same year on the same charge told the white girl who
+accused him before the mob, that he had met her in the woods often by
+appointment. There is a young mulatto in one of the State prisons of the
+South today who is there by charge of a young white woman to screen
+herself. He is a college graduate and had been corresponding with, and
+clandestinely visiting her until he was surprised and run out of her room
+en deshabille by her father. He was put in prison in another town to save
+his life from the mob and his lawyer advised that it were better to save
+his life by pleading guilty to charges made and being sentenced for years,
+than to attempt a defense by exhibiting the letters written him by this
+girl. In the latter event, the mob would surely murder him, while there
+was a chance for his life by adopting the former course. Names, places and
+dates are not given for the same reason.
+
+The excuse has come to be so safe, it is not surprising that a
+Philadelphia girl, beautiful and well educated, and of good family, should
+make a confession published in all the daily papers of that city October,
+1894, that she had been stealing for some time, and that to cover one of
+her thefts, she had said she had been bound and gagged in her father's
+house by a colored man, and money stolen therefrom by him. Had this been
+done in many localities, it would only have been necessary for her to
+"identify" the first Negro in that vicinity, to have brought about another
+lynching bee.
+
+
+A VILE SLANDER WITH SCANT RETRACTION
+
+The following published in the _Cleveland (Ohio) Leader_ of Oct. 23, 1894,
+only emphasizes our demand that a fair trial shall be given those accused
+of crime, and the protection of the law be extended until time for a
+defense be granted.
+
+  The sensational story sent out last night from Hicksville that a Negro
+  had outraged a little four-year-old girl proves to be a base canard. The
+  correspondents who went into the details should have taken the pains to
+  investigate, and the officials should have known more of the matter
+  before they gave out such grossly exaggerated information.
+
+  The Negro, Charles O'Neil, had been working for a couple of women and,
+  it seems, had worked all winter without being remunerated. There is a
+  little girl, and the girl's mother and grandmother evidently started the
+  story with idea of frightening the Negro out of the country and thus
+  balancing accounts. The town was considerably wrought up and for a time
+  things looked serious. The accused had a preliminary hearing today and
+  not an iota of evidence was produced to indicate that such a crime had
+  been committed, or that he had even attempted such an outrage. The
+  village marshal was frightened nearly out of his wits and did little to
+  quiet the excitement last night.
+
+  The affair was an outrage on the Negro, at the expense of innocent
+  childhood, a brainless fabrication from start to finish.
+
+The original story was sent throughout this country and England, but the
+_Cleveland Leader_, so far as known, is the only journal which has
+published these facts in refutation of the slander so often published
+against the race. Not only is it true that many of the alleged cases of
+rape against the Negro, are like the foregoing, but the same crime
+committed by white men against Negro women and girls, is never punished by
+mob or the law. A leading journal in South Carolina openly said some
+months ago that "it is not the same thing for a white man to assault a
+colored woman as for a colored man to assault a white woman, because the
+colored woman had no finer feelings nor virtue to be outraged!" Yet
+colored women have always had far more reason to complain of white men in
+this respect than ever white women have had of Negroes.
+
+
+ILLINOIS HAS A LYNCHING
+
+In the month of June, 1893, the proud commonwealth of Illinois joined the
+ranks of Lynching States. Illinois, which gave to the world the immortal
+heroes, Lincoln, Grant and Logan, trailed its banner of justice in the
+dust--dyed its hands red in the blood of a man not proven guilty of crime.
+
+June 3,1893, the country about Decatur, one of the largest cities of the
+state was startled with the cry that a white woman had been assaulted by a
+colored tramp. Three days later a colored man named Samuel Bush was
+arrested and put in jail. A white man testified that Bush, on the day of
+the assault, asked him where he could get a drink and he pointed to the
+house where the farmer's wife was subsequently said to have been
+assaulted. Bush said he went to the well but did not go near the house,
+and did not assault the woman. After he was arrested the alleged victim
+did not see him to identify him--he was presumed to be guilty.
+
+The citizens determined to kill him. The mob gathered, went to the jail,
+met with no resistance, took the suspected man, dragged him out tearing
+every stitch of clothing from his body, then hanged him to a telegraph
+pole. The grand jury refused to indict the lynchers though the names of
+over twenty persons who were leaders in the mob were well known. In fact
+twenty-two persons were indicted, but the grand jurors and the prosecuting
+attorney disagreed as to the form of the indictments, which caused the
+jurors to change their minds. All indictments were reconsidered and the
+matter was dropped. Not one of the dozens of men prominent in that murder
+have suffered a whit more inconvenience for the butchery of that man, than
+they would have suffered for shooting a dog.
+
+
+COLOR LINE JUSTICE
+
+In Baltimore, Maryland, a gang of white ruffians assaulted a respectable
+colored girl who was out walking with a young man of her own race. They
+held her escort and outraged the girl. It was a deed dastardly enough to
+arouse Southern blood, which gives its horror of rape as excuse for
+lawlessness, but she was a colored woman. The case went to the courts and
+they were acquitted.
+
+In Nashville, Tennessee, there was a white man, Pat Hanifan, who outraged
+a little colored girl, and from the physical injuries received she was
+ruined for life. He was jailed for six months, discharged, and is now a
+detective in that city. In the same city, last May, a white man outraged a
+colored girl in a drug store. He was arrested and released on bail at the
+trial. It was rumored that five hundred colored men had organized to lynch
+him. Two hundred and fifty white citizens armed themselves with
+Winchesters and guarded him. A cannon was placed in front of his home, and
+the Buchanan Rifles (State Militia) ordered to the scene for his
+protection. The colored mob did not show up. Only two weeks before, Eph.
+Grizzard, who had only been charged with rape upon a white woman, had been
+taken from the jail, with Governor Buchanan and the police and militia
+standing by, dragged through the streets in broad daylight, knives plunged
+into him at every step, and with every fiendish cruelty that a frenzied
+mob could devise, he was at last swung out on the bridge with hands cut to
+pieces as he tried to climb up the stanchions. A naked, bloody example of
+the bloodthirstiness of the nineteenth-century civilization of the Athens
+of the South! No cannon nor military were called out in his defense. He
+dared to visit a white woman.
+
+At the very moment when these civilized whites were announcing their
+determination "to protect their wives and daughters," by murdering
+Grizzard, a white man was in the same jail for raping eight-year-old
+Maggie Reese, a colored girl. He was not harmed. The "honor" of grown
+women who were glad enough to be supported by the Grizzard boys and Ed.
+Coy, as long as the liaison was not known, needed protection; they were
+white. The outrage upon helpless childhood needed no avenging in this
+case; she was black.
+
+A white man in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, two months after inflicted
+such injuries upon another colored girl that she died. He was not
+punished, but an attempt was made in the same town in the month of June to
+lynch a colored man who visited a white woman.
+
+In Memphis, Tennessee, in the month of June, Ellerton L. Dorr, who is the
+husband of Russell Hancock's widow, was arrested for attempted rape on
+Mattie Cole, a neighbor's cook; he was only prevented from accomplishing
+his purpose by the appearance of Mattie's employer. Dorr's friends say he
+was drunk and, not responsible for his actions. The grand jury refused to
+indict him and he was discharged.
+
+In Tallahassee, Florida, a colored girl, Charlotte Gilliam, was assaulted
+by white men. Her father went to have a warrant for their arrest issued,
+but the judge refused to issue it.
+
+In Bowling Green, Virginia, Moses Christopher, a colored lad, was charged
+with assault, September 10. He was indicted, tried, convicted and
+sentenced to death in one day. In the same state at Danville, two weeks
+before--August 29, Thomas J. Penn, a white man, committed a criminal
+assault upon Lina Hanna, a twelve-year-old colored girl, but he has not
+been tried, certainly not killed either by the law or the mob.
+
+In Surrey county, Virginia, C.L. Brock, a white man, criminally assaulted
+a ten-year-old colored girl, and threatened to kill her if she told.
+Notwithstanding, she confessed to her aunt, Mrs. Alice Bates, and the
+white brute added further crime by killing Mrs. Bates when she upbraided
+him about his crime upon her niece. He emptied the contents of his
+revolver into her body as she lay. Brock has never been apprehended, and
+no effort has been made to do so by the legal authorities.
+
+But even when punishment is meted out by law to white villians for this
+horrible crime, it is seldom or never that capital punishment is invoked.
+Two cases just clipped from the daily papers will suffice to show how this
+crime is punished when committed by white offenders and black.
+
+LOUISVILLE, KY., October 19.--Smith Young, colored, was today sentenced to
+be hanged. Young criminally assaulted a six-year-old child about six
+months ago.
+
+Jacques Blucher, the Pontiac Frenchman who was arrested at that place for
+a criminal assault on his daughter Fanny on July 29 last, pleaded nolo
+contendere when placed on trial at East Greenwich, near Providence, R.I.,
+Tuesday, and was sentenced to five years in State Prison.
+
+Charles Wilson was convicted of assault upon seven-year-old Mamie Keys in
+Philadelphia, in October, and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was
+white. Indianapolis courts sentenced a white man in September to eight
+years in prison for assault upon a twelve-year-old white girl.
+
+April 24, 1893, a lynching was set for Denmark, S.C., on the charge of
+rape. A white girl accused a Negro of assault, and the mob was about to
+lynch him. A few hours before the lynching three reputable white men rode
+into the town and solemnly testified that the accused Negro was at work
+with them 25 miles away on the day and at the hour the crime had been
+committed. He was accordingly set free. A white person's word is taken as
+absolutely for as against a Negro.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+THE CRUSADE JUSTIFIED
+
+_(Appeal from America to the World_)
+
+
+It has been urged in criticism of the movement appealing to the English
+people for sympathy and support in our crusade against Lynch Law that our
+action was unpatriotic, vindictive and useless. It is not a part of the
+plan of this pamphlet to make any defense for that crusade nor to indict
+any apology for the motives which led to the presentation of the facts of
+American lynchings to the world at large. To those who are not willfully
+blind and unjustly critical, the record of more than a thousand lynchings
+in ten years is enough to justify any peaceable movement tending to
+ameliorate the conditions which led to this unprecedented slaughter of
+human beings.
+
+If America would not hear the cry of men, women and children whose dying
+groans ascended to heaven praying for relief, not only for them but for
+others who might soon be treated as they, then certainly no fair-minded
+person can charge disloyalty to those who make an appeal to the
+civilization of the world for such sympathy and help as it is possible to
+extend. If stating the facts of these lynchings, as they appeared from
+time to time in the white newspapers of America--the news gathered by
+white correspondents, compiled by white press bureaus and disseminated
+among white people--shows any vindictiveness, then the mind which so
+charges is not amenable to argument.
+
+But it is the desire of this pamphlet to urge that the crusade started and
+thus far continued has not been useless, but has been blessed with the
+most salutary results. The many evidences of the good results can not here
+be mentioned, but the thoughtful student of the situation can himself
+find ample proof. There need not here be mentioned the fact that for the
+first time since lynching began, has there been any occasion for the
+governors of the several states to speak out in reference to these crimes
+against law and order.
+
+No matter how heinous the act of the lynchers may have been, it was
+discussed only for a day or so and then dismissed from the attention of
+the public. In one or two instances the governor has called attention to
+the crime, but the civil processes entirely failed to bring the murderers
+to justice. Since the crusade against lynching was started, however,
+governors of states, newspapers, senators and representatives and bishops
+of churches have all been compelled to take cognizance of the prevalence
+of this crime and to speak in one way or another in the defense of the
+charge against this barbarism in the United States. This has not been
+because there was any latent spirit of justice voluntarily asserting
+itself, especially in those who do the lynching, but because the entire
+American people now feel, both North and South, that they are objects in
+the gaze of the civilized world and that for every lynching humanity asks
+that America render its account to civilization and itself.
+
+
+AWFUL BARBARISM IGNORED
+
+Much has been said during the months of September and October of 1894
+about the lynching of six colered men who on suspicion of incendiarism
+were made the victims of a most barbarous massacre.
+
+They were arrested, one by one, by officers of the law; they were
+handcuffed and chained together and by the officers of the law loaded in a
+wagon and deliberately driven into an ambush where a mob of lynchers
+awaited them. At the time and upon the chosen spot, in the darkness of the
+night and far removed from the habitation of any human soul, the wagon was
+halted and the mob fired upon the six manacled men, shooting them to death
+as no humane person would have shot dogs. Chained together as they were,
+in their awful struggles after the first volley, the victims tumbled out
+of the wagon upon the ground and there in the mud, struggling in their
+death throes, the victims were made the target of the murderous shotguns,
+which fired into the writhing, struggling, dying mass of humanity, until
+every spark of life was gone. Then the officers of the law who had them in
+charge, drove away to give the alarm and to tell the world that they had
+been waylaid and their prisoners forcibly taken from them and killed.
+
+It has been claimed that the prompt, vigorous and highly commendable steps
+of the governor of the State of Tennessee and the judge having
+jurisdiction over the crime, and of the citizens of Memphis generally, was
+the natural revolt of the humane conscience in that section of the
+country, and the determination of honest and honorable men to rid the
+community of such men as those who were guilty of this terrible massacre.
+It has further been claimed that this vigorous uprising of the people and
+this most commendably prompt action of the civil authorities, is ample
+proof that the American people will not tolerate the lynching of innocent
+men, and that in cases where brutal lynchings have not been promptly dealt
+with, the crimes on the part of the victims were such as to put them
+outside the pale of humanity and that the world considered their death a
+necessary sacrifice for the good of all.
+
+But this line of argument can in no possible way be truthfully sustained.
+The lynching of the six men in 1894, barbarous as it was, was in no way
+more barbarous than took nothing more than a passing notice. It was only
+the other lynchings which preceded it, and of which the public fact that
+the attention of the civilized world has been called to lynching in
+America which made the people of Tennessee feel the absolute necessity for
+a prompt, vigorous and just arraignment of all the murderers connected
+with that crime. Lynching is no longer "Our Problem," it is the problem of
+the civilized world, and Tennessee could not afford to refuse the legal
+measures which Christianity demands shall be used for the punishment of
+crime.
+
+
+MEMPHIS THEN AND NOW
+
+Only two years prior to the massacre of the six men near Memphis, that
+same city took part in a massacre in every way as bloody and brutal as
+that of September last. It was the murder of three young colored men and
+who were known to be among the most honorable, reliable, worthy and
+peaceable colored citizens of the community. All of them were engaged in
+the mercantile business, being members of a corporation which conducted a
+large grocery store, and one of the three being a letter carrier in the
+employ of the government. These three men were arrested for resisting an
+attack of a mob upon their store, in which melee none of the assailants,
+who had armed themselves for their devilish deeds by securing court
+processes, were killed or even seriously injured. But these three men were
+put in jail, and on three or four nights after their incarceration a mob
+of less than a dozen men, by collusion with the civil authorities, entered
+the jail, took the three men from the custody of the law and shot them to
+death. Memphis knew of this awful crime, knew then and knows today who the
+men were who committed it, and yet not the first step was ever taken to
+apprehend the guilty wretches who walk the streets today with the brand of
+murder upon their foreheads, but as safe from harm as the most upright
+citizen of that community. Memphis would have been just as calm and
+complacent and self-satisfied over the murder of the six colored men in
+1894 as it was over these three colored men in 1892, had it not recognized
+the fact that to escape the brand of barbarism it had not only to speak
+its denunciation but to act vigorously in vindication of its name.
+
+
+AN ALABAMA HORROR IGNORED
+
+A further instance of this absolute disregard of every principle of
+justice and the indifference to the barbarism of Lynch Law may be cited
+here, and is furnished by white residents in the city of Carrolton,
+Alabama. Several cases of arson had been discovered, and in their search
+for the guilty parties, suspicion was found to rest upon three men and a
+woman. The four suspects were Paul Hill, Paul Archer, William Archer, his
+brother, and a woman named Emma Fair. The prisoners were apprehended,
+earnestly asserted their innocence, but went to jail without making any
+resistance. They claimed that they could easily prove their innocence upon
+trial.
+
+One would suspect that the civilization which defends itself against the
+barbarisms of Lynch Law by stating that it lynches human beings only when
+they are guilty of awful attacks upon women and children, would have been
+very careful to have given these four prisoners, who were simply charged
+with arson, a fair trial, to which they were entitled upon every principle
+of law and humanity. Especially would this seem to be the case when if is
+considered that one of the prisoners charged was a woman, and if the
+nineteenth century has shown any advancement upon any lines of human
+action, it is preeminently shown in its reverence, respect and protection
+of its womanhood. But the people of Alabama failed to have any regard for
+womanhood whatever.
+
+The three men and the woman were put in jail to await trial. A few days
+later it was rumored that they were to be subjects of Lynch Law, and, sure
+enough, at night a mob of lynchers went to the jail, not to avenge any
+awful crime against womanhood, but to kill four people who had been
+suspected of setting a house on fire. They were caged in their cells,
+helpless and defenseless; they were at the mercy of civilized white
+Americans, who, armed with shotguns, were there to maintain the majesty of
+American law. And most effectively was their duty done by these splendid
+representatives of Governor Fishback's brave and honorable white
+southerners, who resent "outside interference." They lined themselves up
+in the most effective manner and poured volley after volley into the
+bodies of their helpless, pleading victims, who in their bolted prison
+cells could do nothing but suffer and die. Then these lynchers went
+quietly away and the bodies of the woman and three men were taken out and
+buried with as little ceremony as men would bury hogs.
+
+No one will say that the massacre near Memphis in 1894 was any worse than
+this bloody crime of Alabama in 1892. The details of this shocking affair
+were given to the public by the press, but public sentiment was not moved
+to action in the least; it was only a matter of a day's notice and then
+went to swell the list of murders which stand charged against the noble,
+Christian people of Alabama.
+
+
+AMERICA AWAKENED
+
+But there is now an awakened conscience throughout the land, and Lynch Law
+can not flourish in the future as it has in the past. The close of the
+year 1894 witnessed an aroused interest, an assertative humane principle
+which must tend to the extirpation of that crime. The awful butchery last
+mentioned failed to excite more than a passing comment In 1894, but far
+different is it today. Gov. Jones, of Alabama, in 1893 dared to speak out
+against the rule of the mob in no uncertain terms. His address indicated a
+most helpful result of the present agitation. In face of the many denials
+of the outrages on the one hand and apologies for lynchers on the other,
+Gov. Jones admits the awful lawlessness charged and refuses to join in
+the infamous plea made to condone the crime. No stronger nor more
+effective words have been said than those following from Gov. Jones.
+
+  While the ability of the state to deal with open revolts against the
+  supremacy of its laws has been ably demonstrated, I regret that
+  deplorable acts of violence have been perpetrated, in at least four
+  instances, within the past two years by mobs, whose sudden work and
+  quick dispersions rendered it impossible to protect their victims.
+  Within the past two years nine prisoners, who were either in jail or in
+  the custody of the officers, have been taken from them without
+  resistance, and put to death. There was doubt of the guilt of the
+  defendants in most of these cases, and few of them were charged with
+  capital offenses. None of them involved the crime of rape. The largest
+  rewards allowed by law were offered for the apprehension of the
+  offenders, and officers were charged to a vigilant performance of their
+  duties, and aided in some instances by the services of skilled
+  detectives; but not a single arrest has been made and the grand juries
+  in these counties have returned no bills of indictment. This would
+  indicate either that local public sentiment approved these acts of
+  violence or was too weak to punish them, or that the officers charged
+  with that duty were in some way lacking in their performance. The evil
+  cannot be cured or remedied by silence as to its existence. Unchecked,
+  it will continue until it becomes a reproach to our good name, and a
+  menace to our prosperity and peace; and it behooves you to exhaust all
+  remedies within your power to find better preventives for such crimes.
+
+
+A FRIENDLY WARNING
+
+From England comes a friendly voice which must give to every patriotic
+citizen food for earnese thought. Writing from London, to the _Chicago
+Inter Ocean_, Nov. 25, 1894, the distinguished compiler of our last
+census, Hon. Robert P. Porter, gives the American people a most
+interesting review of the antilynching crusade in England, submitting
+editorial opinions from all sections of England and Scotland, showing the
+consensus of British opinion on this subject. It hardly need be said, that
+without exception, the current of English thought deprecates the rule of
+mob law, and the conscience of England is shocked by the revelation made
+during the present crusade. In his letter Mr. Porter says:
+
+  While some English journals have joined certain American journals in
+  ridiculing the well-meaning people who have formed the antilynching
+  committee, there is a deep under current on this subject which is
+  injuring the Southern States far more than those who have not been drawn
+  into the question of English investment for the South as I have can
+  surmise. This feeling is by no means all sentiment. An Englishman whose
+  word and active cooperation could send a million sterling to any
+  legitimate Southern enterprise said the other day: "I will not invest a
+  farthing in States where these horrors occur. I have no particular
+  sympathy with the antilynching committee, but such outrages indicate to
+  my mind that where life is held to be of such little value there is even
+  less assurance that the laws will protect property. As I understand it
+  the States, not the national government, control in such matters, and
+  where those laws are strongest there is the best field for British
+  capital."
+
+Probably the most bitter attack on the antilynching committee has come
+from the _London Times_. Those Southern Governors who had their bombastic
+letters published in the _Times_, with favorable editorial comment, may
+have had their laugh at the antilynchers here too soon. A few days ago, in
+commenting on an interesting communication from Richard H. Edmonds, editor
+of the _Manufacturer's Record_, setting forth the industrial advantages of
+the Southern States, which was published in its columns, the _Times_ says:
+
+  Without in any way countenancing the impertinence of "antilynching"
+  committee, we may say that a state of things in which the killing of
+  Negroes by bloodthirsty mobs is an incident of not unfrequent occurrence
+  is not conducive to success in industry. Its existence, however, is a
+  serious obstacle to the success of the South in industry; for even now
+  Negro labor, which means at best inefficient labor, must be largely
+  relied on there, and its efficiency must be still further diminished by
+  spasmodic terrorism.
+
+  Those interested in the development of the resources of the Southern
+  States, and no one in proportion to his means has shown more faith in
+  the progress of the South than the writer of this article, must take
+  hold of this matter earnestly and intelligently. Sneering at the
+  antilynching committee will do no good. Back of them, in fact, if not in
+  form, is the public opinion of Great Britain. Even the _Times_ cannot
+  deny this. It may not be generally known in the United States, but while
+  the Southern and some of the Northern newspapers are making a target of
+  Miss Wells, the young colored woman who started this English movement,
+  and cracking their jokes at the expense of Miss Florence Balgarnie, who,
+  as honorable secretary, conducts the committee's correspondence, the
+  strongest sort of sentiment is really at the back of the movement. Here
+  we have crystallized every phase of political opinion. Extreme Unionists
+  like the Duke of Argyll and advanced home rulers such as Justin
+  McCarthy; Thomas Burt, the labor leader; Herbert Burrows, the Socialist,
+  and Tom Mann, representing all phases of the Labor party, are
+  cooperating with conservatives like Sir T. Eldon Gorst. But the real
+  strength of this committee is not visible to the casual observer. As a
+  matter of fact it represents many of the leading and most powerful
+  British journals. A.E. Fletcher is editor of the _London Daily
+  Chronicle_; P.W. Clayden is prominent in the counsels of the _London
+  Daily News_; Professor James Stuart is Gladstone's great friend and
+  editor of the _London Star_, William Byles is editor and proprietor of
+  the _Bradford Observer_, Sir Hugh Gilzen Reid is a leading Birmingham
+  editor; in short, this committee has secured if not the leading editors,
+  certainly important and warm friends, representing the Manchester
+  Guardian, the _Leeds Mercury_, the _Plymouth Western News, Newcastle
+  Leader_, the _London Daily Graphic_, the _Westminster Gazette_, the
+  _London Echo_, a host of minor papers all over the kingdom, and
+  practically the entire religious press of the kingdom.
+
+  The greatest victory for the antilynchers comes this morning in the
+  publication in the _London Times_ of William Lloyd Garrison's letter.
+  This letter will have immense effect here. It may have been printed in
+  full in the United States, but nevertheless I will quote a paragraph
+  which will strengthen the antilynchers greatly in their crusade here:
+
+  A year ago the South derided and resented Northern protests; today it
+  listens, explains and apologizes for its uncovered cruelties. Surely a
+  great triumph for a little woman to accomplish! It is the power of truth
+  simply and unreservedly spoken, for her language was inadequate to
+  describe the horrors exposed.
+
+If the Southern states are wise, and I say this with the earnestness of a
+friend and one who has built a home in the mountain regions of the South
+and thrown his lot in with them, they will not only listen, but stop
+lawlessness of all kinds. If they do, and thus secure the confidence of
+Englishmen, we may in the next decade realize some of the hopes for the
+new South we have so fondly cherished.
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+MISS WILLARD'S ATTITUDE
+
+
+No class of American citizens stands in greater need of the humane and
+thoughtful consideration of all sections of our country than do the
+colored people, nor does any class exceed us in the measure of grateful
+regard for acts of kindly interest in our behalf. It is, therefore, to us,
+a matter of keen regret that a Christian organization, so large and
+influential as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, should refuse to
+give its sympathy and support to our oppressed people who ask no further
+favor than the promotion of public sentiment which shall guarantee to
+every person accused of crime the safeguard of a fair and impartial trial,
+and protection from butchery by brutal mobs. Accustomed as we are to the
+indifference and apathy of Christian people, we would bear this instance
+of ill fortune in silence, had not Miss Willard gone out of her way to
+antagonize the cause so dear to our hearts by including in her Annual
+Address to the W.C.T.U. Convention at Cleveland, November 5, 1894, a
+studied, unjust and wholly unwarranted attack upon our work.
+
+In her address Miss Willard said:
+
+  The zeal for her race of Miss Ida B. Wells, a bright young colored
+  woman, has, it seems to me, clouded her perception as to who were her
+  friends and well-wishers in all high-minded and legitimate efforts to
+  banish the abomination of lynching and torture from the land of the free
+  and the home of the brave. It is my firm belief that in the statements
+  made by Miss Wells concerning white women having taken the initiative
+  in nameless acts between the races she has put an imputation upon half
+  the white race in this country that is unjust, and, save in the rarest
+  exceptional instances, wholly without foundation. This is the unanimous
+  opinion of the most disinterested and observant leaders of opinion whom
+  I have consulted on the subject, and I do not fear to say that the
+  laudable efforts she is making are greatly handicapped by statements of
+  this kind, nor to urge her as a friend and well-wisher to banish from
+  her vocabulary all such allusions as a source of weakness to the cause
+  she has at heart.
+
+This paragraph, brief as it is, contains two statements which have not the
+slightest foundation in fact. At no time, nor in any place, have I made
+statements "concerning white women having taken the initiative in nameless
+acts between the races." Further, at no time, or place nor under any
+circumstance, have I directly or inferentially "put an imputation upon
+half the white race in this country" and I challenge this "friend and
+well-wisher" to give proof of the truth of her charge. Miss Willard
+protests against lynching in one paragraph and then, in the next,
+deliberately misrepresents my position in order that she may criticise a
+movement, whose only purpose is to protect our oppressed race from
+vindictive slander and Lynch Law.
+
+What I have said and what I now repeat--in answer to her first charge--is,
+that colored men have been lynched for assault upon women, when the facts
+were plain that the relationship between the victim lynched and the
+alleged victim of his assault was voluntary, clandestine and illicit. For
+that very reason we maintain, that, in every section of our land, the
+accused should have a fair, impartial trial, so that a man who is colored
+shall not be hanged for an offense, which, if he were white, would not be
+adjudged a crime. Facts cited in another chapter--"History of Some Cases
+of Rape"--amply maintain this position. The publication of these facts in
+defense of the good name of the race casts no "imputation upon half the
+white race in this country" and no such imputation can be inferred except
+by persons deliberately determined to be unjust.
+
+But this is not the only injury which this cause has suffered at the hands
+of our "friend and well-wisher." It has been said that the Women's
+Christian Temperance Union, the most powerful organization of women in
+America, was misrepresented by me while I was in England. Miss Willard was
+in England at the time and knowing that no such misrepresentation came to
+her notice, she has permitted that impression to become fixed and
+widespread, when a word from her would have made the facts plain.
+
+I never at any time or place or in any way misrepresented that
+organization. When asked what concerted action had been taken by churches
+and great moral agencies in America to put down Lynch Law, I was compelled
+in truth to say that no such action had occurred, that pulpit, press and
+moral agencies in the main were silent and for reasons known to
+themselves, ignored the awful conditions which to the English people
+appeared so abhorent. Then the question was asked what the great moral
+reformers like Miss Frances Willard and Mr. Moody had done to suppress
+Lynch Law and again I answered nothing. That Mr. Moody had never said a
+word against lynching in any of his trips to the South, or in the North
+either, so far as was known, and that Miss Willard's only public utterance
+on the situation had condoned lynching and other unjust practices of the
+South against the Negro. When proof of these statements was demanded, I
+sent a letter containing a copy of the _New York Voice_, Oct. 23,1890, in
+which appeared Miss Willard's own words of wholesale slander against the
+colored race and condonation of Southern white people's outrages against
+us. My letter in part reads as follows:
+
+  But Miss Willard, the great temperance leader, went even further in
+  putting the seal of her approval upon the southerners' method of dealing
+  with the Negro. In October, 1890, the Women's Christian Temperance Union
+  held its national meeting at Atlanta, Georgia. It was the first time in
+  the history of the organization that it had gone south for a national
+  meeting, and met the southerners in their own homes. They were welcomed
+  with open arms. The governor of the state and the legislature gave
+  special audiences in the halls of state legislation to the temperance
+  workers. They set out to capture the northerners to their way of seeing
+  things, and without troubling to hear the Negro side of the question,
+  these temperance people accepted the white man's story of the problem
+  with which he had to deal. State organizers were appointed that year,
+  who had gone through the southern states since then, but in obedience to
+  southern prejudices have confined their work to white persons only. It
+  is only after Negroes are in prison for crimes that efforts of these
+  temperance women are exerted without regard to "race, color, or previous
+  condition." No "ounce of prevention" is used in their case; they are
+  black, and if these women went among the Negroes for this work, the
+  whites would not receive them. Except here and there, are found no
+  temperance workers of the Negro race; "the great dark-faced mobs" are
+  left the easy prey of the saloonkeepers.
+
+  There was pending in the National Congress at this time a Federal
+  Election Bill, the object being to give the National Government control
+  of the national elections in the several states. Had this bill become a
+  law, the Negro, whose vote has been systematically suppressed since 1875
+  in the southern states, would have had the protection of the National
+  Government, and his vote counted. The South would have been no longer
+  "solid"; the Southerners saw that the balance of power which they
+  unlawfully held in the House of Representatives and the Electoral
+  College, based on the Negro population, would be wrested from them. So
+  they nick-named the pending elections law the "Force Bill"--probably
+  because it would force them to disgorge their ill-gotten political
+  gains--and defeated it. While it was being discussed, the question was
+  submitted to Miss Willard: "What do you think of the race problem and
+  the Force Bill?"
+
+  Said Miss Willard: "Now, as to the 'race problem' in its minified,
+  current meaning, I am a true lover of the southern people--have spoken
+  and worked in, perhaps, 200 of their towns and cities; have been taken
+  into their love and confidence at scores of hospitable firesides; have
+  heard them pour out their hearts in the splendid frankness of their
+  impetuous natures. And I have said to them at such times: 'When I go
+  North there will be wafted to you no word from pen or voice that is not
+  loyal to what we are saying here and now.' Going South, a woman, a
+  temperance woman, and a Northern temperance woman--three great barriers
+  to their good will yonder--I was received by them with a confidence that
+  was one of the most delightful surprises of my life. I think we have
+  wronged the South, though we did not mean to do so. The reason was, in
+  part, that we had irreparably wronged ourselves by putting no safeguards
+  on the ballot box at the North that would sift out alien illiterates.
+  They rule our cities today; the saloon is their palace, and the toddy
+  stick their sceptre. It is not fair that they should vote, nor is it
+  fair that a plantation Negro, who can neither read nor write, whose
+  ideas are bounded by the fence of his own field and the price of his own
+  mule, should be entrusted with the ballot. We ought to have put an
+  educational test upon that ballot from the first. The Anglo-Saxon race
+  will never submit to be dominated by the Negro so long as his altitude
+  reaches no higher than the personal liberty of the saloon, and the power
+  of appreciating the amount of liquor that a dollar will buy. New England
+  would no more submit to this than South Carolina. 'Better whisky and
+  more of it' has been the rallying cry of great dark-faced mobs in the
+  Southern localities where local option was snowed under by the colored
+  vote. Temperance has no enemy like that, for it is unreasoning and
+  unreasonable. Tonight it promises in a great congregation to vote for
+  temperance at the polls tomorrow; but tomorrow twenty-five cents changes
+  that vote in favor of the liquor-seller.
+
+  "I pity the southerners, and I believe the great mass of them are as
+  conscientious and kindly intentioned toward the colored man as an equal
+  number of white church-members of the North. Would-be demagogues lead
+  the colored people to destruction. Half-drunken white roughs murder them
+  at the polls, or intimidate them so that they do not vote. But the
+  better class of people must not be blamed for this, and a more
+  thoroughly American population than the Christian people of the South
+  does not exist. They have the traditions, the kindness, the probity, the
+  courage of our forefathers. The problem on their hands is immeasurable.
+  The colored race multiplies like the locusts of Egypt. The grog-shop is
+  its center of power. 'The safety of woman, of childhood, of the home, is
+  menaced in a thousand localities at this moment, so that the men dare
+  not go beyond the sight of their own roof-tree.' How little we know of
+  all this, seated in comfort and affluence here at the North, descanting
+  upon the rights of every man to cast one vote and have it fairly
+  counted; that well-worn shibboleth invoked once more to dodge a living
+  issue.
+
+  "The fact is that illiterate colored men will not vote at the South
+  until the white population chooses to have them do so; and under similar
+  conditions they would not at the North." Here we have Miss Willard's
+  words in full, condoning fraud, violence, murder, at the ballot box;
+  rapine, shooting, hanging and burning; for all these things are done and
+  being done now by the Southern white people. She does not stop there,
+  but goes a step further to aid them in blackening the good name of an
+  entire race, as shown by the sentences quoted in the paragraph above.
+  These utterances, for which the colored people have never forgiven Miss
+  Willard, and which Frederick Douglass has denounced as false, are to be
+  found in full in the Voice of October 23,1890, a temperance organ
+  published at New York City.
+
+This letter appeared in the May number of _Fraternity_, the organ of the
+first Anti-Lynching society of Great Britain. When Lady Henry Somerset
+learned through Miss Florence Balgarnie that this letter had been
+published she informed me that if the interview was published she would
+take steps to let the public know that my statements must be received with
+caution. As I had no money to pay the printer to suppress the edition
+which was already published and these ladies did not care to do so, the
+May number of _Fraternity_ was sent to its subscribers as usual. Three
+days later there appeared in the daily _Westminster Gazette_ an
+"interview" with Miss Willard, written by Lady Henry Somerset, which was
+so subtly unjust in its wording that I was forced to reply in my own
+defense. In that reply I made only statements which, like those concerning
+Miss Willard's _Voice_ interview, have not been and cannot be denied. It
+was as follows:
+
+  LADY HENRY SOMERSET'S INTERVIEW WITH MISS WILLARD
+
+  To the Editor of the _Westminster Gazette_: Sir--The interview published
+  in your columns today hardly merits a reply, because of the indifference
+  to suffering manifested. Two ladies are represented sitting under a tree
+  at Reigate, and, after some preliminary remarks on the terrible subject
+  of lynching, Miss Willard laughingly replies by cracking a joke. And the
+  concluding sentence of the interview shows the object is not to
+  determine how best they may help the Negro who is being hanged, shot and
+  burned, but "to guard Miss Willard's reputation."
+
+  With me it is not myself nor my reputation, but the life of my people,
+  which is at stake, and I affirm that this is the first time to my
+  knowledge that Miss Willard has said a single word in denunciation of
+  lynching or demand for law. The year 1890, the one in which the
+  interview appears, had a larger lynching record than any previous year,
+  and the number and territory have increased, to say nothing of the human
+  beings burnt alive.
+
+  If so earnest as she would have the English public believe her to be,
+  why was she silent when five minutes were given me to speak last June at
+  Princes' Hall, and in Holborn Town Hall this May? I should say it was as
+  President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of America she is
+  timid, because all these unions in the South emphasize the hatred of the
+  Negro by excluding him. There is not a single colored woman admitted to
+  the Southern W.C.T.U., but still Miss Willard blames the Negro for the
+  defeat of Prohibition in the South. Miss Willard quotes from
+  _Fraternity_, but forgets to add my immediate recognition of her
+  presence on the platform at Holborn Town Hall, when, amidst many other
+  resolutions on temperance and other subjects in which she is interested,
+  time was granted to carry an anti-lynching resolution. I was so thankful
+  for this crumb of her speechless presence that I hurried off to the
+  editor of _Fraternity_ and added a postscript to my article blazoning
+  forth that fact.
+
+  Any statements I have made concerning Miss Willard are confirmed by the
+  Hon. Frederick Douglass (late United States minister to Hayti) in a
+  speech delivered by him in Washington in January of this year, which has
+  since been published in a pamphlet. The fact is, Miss Willard is no
+  better or worse than the great bulk of white Americans on the Negro
+  questions. They are all afraid to speak out, and it is only British
+  public opinion which will move them, as I am thankful to see it has
+  already begun to move Miss Willard. I am, etc.,
+
+  May 21
+
+  IDA B. WELLS
+
+Unable to deny the truth of these assertions, the charge has been made
+that I have attacked Miss Willard and misrepresented the W.C.T.U. If to
+state facts is misrepresentation, then I plead guilty to the charge.
+
+I said then and repeat now, that in all the ten terrible years of
+shooting, hanging and burning of men, women and children in America, the
+Women's Christian Temperance Union never suggested one plan or made one
+move to prevent those awful crimes. If this statement is untrue the
+records of that organization would disprove it before the ink is dry. It
+is clearly an issue of fact and in all fairness this charge of
+misrepresentation should either be substantiated or withdrawn.
+
+It is not necessary, however, to make any representation concerning the
+W.C.T.U. and the lynching question. The record of that organization speaks
+for itself. During all the years prior to the agitation begun against
+Lynch Law, in which years men, women and children were scourged, hanged,
+shot and burned, the W.C.T.U. had no word, either of pity or protest; its
+great heart, which concerns itself about humanity the world over, was,
+toward our cause, pulseless as a stone. Let those who deny this speak by
+the record. Not until after the first British campaign, in 1893, was even
+a resolution passed by the body which is the self-constituted guardian for
+"God, home and native land."
+
+Nor need we go back to other years. The annual session of that
+organization held in Cleveland in November, 1894, made a record which
+confirms and emphasizes the silence charged against it. At that session,
+earnest efforts were made to secure the adoption of a resolution of
+protest against lynching. At that very time two men were being tried for
+the murder of six colored men who were arrested on charge of barn burning,
+chained together, and on pretense of being taken to jail, were driven into
+the woods where they were ambushed and all six shot to death. The six
+widows of the butchered men had just finished the most pathetic recital
+ever heard in any court room, and the mute appeal of twenty-seven orphans
+for justice touched the stoutest hearts. Only two weeks prior to the
+session, Gov. Jones of Alabama, in his last message to the retiring state
+legislature, cited the fact that in the two years just past, nine colored
+men had been taken from the legal authorities by lynching mobs and
+butchered in cold blood--and not one of these victims was even charged
+with an assault upon womanhood.
+
+It was thought that this great organization, in face of these facts, would
+not hesitate to place itself on record in a resolution of protest against
+this awful brutality towards colored people. Miss Willard gave assurance
+that such a resolution would be adopted, and that assurance was relied on.
+The record of the session shows in what good faith that assurance was
+kept. After recommending an expression against Lynch Law, the President
+attacked the antilynching movement, deliberately misrepresenting my
+position, and in her annual address, charging me with a statement I never
+made.
+
+Further than that, when the committee on resolutions reported their work,
+not a word was said against lynching. In the interest of the cause I
+smothered the resentment. I felt because of the unwarranted and unjust
+attack of the President, and labored with members to secure an expression
+of some kind, tending to abate the awful slaughter of my race. A
+resolution against lynching was introduced by Mrs. Fessenden and read, and
+then that great Christian body, which in its resolutions had expressed
+itself in opposition to the social amusement of card playing, athletic
+sports and promiscuous dancing; had protested against the licensing of
+saloons, inveighed against tobacco, pledged its allegiance to the
+Prohibition party, and thanked the Populist party in Kansas, the
+Republican party in California and the Democratic party in the South,
+wholly ignored the seven millions of colored people of this country whose
+plea was for a word of sympathy and support for the movement in their
+behalf. The resolution was not adopted, and the convention adjourned.
+
+In the _Union Signal_ Dec. 6, 1894, among the resolutions is found this
+one:
+
+  Resolved, That the National W.C.T.U, which has for years counted among
+  its departments that of peace and arbitration, is utterly opposed to all
+  lawless acts in any and all parts of our common lands and it urges these
+  principles upon the public, praying that the time may speedily come
+  when no human being shall be condemned without due process of law; and
+  when the unspeakable outrages which have so often provoked such
+  lawlessness shall be banished from the world, and childhood, maidenhood
+  and womanhood shall no more be the victims of atrocities worse than
+  death.
+
+This is not the resolution offered by Mrs. Fessenden. She offered the one
+passed last year by the W.C.T.U. which was a strong unequivocal
+denunciation of lynching. But she was told by the chairman of the
+committee on resolutions, Mrs. Rounds, that there was already a lynching
+resolution in the hands of the committee. Mrs. Fessenden yielded the floor
+on that assurance, and no resolution of any kind against lynching was
+submitted and none was voted upon, not even the one above, taken from the
+columns of the _Union Signal_, the organ of the national W.C.T.U!
+
+Even the wording of this resolution which was printed by the W.C.T.U.,
+reiterates the false and unjust charge which has been so often made as an
+excuse for lynchers. Statistics show that less than one-third of the
+lynching victims are hanged, shot and burned alive for "unspeakable
+outrages against womanhood, maidenhood and childhood;" and that nearly a
+thousand, including women and children, have been lynched upon any pretext
+whatsoever; and that all have met death upon the unsupported word of white
+men and women. Despite these facts this resolution which was printed,
+cloaks an apology for lawlessness, in the same paragraph which affects to
+condemn it, where it speaks of "the unspeakable outrages which have so
+often provoked such lawlessness."
+
+Miss Willard told me the day before the resolutions were offered that the
+Southern women present had held a caucus that day. This was after I, as
+fraternal delegate from the Woman's Mite Missionary Society of the A.M.E.
+Church at Cleveland, O., had been introduced to tender its greetings. In
+so doing I expressed the hope of the colored women that the W.C.T.U. would
+place itself on record as opposed to lynching which robbed them of
+husbands, fathers, brothers and sons and in many cases of women as well.
+No note was made either in the daily papers or the _Union Signal_ of that
+introduction and greeting, although every other incident of that morning
+was published. The failure to submit a lynching resolution and the wording
+of the one above appears to have been the result of that Southern caucus.
+
+On the same day I had a private talk with Miss Willard and told her she
+had been unjust to me and the cause in her annual address, and asked that
+she correct the statement that I had misrepresented the W.C.T.U, or that I
+had "put an imputation on one-half the white race in this country." She
+said that somebody in England told her it was a pity that I attacked the
+white women of America. "Oh," said I, "then you went out of your way to
+prejudice me and my cause in your annual address, not upon what you had
+heard me say, but what somebody had told you I said?" Her reply was that I
+must not blame her for her rhetorical expressions--that I had my way of
+expressing things and she had hers. I told her I most assuredly did blame
+her when those expressions were calculated to do such harm. I waited for
+an honest an unequivocal retraction of her statements based on "hearsay."
+Not a word of retraction or explanation was said in the convention and I
+remained misrepresented before that body through her connivance and
+consent.
+
+The editorial notes in the _Union Signal_, Dec. 6, 1894, however, contains
+the following:
+
+  In her repudiation of the charges brought by Miss Ida Wells against
+  white women as having taken the initiative in nameless crimes between
+  the races, Miss Willard said in her annual address that this statement
+  "put an unjust imputation upon half the white race." But as this
+  expression has been misunderstood she desires to declare that she did
+  not intend a literal interpretation to be given to the language used,
+  but employed it to express a tendency that might ensue in public thought
+  as a result of utterances so sweeping as some that have been made by
+  Miss Wells.
+
+Because this explanation is as unjust as the original offense, I am forced
+in self-defense to submit this account of differences. I desire no quarrel
+with the W.C.T.U., but my love for the truth is greater than my regard for
+an alleged friend who, through ignorance or design misrepresents in the
+most harmful way the cause of a long suffering race, and then unable to
+maintain the truth of her attack excuses herself as it were by the wave of
+the hand, declaring that "she did not intend a literal interpretation to
+be given to the language used." When the lives of men, women and children
+are at stake, when the inhuman butchers of innocents attempt to justify
+their barbarism by fastening upon a whole race the obloque of the most
+infamous of crimes, it is little less than criminal to apologize for the
+butchers today and tomorrow to repudiate the apology by declaring it a
+figure of speech.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+LYNCHING RECORD FOR 1894
+
+
+
+The following tables are based on statistics taken from the columns of the
+_Chicago Tribune_, Jan. 1, 1895. They are a valuable appendix to the
+foregoing pages. They show, among other things, that in Louisiana, April
+23-28, eight Negroes were lynched because one white man was killed by the
+Negro, the latter acting in self defense. Only seven of them are given in
+the list.
+
+Near Memphis, Tenn., six Negroes were lynched--this time charged with
+burning barns. A trial of the indicted resulted in an acquittal, although
+it was shown on trial that the lynching was prearranged for them. Six
+widows and twenty-seven orphans are indebted to this mob for their
+condition, and this lynching swells the number to eleven Negroes lynched
+in and about Memphis since March 9, 1892.
+
+In Brooks County, Ga., Dec. 23, while this Christian country was preparing
+for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in twenty-four hours
+because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a colored
+man named Pike, who killed a white man. The wives and daughters of these
+lynched men were horribly and brutally outraged by the murderers of their
+husbands and fathers. But the mob has not been punished and again women
+and children are robbed of their protectors whose blood cries unavenged to
+Heaven and humanity. Georgia heads the list of lynching states.
+
+
+MURDER
+
+Jan. 9, Samuel Smith, Greenville, Ala., Jan. 11, Sherman Wagoner,
+Mitchell, Ind.; Jan. 12, Roscoe Parker, West Union, Ohio; Feb. 7, Henry
+Bruce, Gulch Co., Ark.; March 5, Sylvester Rhodes, Collins, Ga.; March 15,
+Richard Puryea, Stroudsburg, Pa.; March 29, Oliver Jackson, Montgomery,
+Ala.; March 30, ---- Saybrick, Fisher's Ferry, Miss.; April 14, William
+Lewis, Lanison, Ala.; April 23, Jefferson Luggle, Cherokee, Kan.; April
+23, Samuel Slaugate, Tallulah, La.; April 23, Thomas Claxton, Tallulah,
+La.; April 23, David Hawkins, Tallulah, La.; April 27, Thel Claxton,
+Tallulah, La.; April 27, Comp Claxton, Tallulah, La.; April 27, Scot
+Harvey, Tallulah, La.; April 27, Jerry McCly, Tallulah, La.; May 17, Henry
+Scott, Jefferson, Tex.; May 15, Coat Williams, Pine Grove, Fla.; June 2,
+Jefferson Crawford, Bethesda, S.C.; June 4, Thondo Underwood, Monroe, La.;
+June 8, Isaac Kemp, Cape Charles, Va.; June 13, Lon Hall, Sweethouse,
+Tex.; June 13, Bascom Cook, Sweethouse, Tex.; June 15, Luke Thomas,
+Biloxi, Miss.; June 29, John Williams, Sulphur, Tex.; June 29, Ulysses
+Hayden, Monett, Mo.; July 6, ---- Hood, Amite, Miss.; July 7, James Bell,
+Charlotte, Tenn.; Sept. 2, Henderson Hollander, Elkhorn, W. Va.; Sept. 14,
+Robert Williams, Concordia Parish, La.; Sept. 22, Luke Washington, Meghee,
+Ark.; Sept. 22, Richard Washington, Meghee, Ark.; Sept. 22, Henry
+Crobyson, Meghee, Ark.; Nov. 10, Lawrence Younger, Lloyd, Va.; Dec. 17,
+unknown Negro, Williamston, S.C.; Dec. 23, Samuel Taylor, Brooks County,
+Ga.; Dec. 23, Charles Frazier, Brooks County, Ga.; Dec. 23, Samuel Pike,
+Brooks County, Ga.; Dec. 22, Harry Sherard, Brooks County, Ga.; Dec. 23,
+unknown Negro, Brooks County, Ga.; Dec. 23, unknown Negro, Brooks County,
+Ga.; Dec. 23, unknown Negro, Brooks County, Ga.; Dec. 26, Daniel McDonald,
+Winston County, Miss.; Dec. 23, William Carter, Winston County, Miss.
+
+
+RAPE
+
+Jan. 17, John Buckner, Valley Park, Mo.; Jan. 21, M.G. Cambell, Jellico
+Mines, Ky.; Jan. 27, unknown, Verona, Mo.; Feb. 11, Henry McCreeg, near
+Pioneer, Tenn.; April 6, Daniel Ahren, Greensboro, Ga.; April 15, Seymour
+Newland, Rushsylvania, Ohio; April 26, Robert Evarts, Jamaica, Ga.; April
+27, James Robinson, Manassas, Va.; April 27, Benjamin White, Manassas,
+Va.; May 15, Nim Young, Ocala, Fla.; May 22, unknown, Miller County, Ga.;
+June 13, unknown, Blackshear, Ga.; June 18, Owen Opliltree, Forsyth, Ga.;
+June 22, Henry Capus, Magnolia, Ark.; June 26, Caleb Godly, Bowling Green,
+Ky.; June 28, Fayette Franklin, Mitchell, Ga.; July 2, Joseph Johnson,
+Hiller's Creek, Mo.; July 6, Lewis Bankhead, Cooper, Ala.; July 16, Marion
+Howard, Scottsville, Ky.; July 20, William Griffith, Woodville, Tex.; Aug.
+12, William Nershbread, Rossville, Tenn.; Aug. 14, Marshall Boston,
+Frankfort, Ky; Sept. 19, David Gooseby, Atlanta, Ga.; Oct. 15, Willis
+Griffey, Princeton, Ky; Nov. 8, Lee Lawrence, Jasper County, Ga.; Nov. 10,
+Needham Smith, Tipton County, Tenn.; Nov. 14, Robert Mosely, Dolinite,
+Ala.; Dec. 4, William Jackson, Ocala, Fla.; Dec. 18, unknown, Marion
+County, Fla.
+
+
+UNKNOWN OFFENSES
+
+March 6, Lamsen Gregory, Bell's Depot, Tenn.; March 6, unknown woman, near
+Marche, Ark.; April 14, Alfred Brenn, Calhoun, Ga.; June 8, Harry Gill,
+West Lancaster, S.C.; Nov. 23, unknown, Landrum, S.C.; Dec. 5, Mrs. Teddy
+Arthur, Lincoln County, W. Va.
+
+
+DESPERADO
+
+Jan. 14, Charles Willis, Ocala, Fla.
+
+
+SUSPECTED INCENDIARISM
+
+Jan. 18, unknown, Bayou Sarah, La.
+
+
+SUSPECTED ARSON
+
+June 14, J.H. Dave, Monroe, La.
+
+
+ENTICING SERVANT AWAY
+
+Feb. 10, ---- Collins, Athens, Ga.
+
+
+TRAIN WRECKING
+
+Feb. 10, Jesse Dillingham, Smokeyville, Tex.
+
+
+HIGHWAY ROBBERY
+
+June 3, unknown, Dublin, Ga.
+
+
+INCENDIARISM
+
+Nov. 8, Gabe Nalls, Blackford, Ky.; Nov. 8, Ulysses Nails, Blackford, Ky.
+
+
+ARSON
+
+Dec. 20, James Allen, Brownsville, Tex.
+
+
+ASSAULT
+
+Dec. 23, George King, New Orleans, La.
+
+
+NO OFFENSE
+
+Dec. 28, Scott Sherman, Morehouse Parish, La.
+
+
+BURGLARY
+
+May 29, Henry Smith, Clinton, Miss.; May 29, William James, Clinton,
+Miss.
+
+
+ALLEGED RAPE
+
+June 4, Ready Murdock, Yazoo, Miss.
+
+
+ATTEMPTED RAPE
+
+July 14, unknown Negro, Biloxi, Miss.; July 26, Vance McClure, New Iberia,
+La.; July 26, William Tyler, Carlisle, Ky.; Sept. 14, James Smith, Stark,
+Fla.; Oct. 8, Henry Gibson, Fairfield, Tex.; Oct. 20, ---- Williams, Upper
+Marlboro, Md.; June 9, Lewis Williams, Hewett Springs, Miss.; June 28,
+George Linton, Brookhaven, Miss.; June 28, Edward White, Hudson, Ala.;
+July 6, George Pond, Fulton, Miss.; July 7, Augustus Pond, Tupelo, Miss.
+
+
+RACE PREJUDICE
+
+June 10, Mark Jacobs, Bienville, La.; July 24, unknown woman, Sampson
+County, Miss.
+
+
+INTRODUCING SMALLPOX
+
+June 10, James Perry, Knoxville, Ark.
+
+
+KIDNAPPING
+
+March 2, Lentige, Harland County, Ky.
+
+
+CONSPIRACY
+
+May 29, J.T. Burgis, Palatka, Fla.
+
+
+HORSE STEALING
+
+June 20, Archie Haynes, Mason County, Ky.; June 20, Burt Haynes, Mason
+County, Ky.; June 20, William Haynes, Mason County, Ky.
+
+
+WRITING LETTER TO WHITE WOMAN
+
+May 9, unknown Negro, West Texas.
+
+
+GIVING INFORMATION
+
+July 12, James Nelson, Abbeyville, S.C.
+
+
+STEALING
+
+Jan. 5, Alfred Davis, Live Oak County, Ark.
+
+
+LARCENY
+
+April 18, Henry Montgomery, Lewisburg, Tenn.
+
+
+POLITICAL CAUSES
+
+July 19, John Brownlee, Oxford, Ala.
+
+
+CONJURING
+
+July 20, Allen Myers, Rankin County, Miss.
+
+
+ATTEMPTED MURDER
+
+June 1, Frank Ballard, Jackson, Tenn.
+
+
+ALLEGED MURDER
+
+April 5, Negro, near Selma, Ala.; April 5, Negro, near Selma, Ala.
+
+
+WITHOUT CAUSE
+
+May 17, Samuel Wood, Gates City, Va.
+
+
+BARN BURNING
+
+April 22, Thomas Black, Tuscumbia, Ala.; April 22, John Williams,
+Tuscumbia, Ala.; April 22, Toney Johnson, Tuscumbia, Ala.; July 14,
+William Bell, Dixon, Tenn.; Sept. 1, Daniel Hawkins, Millington, Tenn.;
+Sept. 1, Robert Haynes, Millington, Tenn.; Sept. 1, Warner Williams,
+Millington, Tenn.; Sept. 1, Edward Hall, Millington, Tenn.; Sept. 1, John
+Haynes, Millington, Tenn.; Sept. 1, Graham White, Millington, Tenn.
+
+
+ASKING WHITE WOMAN TO MARRY HIM
+
+May 23, William Brooks, Galesline, Ark.
+
+
+OFFENSES CHARGED FOR LYNCHING
+
+Suspected arson, 2; stealing, 1; political causes, 1; murder, 45; rape,
+29; desperado, 1; suspected incendiarism, 1; train wrecking, 1; enticing
+servant away, 1; kidnapping, 1; unknown offense, 6; larceny, 1; barn
+burning, 10; writing letters to a white woman, 1; without cause, 1;
+burglary, 1; asking white woman to marry, 1; conspiracy, 1; attempted
+murder, 1; horse stealing, 3; highway robbery, 1; alleged rape, 1;
+attempted rape, 11; race prejudice, 2; introducing smallpox, 1; giving
+information, 1; conjuring, 1; incendiarism, 2; arson, 1; assault, 1; no
+offense, 1; alleged murder, 2; total (colored), 134.
+
+
+LYNCHING STATES
+
+Mississippi, 15; Arkansas, 8; Virginia, 5; Tennessee, 15; Alabama, 12;
+Kentucky, 12; Texas, 9; Georgia, 19; South Carolina, 5; Florida, 7;
+Louisiana, 15; Missouri, 4; Ohio, 2; Maryland, 1; West Virginia, 2;
+Indiana, 1; Kansas, 1; Pennsylvania, 1.
+
+
+LYNCHING BY THE MONTH
+
+January, 11; February, 17; March, 8; April, 36; May, 16; June, 31; July,
+21; August, 4; September, 17; October, 7; November, 9; December, 20; total
+colored and white, 197.
+
+
+WOMEN LYNCHED
+
+July 24, unknown woman, race prejudice, Sampson County, Miss.; March 6,
+unknown, woman, unknown offense, Marche, Ark.; Dec. 5, Mrs. Teddy Arthur,
+unknown cause, Lincoln County, W. Va.
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+THE REMEDY
+
+
+It is a well-established principle of law that every wrong has a remedy.
+Herein rests our respect for law. The Negro does not claim that all of the
+one thousand black men, women and children, who have been hanged, shot and
+burned alive during the past ten years, were innocent of the charges made
+against them. We have associated too long with the white man not to have
+copied his vices as well as his virtues. But we do insist that the
+punishment is not the same for both classes of criminals. In lynching,
+opportunity is not given the Negro to defend himself against the
+unsupported accusations of white men and women. The word of the accuser is
+held to be true and the excited bloodthirsty mob demands that the rule of
+law be reversed and instead of proving the accused to be guilty, the
+victim of their hate and revenge must prove himself innocent. No evidence
+he can offer will satisfy the mob; he is bound hand and foot and swung
+into eternity. Then to excuse its infamy, the mob almost invariably
+reports the monstrous falsehood that its victim made a full confession
+before he was hanged.
+
+With all military, legal and political power in their hands, only two of
+the lynching States have attempted a check by exercising the power which
+is theirs. Mayor Trout, of Roanoke, Virginia, called out the militia in
+1893, to protect a Negro prisoner, and in so doing nine men were killed
+and a number wounded. Then the mayor and militia withdrew, left the Negro
+to his fate and he was promptly lynched. The business men realized the
+blow to the town's were given light sentences, the highest being one of
+twelve financial interests, called the mayor home, the grand jury
+indicted and prosecuted the ringleaders of the mob. They months in State
+prison. The day he arrived at the penitentiary, he was pardoned by the
+governor of the State.
+
+The only other real attempt made by the authorities to protect a prisoner
+of the law, and which was more successful, was that of Gov. McKinley, of
+Ohio, who sent the militia to Washington Courthouse, O., in October, 1894,
+and five men were killed and twenty wounded in maintaining the principle
+that the law must be upheld.
+
+In South Carolina, in April, 1893, Gov. Tillman aided the mob by yielding
+up to be killed, a prisoner of the law, who had voluntarily placed himself
+under the Governor's protection. Public sentiment by its representatives
+has encouraged Lynch Law, and upon the revolution of this sentiment we
+must depend for its abolition.
+
+Therefore, we demand a fair trial by law for those accused of crime, and
+punishment by law after honest conviction. No maudlin sympathy for
+criminals is solicited, but we do ask that the law shall punish all alike.
+We earnestly desire those that control the forces which make public
+sentiment to join with us in the demand. Surely the humanitarian spirit of
+this country which reaches out to denounce the treatment of the Russian
+Jews, the Armenian Christians, the laboring poor of Europe, the Siberian
+exiles and the native women of India--will not longer refuse to lift its
+voice on this subject. If it were known that the cannibals or the savage
+Indians had burned three human beings alive in the past two years, the
+whole of Christendom would be roused, to devise ways and means to put a
+stop to it. Can you remain silent and inactive when such things are done
+in our own community and country? Is your duty to humanity in the United
+States less binding?
+
+What can you do, reader, to prevent lynching, to thwart anarchy and
+promote law and order throughout our land?
+
+1st. You can help disseminate the facts contained in this book by bringing
+them to the knowledge of every one with whom you come in contact, to the
+end that public sentiment may be revolutionized. Let the facts speak for
+themselves, with you as a medium.
+
+2d. You can be instrumental in having churches, missionary societies,
+Y.M.C.A.'s, W.C.T.U.'s and all Christian and moral forces in connection
+with your religious and social life, pass resolutions of condemnation and
+protest every time a lynching takes place; and see that they axe sent to
+the place where these outrages occur.
+
+3d. Bring to the intelligent consideration of Southern people the refusal
+of capital to invest where lawlessness and mob violence hold sway. Many
+labor organizations have declared by resolution that they would avoid
+lynch infested localities as they would the pestilence when seeking new
+homes. If the South wishes to build up its waste places quickly, there is
+no better way than to uphold the majesty of the law by enforcing obedience
+to the same, and meting out the same punishment to all classes of
+criminals, white as well as black. "Equality before the law," must become
+a fact as well as a theory before America is truly the "land of the free
+and the home of the brave."
+
+4th. Think and act on independent lines in this behalf, remembering that
+after all, it is the white man's civilization and the white man's
+government which are on trial. This crusade will determine whether that
+civilization can maintain itself by itself, or whether anarchy shall
+prevail; Whether this Nation shall write itself down a success at self
+government, or in deepest humiliation admit its failure complete; whether
+the precepts and theories of Christianity are professed and practiced by
+American white people as Golden Rules of thought and action, or adopted as
+a system of morals to be preached to, heathen until they attain to the
+intelligence which needs the system of Lynch Law.
+
+5th. Congressman Blair offered a resolution in the House of
+Representatives, August, 1894. The organized life of the country can
+speedily make this a law by sending resolutions to Congress indorsing Mr.
+Blair's bill and asking Congress to create the commission. In no better
+way can the question be settled, and the Negro does not fear the issue.
+The following is the resolution:
+
+  Resolved, By the House of Representatives and Senate in congress
+  assembled, That the committee on labor be instructed to investigate and
+  report the number, location and date of all alleged assaults by males
+  upon females throughout the country during the ten years last preceding
+  the passing of this joint resolution, for or on account of which
+  organized but unlawful violence has been inflicted or attempted to be
+  inflicted. Also to ascertain and report all facts of organized but
+  unlawful violence to the person, with the attendant facts and
+  circumstances, which have been inflicted upon accused persons alleged to
+  have been guilty of crimes punishable by due process of law which have
+  taken place in any part of the country within the ten years last
+  preceding the passage of this resolution. Such investigation shall be
+  made by the usual methods and agencies of the Department of Labor, and
+  report made to Congress as soon as the work can be satisfactorily done,
+  and the sum of $25,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is
+  hereby appropriated to pay the expenses out of any money in the treasury
+  not otherwise appropriated.
+
+The belief has been constantly expressed in England that in the United
+States, which has produced Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher, James
+Russell Lowell, John G. Whittier and Abraham Lincoln there must be those
+of their descendants who would take hold of the work of inaugurating an
+era of law and order. The colored people of this country who have been
+loyal to the flag believe the same, and strong in that belief have begun
+this crusade. To those who still feel they have no obligation in the
+matter, we commend the following lines of Lowell on "Freedom."
+
+    Men! whose boast it is that ye
+    Come of fathers brave and free,
+    If there breathe on earth a slave
+    Are ye truly free and brave?
+    If ye do not feel the chain,
+    When it works a brother's pain,
+    Are ye not base slaves indeed,
+    Slaves unworthy to be freed?
+
+    Women! who shall one day bear
+    Sons to breathe New England air,
+    If ye hear without a blush,
+    Deeds to make the roused blood rush
+    Like red lava through your veins,
+    For your sisters now in chains,--
+    Answer! are ye fit to be
+    Mothers of the brave and free?
+
+    Is true freedom but to break
+    Fetters for our own dear sake,
+    And, with leathern hearts, forget
+    That we owe mankind a debt?
+    No! true freedom is to share
+    All the chains our brothers wear,
+    And, with heart and hand, to be
+    Earnest to make others free!
+
+    There are slaves who fear to speak
+    For the fallen and the weak;
+    They are slaves who will not choose
+    Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
+    Rather than in silence shrink
+    From the truth they needs must think;
+    They are slaves who dare not be
+    In the right with two or three.
+
+
+A FIELD FOR PRACTICAL WORK
+
+The very frequent inquiry made after my lectures by interested friends is
+"What can I do to help the cause?" The answer always is: "Tell the world
+the facts." When the Christian world knows the alarming growth and extent
+of outlawry in our land, some means will be found to stop it.
+
+The object of this publication is to tell the facts, and friends of the
+cause can lend a helping hand by aiding in the distribution of these
+books. When I present our cause to a minister, editor, lecturer, or
+representative of any moral agency, the first demand is for facts and
+figures. Plainly, I can not then hand out a book with a twenty-five-cent
+tariff on the information contained. This would be only a new method in
+the book agents' art. In all such cases it is a pleasure to submit this
+book for investigation, with the certain assurance of gaining a friend to
+the cause.
+
+There are many agencies which may be enlisted in our cause by the general
+circulation of the facts herein contained. The preachers, teachers,
+editors and humanitarians of the white race, at home and abroad, must have
+facts laid before them, and it is our duty to supply these facts. The
+Central Anti-Lynching League, Room 9, 128 Clark St., Chicago, has
+established a Free Distribution Fund, the work of which can be promoted by
+all who are interested in this work.
+
+Antilynching leagues, societies and individuals can order books from this
+fund at agents' rates. The books will be sent to their order, or, if
+desired, will be distributed by the League among those whose cooperative
+aid we so greatly need. The writer hereof assures prompt distribution of
+books according to order, and public acknowledgment of all orders through
+the public press.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Record, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett
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@@ -0,0 +1,5796 @@+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative of the Life and Adventures of
+Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself, by Henry Bibb
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
+
+
+Title: Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself
+
+Author: Henry Bibb
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2005 [EBook #15398]
+
+Language: English
+
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE AND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NARRATIVE
+
+OF THE
+
+LIFE AND ADVENTURES
+
+OF
+
+HENRY BIBB,
+
+AN AMERICAN SLAVE,
+
+WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
+
+
+WITH
+
+AN INTRODUCTION
+
+BY LUCIUS C. MATLACK.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR; 5 SPRUCE STREET.
+
+1849
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+From the most obnoxious substances we often see spring forth,
+beautiful and fragrant, flowers of every hue, to regale the eye, and
+perfume the air. Thus, frequently, are results originated which are
+wholly unlike the cause that gave them birth. An illustration of this
+truth is afforded by the history of American Slavery.
+
+Naturally and necessarily, the enemy of literature, it has become the
+prolific theme of much that is profound in argument, sublime in
+poetry, and thrilling in narrative. From the soil of slavery itself
+have sprung forth some of the most brilliant productions, whose
+logical levers will ultimately upheave and overthrow the system.
+Gushing fountains of poetic thought, have started from beneath the rod
+of violence, that will long continue to slake the feverish thirst of
+humanity outraged, until swelling to a flood it shall rush with
+wasting violence over the ill-gotten heritage of the oppressor.
+Startling incidents authenticated, far excelling fiction in their
+touching pathos, from the pen of self-emancipated slaves, do now
+exhibit slavery in such revolting aspects, as to secure the
+execrations of all good men, and become a monument more enduring than
+marble, in testimony strong as sacred writ against it.
+
+Of the class last named, is the narrative of the life of Henry Bibb,
+which is equally distinguished as a revolting portrait of the hideous
+slave system, a thrilling narrative of individual suffering, and a
+triumphant vindication of the slave's manhood and mental dignity. And
+all this is associated with unmistakable traces of originality and
+truthfulness.
+
+To many, the elevated style, purity of diction, and easy flow of
+language, frequently exhibited, will appear unaccountable and
+contradictory, in view of his want of early mental culture. But to the
+thousands who have listened with delight to his speeches on
+anniversary and other occasions, these same traits will be noted as
+unequivocal evidence of originality. Very few men present in their
+written composition, so perfect a transcript of their style as is
+exhibited by Mr. Bibb.
+
+Moreover, the writer of this introduction is well acquainted with his
+handwriting and style. The entire manuscript I have examined and
+prepared for the press. Many of the closing pages of it were written
+by Mr. Bibb in my office. And the whole is preserved for inspection
+now. An examination of it will show that no alteration of sentiment,
+language or style, was necessary to make it what it now is, in the
+hands of the reader. The work of preparation for the press was that of
+orthography and punctuation merely, an arrangement of the chapters,
+and a table of contents--little more than falls to the lot of
+publishers generally.
+
+The fidelity of the narrative is sustained by the most satisfactory
+and ample testimony. Time has proved its claims to truth. Thorough
+investigation has sifted and analysed every essential fact alleged,
+and demonstrated clearly that this thrilling and eloquent narrative,
+though stranger than fiction, is undoubtedly true.
+
+It is only necessary to present the following documents to the reader,
+to sustain this declaration. For convenience of reference, and that
+they may be more easily understood, the letters will be inserted
+consecutively, with explanations following the last.
+
+The best preface to these letters, is the report of a committee
+appointed to investigate the truth of Mr. Bibb's narrative as he has
+delivered it in public for years past.
+
+
+                              REPORT
+
+     OF THE UNDERSIGNED, COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE DETROIT
+     LIBERTY ASSOCIATION TO INVESTIGATE THE TRUTH OF THE
+     NARRATIVE OF HENRY BIBB, A FUGITIVE FROM SLAVERY, AND REPORT
+     THEREON:
+
+     Mr. Bibb has addressed several assemblies in Michigan, and
+     his narrative is generally known. Some of his hearers, among
+     whom were Liberty men, felt doubt as to the truth of his
+     statements. Respect for their scruples and the obligation of
+     duty to the public induced the formation of the present
+     Committee.
+
+     The Committee entered on the duty confided to them, resolved
+     on a searching scrutiny, and an unreserved publication of
+     its result. Mr. Bibb acquiesced in the inquiry with a
+     praiseworthy spirit. He attended before the Committee and
+     gave willing aid to its object. He was subjected to a
+     rigorous examination. Facts--dates--persons--and localities
+     were demanded and cheerfully furnished. Proper
+     inquiry--either by letter, or personally, or through the
+     medium of friends was then made from _every_ person, and in
+     _every_ quarter likely to elucidate the truth. In fact no
+     test for its ascertainment, known to the sense or experience
+     of the Committee, was omitted. The result was the collection
+     of a large body of testimony from very diversified quarters.
+     Slave owners, slave dealers, fugitives from slavery,
+     political friends and political foes contributed to a mass
+     of testimony, every part of which pointed to a common
+     conclusion--the undoubted truth of Mr. Bibb's statements.
+
+     In the Committee's opinion no individual can substantiate
+     the events of his life by testimony more conclusive and
+     harmonious than is now before them in confirmation of Mr.
+     Bibb. The main facts of his narrative, and many of the minor
+     ones are corroborated beyond all question. No inconsistency
+     has been disclosed nor anything revealed to create
+     suspicion. The Committee have no hesitation in declaring
+     their conviction that Mr. Bibb is amply sustained, and is
+     entitled to public confidence and high esteem.
+
+     The bulk of testimony precludes its publication, but it is
+     in the Committee's hands for the inspection of any
+     applicant.
+
+                                        A.L. PORTER,
+                                        C.H. STEWART,
+                                        SILAS M. HOLMES.
+                                                 Committee.
+
+     DETROIT, _April 22, 1845_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the bulk of testimony obtained, a part only is here introduced.
+The remainder fully corroborates and strengthens that.
+
+     [No. 1. An Extract]            DAWN MILLS, FEB. 19th, 1845.
+
+     CHARLES H. STEWART, ESQ.
+     MY DEAR BROTHER:
+
+     Your kind communication of the 13th came to hand yesterday.
+     I have made inquiries respecting Henry Bibb which may be of
+     service to you. Mr. Wm. Harrison, to whom you alluded in
+     your letter, is here. He is a respectable and worthy man--a
+     man of piety. I have just had an interview with him this
+     evening. He testifies, that he was well acquainted with
+     Henry Bibb in Trimble County, Ky., and that he sent a letter
+     to him by Thomas Henson, and got one in return from him. He
+     says that Bibb came out to Canada some three years ago, and
+     went back to get his wife up, but was betrayed at Cincinnati
+     by a colored man--that he was taken to Louisville but got
+     away--was taken again and lodged in jail, and sold off to
+     New Orleans, or he, (Harrison,) understood that he was taken
+     to New Orleans. He testifies that Bibb is a Methodist man,
+     and says that two persons who came on with him last Summer,
+     knew Bibb. One of these, Simpson Young, is now at Malden.
+     * *  *
+
+          Very respectfully, thy friend,
+                                      HIRAM WILSON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [No. 2.]                     BEDFORD, TRIMBLE CO., KENTUCKY.
+                                                 _March 4, 1845_.
+
+     SIR:--Your letter under date of the 13th ult., is now before
+     me, making some inquiry about a person supposed to be a
+     fugitive from the South, "who is lecturing to your religious
+     community on Slavery and the South."
+
+     I am pleased to inform you that I have it in my power to
+     give you the information you desire. The person spoken of by
+     you I have no doubt is Walton, a yellow man, who once
+     belonged to my father, William Gatewood. He was purchased by
+     him from John Sibly, and by John Sibly of his brother Albert
+     G. Sibly, and Albert G. Sibly became possessed of him by his
+     marriage with Judge David White's daughter, he being born
+     Judge White's slave.
+
+     The boy Walton at the time he belonged to John Sibly,
+     married a slave of my father's, a mulatto girl, and sometime
+     afterwards solicited him to buy him; the old man after much
+     importuning from Walton, consented to do so, and accordingly
+     paid Sibly eight hundred and fifty dollars. He did not buy
+     him because he needed him, but from the fact that he had a
+     wife there, and Walton on his part promising every thing
+     that my father could desire.
+
+     It was not long, however, before Walton became indolent and
+     neglectful of his duty; and in addition to this, he was
+     guilty, as the old man thought, of worse offences. He
+     watched his conduct more strictly, and found he was guilty
+     of disposing of articles from the farm for his own use, and
+     pocketing the money.
+
+     He actually caught him one day stealing wheat--he had
+     conveyed one sack full to a neighbor and whilst he was
+     delivering the other my father caught him in the very act.
+
+     He confessed his guilt and promised to do better for the
+     future--and on his making promises of this kind my father
+     was disposed to keep him still, not wishing to part him from
+     his wife, for whom he professed to entertain the strongest
+     affection. When the Christmas Holidays came on, the old man,
+     as is usual in this country, gave his negroes a week
+     Holiday. Walton, instead of regaling himself by going about
+     visiting his colored friends, took up his line of march for
+     her Britanic Majesty's dominions.
+
+     He was gone about two years I think, when I heard of him in
+     Cincinnati; I repaired thither, with some few friends to aid
+     me, and succeeded in securing him.
+
+     He was taken to Louisville, and on the next morning after
+     our arrival there, he escaped, almost from before our face,
+     while we were on the street before the Tavern. He succeeded
+     in eluding our pursuit, and again reached Canada in safety.
+
+     Nothing daunted he returned, after a lapse of some twelve or
+     eighteen months, with the intention, as I have since
+     learned, of conducting off his wife and eight or ten more
+     slaves to Canada.
+
+     I got news of his whereabouts, and succeeded in recapturing
+     him. I took him to Louisville and together with his wife and
+     child, (she going along with him at her owner's request,)
+     sold him. He was taken from thence to New Orleans--and from
+     hence to Red River, Arkansas--and the next news I had of him
+     he was again wending his way to Canada, and I suppose now is
+     at or near Detroit.
+
+     In relation to his character, it was the general opinion
+     here that he was a notorious liar, and a rogue. These
+     things I can procure any number of respectable witnesses to
+     prove.
+
+     In proof of it, he says his mother belonged to James Bibb,
+     which is a lie, there not having been such a man about here,
+     much less brother of Secretary Bibb. He says that Bibb's
+     daughter married A.G. Sibly, when the fact is Sibly married
+     Judge David White's daughter, and his mother belonged to
+     White also and is now here, free.
+
+     So you will perceive he is guilty of lying for no effect,
+     and what might it not be supposed he would do where he could
+     effect anything by it.
+
+     I have been more tedious than I should have been, but being
+     anxious to give you his rascally conduct in full, must be my
+     apology. You are at liberty to publish this letter, or make
+     any use you see proper of it. If you do publish it, let me
+     have a paper containing the publication--at any rate let me
+     hear from you again.
+
+                                        Respectfully yours, &c,
+                                               SILAS GATEWOOD.
+
+     TO C.H. STEWART, ESQ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [No. 3. An Extract.]           CINCINNATI, _March 10, 1845_.
+
+     MY DEAR SIR:--Mrs. Path, Nickens and Woodson did not see
+     Bibb on his first visit, in 1837, when he staid with Job
+     Dundy, but were subsequently told of it by Bibb. They first
+     saw him in May, 1838. Mrs. Path remembers this date because
+     it was the month in which she removed from Broadway to
+     Harrison street, and Bibb assisted her to remove. Mrs.
+     Path's garden adjoined Dundy's back yard. While engaged in
+     digging up flowers, she was addressed by Bibb, who was
+     staying with Dundy, and who offered to dig them up for her.
+     She hired him to do it. Mrs. Dundy shortly after called over
+     and told Mrs. Path that he was a slave. After that Mrs. Path
+     took him into her house and concealed him. While concealed,
+     he astonished his good protectress by his ingenuity in
+     bottoming chairs with cane. When the furniture was removed,
+     Bibb insisted on helping, and was, after some remonstrances,
+     permitted. At the house on Harrison street, he was employed
+     for several days in digging a cellar, and was so employed
+     when seized on Saturday afternoon by the constables. He
+     held frequent conversations with Mrs. Path and others, in
+     which he gave them the same account which he has given you.
+
+     On Saturday afternoon, two noted slave-catching constables,
+     E.V. Brooks and O'Neil, surprised Bibb as he was digging in
+     the cellar. Bibb sprang for the fence and gained the top of
+     it, where he was seized and dragged back. They took him
+     immediately before William Doty, a Justice of infamous
+     notoriety as an accomplice of kidnappers, proved property,
+     paid charges and took him away.
+
+     His distressed friends were surprised by his re-appearance
+     in a few days after, the Wednesday following, as they think.
+     He reached the house of Dr. Woods, (a colored man since
+     deceased,) before day-break, and staid until dusk. Mrs.
+     Path, John Woodson and others made up about twelve dollars
+     for him. Woodson accompanied him out of town a mile and bid
+     him "God speed." He has never been here since. Woodson and
+     Clark saw him at Detroit two years ago.
+
+                                        Yours truly,
+                                        WILLIAM BIRNEY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [No. 4.]                      LOUISVILLE, _March 14, 1845_.
+
+     MR. STEWART.--Yours of the 1st came to hand on the 13th
+     inst. You wished me to inform you what became of a boy that
+     was in the work-house in the fall of '39. The boy you allude
+     to went by the name of Walton; he had ran away from Kentucky
+     some time before, and returned for his wife--was caught and
+     sold to Garrison; he was taken to Louisiana, I think--he was
+     sold on Red River to a planter. As Garrison is absent in the
+     City of New Orleans at this time, I cannot inform you who he
+     was sold to. Garrison will be in Louisville some time this
+     Spring; if you wish me, I will inquire of Garrison and
+     inform you to whom he was sold, and where his master lives
+     at this time.
+
+                                        Yours,
+                                          W. PORTER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [No. 5.]                       BEDFORD, TRIMBLE COUNTY, KY.
+     C.H. STEWART, ESQ.,
+
+     SIR.--I received your note on the 16th inst., and in
+     accordance with it I write you these lines. You stated that
+     you would wish to know something about Walton H. Bibb, and
+     whether he had a wife and child, and whether they were sold
+     to New Orleans. Sir, before I answer these inquiries, I
+     should like to know who Charles H. Stewart is, and why you
+     should make these inquiries of me, and how you knew who I
+     was, as you are a stranger to me and I must be to you. In
+     your next if you will tell me the intention of your
+     inquiries, I will give you a full history of the whole case.
+
+     I have a boy in your county by the name of King, a large man
+     and very black; if you are acquainted with him, give him my
+     compliments, and tell him I am well, and all of his friends.
+     W.H. Bibb is acquainted with him.
+
+     I wait your answer.
+
+                                        Your most obedient,
+                                            W.H. GATEWOOD.
+
+     _March 17, 1845_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [No. 6.]              BEDFORD, KENTUCKY, _April 6th, 1845_.
+     MR. CHARLES H. STEWART.
+
+     SIR:--Yours of the 1st March is before me, inquiring if one
+     Walton Bibb, a colored man, escaped from me at Louisville,
+     Ky., in the Spring of 1839. To that inquiry I answer, he
+     did. The particulars are these: He ran off from William
+     Gatewood some time in 1838 I think, and was heard of in
+     Cincinnati. Myself and some others went there and took him,
+     and took him to Louisville for sale, by the directions of
+     his master. While there he made his escape and was gone some
+     time, I think about one year or longer. He came back it was
+     said, to get his wife and child, so report says. He was
+     again taken by his owner; he together with his wife and
+     child was taken to Louisville and sold to a man who traded
+     in negroes, and was taken by him to New Orleans and sold
+     with his wife and child to some man up Red River, so I was
+     informed by the man who sold him. He then ran off and left
+     his wife and child and got back, it seems, to your country.
+     I can say for Gatewood he was a good master, and treated him
+     well. Gatewood bought him from a Mr. Sibly, who was going
+     to send him down the river. Walton, to my knowledge,
+     influenced Gatewood to buy him, and promised if he would,
+     never to disobey him or run off. Who he belongs to now, I do
+     not know. I know Gatewood sold his wife and child at a great
+     sacrifice, to satisfy him. If any other information is
+     necessary I will give it, if required. You will please write
+     me again what he is trying to do in your country, or what he
+     wishes the inquiry from me for.
+
+                                        Yours, truly,
+                                           DANIEL S. LANE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These letters need little comment. Their testimony combined is most
+harmonious and conclusive. Look at the points established.
+
+1. Hiram Wilson gives the testimony of reputable men now in Canada,
+who knew Henry Bibb as a slave in Kentucky.
+
+2. Silas Gatewood, with a peculiar relish, fills three pages of
+foolscap, "being anxious to give his rascally conduct in full," as he
+says. But he vaults over the saddle and lands on the other side. His
+testimony is invaluable as an endorsement of Mr. Bibb's truthfulness.
+He illustrates all the essential facts of this narrative. He also
+labors to prove him deceitful and a liar.
+
+Deceit in a slave, is only a slight reflex of the stupendous fraud
+practised by his master. And its indulgence has far more logic in its
+favor, than the ablest plea ever written for slave holding, under ever
+such peculiar circumstances. The attempt to prove Mr. Bibb in the lie,
+is a signal failure, as he never affirmed what Gatewood denies. With
+this offset, the letter under notice is a triumphant vindication of
+one, whom he thought there by to injure sadly. As Mr. Bibb has most
+happily acknowledged the wheat, (see page 130,) I pass the charge of
+stealing by referring to the logic there used, which will be deemed
+convincing.
+
+3. William Birney, Esq., attests the facts of Mr. Bibb's arrest in
+Cincinnati, and the subsequent escape, as narrated by him, from the
+declaration of eye witnesses.
+
+4. W. Porter, Jailor, states that Bibb was in the work-house at
+Louisville, held and sold afterwards to the persons and at the places
+named in this volume.
+
+5. W.H. Gatewood, with much Southern dignity, will answer no
+questions, but shows his relation to these matters by naming
+"King"--saying, "W.H. Bibb is acquainted with him," and promising "a
+full history of the case."
+
+6. Daniel S. Lane, with remarkable straight-forwardness and stupidity,
+tells all he knows, and then wants to know what they ask him for. The
+writer will answer that question. He wanted to prove by two or more
+witnesses, the truth of his own statements; which has most surely been
+accomplished.
+
+Having thus presented an array of testimony sustaining the facts
+alleged in this narrative, the introduction will be concluded by
+introducing a letter signed by respectable men of Detroit, and
+endorsed by Judge Wilkins, showing the high esteem in which Mr. Bibb
+is held by those who know him well where he makes his home. Their
+testimony expresses their present regard as well as an opinion of his
+past character. It is introduced here with the greatest satisfaction,
+as the writer is assured, from an intimate acquaintance with Henry
+Bibb, that all who know him hereafter will entertain the same
+sentiments toward him:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                      DETROIT, _March 10, 1845_.
+
+     The undersigned have pleasure in recommending Henry Bibb to
+     the kindness and confidence of Anti-slavery friends in every
+     State. He has resided among us for some years. His
+     deportment, his conduct, and his Christian course have won
+     our esteem and affection. The narrative of his sufferings
+     and more early life has been thoroughly investigated by a
+     Committee appointed for the purpose. They sought evidence
+     respecting it in every proper quarter, and their report
+     attested its undoubted truth. In this conclusion we all
+     cordially unite.
+
+     H. Bibb has for some years publicly made this narrative to
+     assemblies, whose number cannot be told; it has commanded
+     public attention in this State, and provoked inquiry.
+     Occasionally too we see persons from the South, who knew him
+     in early years, yet not a word or fact worthy of impairing
+     its truth has reached us; but on the contrary, every thing
+     tended to its corroboration.
+
+     Mr. Bibb's Anti-slavery efforts in this State have produced
+     incalculable benefit. The Lord has blessed him into an
+     instrument of great power. He has labored much, and for very
+     inadequate compensation. Lucrative offers for other quarters
+     did not tempt him to a more profitable field. His sincerity
+     and disinterestedness are therefore beyond suspicion.
+
+     We bid him "God-speed," on his route. We bespeak for him
+     every kind consideration. * * * *
+
+                                  H. HALLOCK,
+                        President of the Detroit Lib. Association.
+                                  CULLEN BROWN, _VICE-PRESIDENT_.
+                                  S.M. HOLMES, _SECRETARY_.
+                                  J.D. BALDWIN,
+                                  CHARLES H. STEWART,
+                                  MARTIN WILSON,
+                                  WILLIAM BARNUM.
+
+                                        DETROIT, Nov. 11, 1845.
+
+     The undersigned, cheerfully concurs with Mr. Hallock and
+     others in their friendly recommendation of Mr. Henry Bibb.
+     The undersigned has known him for many months in the Sabbath
+     School in this City, partly under his charge, and can
+     certify to his correct deportment, and commend him to the
+     sympathies of Christian benevolence.
+
+                                        ROSS WILKINS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     The task now performed, in preparing for the press and
+     introducing to the public the narrative of Henry Bibb, has
+     been one of the most pleasant ever required at my hands. And
+     I conclude it with an expression of the hope that it may
+     afford interest to the reader, support to the author in his
+     efforts against slavery, and be instrumental in advancing
+     the great work of emancipation in this country.
+
+                                        LUCIUS C. MATLACK.
+
+     NEW YORK CITY, _July 1st, 1849_.
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+This work has been written during irregular intervals, while I have
+been travelling and laboring for the emancipation of my enslaved
+countrymen. The reader will remember that I make no pretension to
+literature; for I can truly say, that I have been educated in the
+school of adversity, whips, and chains. Experience and observation
+have been my principal teachers, with the exception of three weeks
+schooling which I have had the good fortune to receive since my escape
+from the "grave yard of the mind," or the dark prison of human
+bondage. And nothing but untiring perseverance has enabled me to
+prepare this volume for the public eye; and I trust by the aid of
+Divine Providence to be able to make it intelligible and instructive.
+I thank God for the blessings of Liberty--the contrast is truly great
+between freedom and slavery. To be changed from a chattel to a human
+being, is no light matter, though the process with myself practically
+was very simple. And if I could reach the ears of every slave to-day,
+throughout the whole continent of America, I would teach the same
+lesson, I would sound it in the ears of every hereditary bondman,
+"break your chains and fly for freedom!"
+
+It may be asked why I have written this work, when there has been so
+much already written and published of the same character from other
+fugitives? And, why publish it after having told it publicly all
+through New England and the Western States to multiplied thousands?
+
+My answer is, that in no place have I given orally the detail of my
+narrative; and some of the most interesting events of my life have
+never reached the public ear. Moreover, it was at the request of many
+friends of down-trodden humanity, that I have undertaken to write the
+following sketch, that light and truth might be spread on the sin and
+evils of slavery as far as possible. I also wanted to leave my humble
+testimony on record against this man-destroying system, to be read by
+succeeding generations when my body shall lie mouldering in the dust.
+
+But I would not attempt by any sophistry to misrepresent slavery in
+order to prove its dreadful wickedness. For, I presume there are none
+who may read this narrative through, whether Christians or
+slaveholders, males or females, but what will admit it to be a system
+of the most high-handed oppression and tyranny that ever was tolerated
+by an enlightened nation.
+
+                                        HENRY BIBB
+
+
+
+
+NARRATIVE
+
+OF THE
+
+LIFE OF HENRY BIBB
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_Sketch of my Parentage.--Early separation from my Mother.--Hard
+Fare.--First Experiments at running away.--Earnest longing for
+Freedom.--Abhorrent nature of Slavery._
+
+
+I was born May 1815, of a slave mother, in Shelby County, Kentucky,
+and was claimed as the property of David White Esq. He came into
+possession of my mother long before I was born. I was brought up in
+the Counties of Shelby, Henry, Oldham, and Trimble. Or, more correctly
+speaking, in the above counties, I may safely say, I was _flogged up_;
+for where I should have received moral, mental, and religious
+instruction, I received stripes without number, the object of which
+was to degrade and keep me in subordination. I can truly say, that I
+drank deeply of the bitter cup of suffering and woe. I have been
+dragged down to the lowest depths of human degradation and
+wretchedness, by Slaveholders.
+
+My mother was known by the name of Milldred Jackson. She is the mother
+of seven slaves only, all being sons, of whom I am the eldest. She was
+also so fortunate or unfortunate, as to have some of what is called
+the slaveholding blood flowing in her veins. I know not how much; but
+not enough to prevent her children though fathered by slaveholders,
+from being bought and sold in the slave markets of the South. It is
+almost impossible for slaves to give a correct account of their male
+parentage. All that I know about it is, that my mother informed me
+that my fathers name was JAMES BIBB. He was doubtless one of the
+present Bibb family of Kentucky; but I have no personal knowledge of
+him at all, for he died before my recollection.
+
+The first time I was separated from my mother, I was young and small.
+I knew nothing of my condition then as a slave. I was living with Mr.
+White, whose wife died and left him a widower with one little girl,
+who was said to be the legitimate owner of my mother, and all her
+children. This girl was also my playmate when we were children.
+
+I was taken away from my mother, and hired out to labor for various
+persons, eight or ten years in succession; and all my wages were
+expended for the education of Harriet White, my playmate. It was then
+my sorrows and sufferings commenced. It was then I first commenced
+seeing and feeling that I was a wretched slave, compelled to work
+under the lash without wages, and often without clothes enough to hide
+my nakedness. I have often worked without half enough to eat, both
+late and early, by day and by night. I have often laid my wearied
+limbs down at night to rest upon a dirt floor, or a bench, without any
+covering at all, because I had no where else to rest my wearied body,
+after having worked hard all the day. I have also been compelled in
+early life, to go at the bidding of a tyrant, through all kinds of
+weather, hot or cold, wet or dry, and without shoes frequently, until
+the month of December, with my bare feet on the cold frosty ground,
+cracked open and bleeding as I walked. Reader, believe me when I say,
+that no tongue, nor pen ever has or can express the horrors of
+American Slavery. Consequently I despair in finding language to
+express adequately the deep feeling of my soul, as I contemplate the
+past history of my life. But although I have suffered much from the
+lash, and for want of food and raiment; I confess that it was no
+disadvantage to be passed through the hands of so many families, as
+the only source of information that I had to enlighten my mind,
+consisted in what I could see and hear from others. Slaves were not
+allowed books, pen, ink, nor paper, to improve their minds. But it
+seems to me now, that I was particularly observing, and apt to retain
+what came under my observation. But more especially, all that I heard
+about liberty and freedom to the slaves, I never forgot. Among other
+good trades I learned the art of running away to perfection. I made a
+regular business of it, and never gave it up, until I had broken the
+bands of slavery, and landed myself safely in Canada, where I was
+regarded as a man, and not as a thing.
+
+The first time in my life that I ran away, was for ill treatment, in
+1835. I was living with a Mr. Vires, in the village of Newcastle. His
+wife was a very cross woman. She was every day flogging me, boxing,
+pulling my ears, and scolding, so that I dreaded to enter the room
+where she was. This first started me to running away from them. I was
+often gone several days before I was caught. They would abuse me for
+going off, but it did no good. The next time they flogged me, I was
+off again; but after awhile they got sick of their bargain, and
+returned me back into the hands of my owners. By this time Mr. White
+had married his second wife. She was what I call a tyrant. I lived
+with her several months, but she kept me almost half of my time in the
+woods, running from under the bloody lash. While I was at home she
+kept me all the time rubbing furniture, washing, scrubbing the floors;
+and when I was not doing this, she would often seat herself in a large
+rocking chair, with two pillows about her, and would make me rock her,
+and keep off the flies. She was too lazy to scratch her own head, and
+would often make me scratch and comb it for her. She would at other
+times lie on her bed, in warm weather, and make me fan her while she
+slept, scratch and rub her feet; but after awhile she got sick of me,
+and preferred a maiden servant to do such business. I was then hired
+out again; but by this time I had become much better skilled in
+running away, and would make calculation to avoid detection, by taking
+with me a bridle. If any body should see me in the woods, as they
+have, and asked "what are you doing here sir! you are a runaway!"--I
+said, "no, sir, I am looking for our old mare;" at other times,
+"looking for our cows." For such excuses I was let pass. In fact, the
+only weapon of self defence that I could use successfully, was that of
+deception. It is useless for a poor helpless slave, to resist a white
+man in a slaveholding State. Public opinion and the law is against
+him; and resistance in many cases is death to the slave, while the law
+declares, that he shall submit or die.
+
+The circumstances in which I was then placed, gave me a longing desire
+to be free. It kindled a fire of liberty within my breast which has
+never yet been quenched. This seemed to be a part of my nature; it was
+first revealed to me by the inevitable laws of nature's God. I could
+see that the All-wise Creator, had made man a free, moral, intelligent
+and accountable being; capable of knowing good and evil. And I
+believed then, as I believe now, that every man has a right to wages
+for his labor; a right to his own wife and children; a right to
+liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and a right to worship God
+according to the dictates of his own conscience. But here, in the
+light of these truths, I was a slave, a prisoner for life; I could
+possess nothing, nor acquire anything but what must belong to my
+keeper. No one can imagine my feelings in my reflecting moments, but
+he who has himself been a slave. Oh! I have often wept over my
+condition, while sauntering through the forest, to escape cruel
+punishment.
+
+    "No arm to protect me from tyrants aggression;
+    No parents to cheer me when laden with grief.
+    Man may picture the bounds of the rocks and the rivers,
+    The hills and the valleys, the lakes and the ocean,
+    But the horrors of slavery, he never can trace."
+
+The term slave to this day sounds with terror to my soul,--a word too
+obnoxious to speak--a system too intolerable to be endured. I know
+this from long and sad experience. I now feel as if I had just been
+aroused from sleep, and looking back with quickened perception at the
+state of torment from whence I fled. I was there held and claimed as a
+slave; as such I was subjected to the will and power of my keeper, in
+all respects whatsoever. That the slave is a human being, no one can
+deny. It is his lot to be exposed in common with other men, to the
+calamities of sickness, death, and the misfortunes incident to life.
+But unlike other men, he is denied the consolation of struggling
+against external difficulties, such as destroy the life, liberty, and
+happiness of himself and family. A slave may be bought and sold in the
+market like an ox. He is liable to be sold off to a distant land from
+his family. He is bound in chains hand and foot; and his sufferings
+are aggravated a hundred fold, by the terrible thought, that he is not
+allowed to struggle against misfortune, corporeal punishment, insults,
+and outrages committed upon himself and family; and he is not allowed
+to help himself, to resist or escape the blow, which he sees impending
+over him.
+
+This idea of utter helplessness, in perpetual bondage, is the more
+distressing, as there is no period even with the remotest generation
+when it shall terminate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_A fruitless effort for education.--The Sabbath among
+Slaves.--Degrading amusements.--Why religion is rejected.--Condition
+of poor white people.--Superstition among slaves.--Education
+forbidden_.
+
+
+In 1833, I had some very serious religious impressions, and there was
+quite a number of slaves in that neighborhood, who felt very desirous
+to be taught to read the Bible. There was a Miss Davis, a poor white
+girl, who offered to teach a Sabbath School for the slaves,
+notwithstanding public opinion and the law was opposed to it. Books
+were furnished and she commenced the school; but the news soon got to
+our owners that she was teaching us to read. This caused quite an
+excitement in the neighborhood. Patrols[1] were appointed to go and
+break it up the next Sabbath. They were determined that we should not
+have a Sabbath School in operation. For slaves this was called an
+incendiary movement.
+
+The Sabbath is not regarded by a large number of the slaves as a day
+of rest. They have no schools to go to; no moral nor religious
+instruction at all in many localities where there are hundreds of
+slaves. Hence they resort to some kind of amusement. Those who make no
+profession of religion, resort to the woods in large numbers on that
+day to gamble, fight, get drunk, and break the Sabbath. This is often
+encouraged by slaveholders. When they wish to have a little sport of
+that kind, they go among the slaves and give them whiskey, to see them
+dance, "pat juber," sing and play on the banjo. Then get them to
+wrestling, fighting, jumping, running foot races, and butting each
+other like sheep. This is urged on by giving them whiskey; making bets
+on them; laying chips on one slave's head, and daring another to tip
+it off with his hand; and if he tipped it off, it would be called an
+insult, and cause a fight. Before fighting, the parties choose their
+seconds to stand by them while fighting; a ring or a circle is formed
+to fight in, and no one is allowed to enter the ring while they are
+fighting, but their seconds, and the white gentlemen. They are not
+allowed to fight a duel, nor to use weapons of any kind. The blows are
+made by kicking, knocking, and butting with their heads; they grab
+each other by their ears, and jam their heads together like sheep. If
+they are likely to hurt each other very bad, their masters would rap
+them with their walking canes, and make them stop. After fighting,
+they make friends, shake hands, and take a dram together, and there is
+no more of it.
+
+But this is all principally for want of moral instruction. This is
+where they have no Sabbath Schools; no one to read the Bible to them;
+no one to preach the gospel who is competent to expound the
+Scriptures, except slaveholders. And the slaves, with but few
+exceptions, have no confidence at all in their preaching, because they
+preach a pro-slavery doctrine. They say, "Servants be obedient to your
+masters;--and he that knoweth his master's will and doeth it not,
+shall be beaten with many stripes;--" means that God will send them to
+hell, if they disobey their masters. This kind of preaching has driven
+thousands into infidelity. They view themselves as suffering unjustly
+under the lash, without friends, without protection of law or gospel,
+and the green eyed monster tyranny staring them in the face. They know
+that they are destined to die in that wretched condition, unless they
+are delivered by the arm of Omnipotence. And they cannot believe or
+trust in such a religion, as above named.
+
+The poor and loafering class of whites, are about on a par in point of
+morals with the slaves at the South. They are generally ignorant,
+intemperate, licentious, and profane. They associate much with the
+slaves; are often found gambling together on the Sabbath; encouraging
+slaves to steal from their owners, and sell to them, corn, wheat,
+sheep, chickens, or any thing of the kind which they can well conceal.
+For such offences there is no law to reach a slave but lynch law. But
+if both parties are caught in the act by a white person, the slave is
+punished with the lash, while the white man is often punished with
+both lynch and common law. But there is another class of poor white
+people in the South, who, I think would be glad to see slavery
+abolished in self defence; they despise the institution because it is
+impoverishing and degrading to them and their children.
+
+The slave holders are generally rich, aristocratic, overbearing; and
+they look with utter contempt upon a poor laboring man, who earns his
+bread by the "sweat of his brow," whether he be moral or immoral,
+honest or dishonest. No matter whether he is white or black; if he
+performs manual labor for a livelihood, he is looked upon as being
+inferior to a slaveholder, and but little better off than the slave,
+who toils without wages under the lash. It is true, that the
+slaveholder, and non-slaveholder, are living under the same laws in
+the same State. But the one is rich, the other is poor; one is
+educated, the other is uneducated; one has houses, land and influence,
+the other has none. This being the case, that class of the
+non-slaveholders would be glad to see slavery abolished, but they dare
+not speak it aloud.
+
+There is much superstition among the slaves. Many of them believe in
+what they call "conjuration," tricking, and witchcraft; and some of
+them pretend to understand the art, and say that by it they can
+prevent their masters from exercising their will over their slaves.
+Such are often applied to by others, to give them power to prevent
+their masters from flogging them. The remedy is most generally some
+kind of bitter root; they are directed to chew it and spit towards
+their masters when they are angry with their slaves. At other times
+they prepare certain kinds of powders, to sprinkle about their masters
+dwellings. This is all done for the purpose of defending themselves in
+some peaceable manner, although I am satisfied that there is no virtue
+at all in it. I have tried it to perfection when I was a slave at the
+South. I was then a young man, full of life and vigor, and was very
+fond of visiting our neighbors slaves, but had no time to visit only
+Sundays, when I could get a permit to go, or after night, when I could
+slip off without being seen. If it was found out, the next morning I
+was called up to give an account of myself for going off without
+permission; and would very often get a flogging for it.
+
+I got myself into a scrape at a certain time, by going off in this
+way, and I expected to be severely punished for it. I had a strong
+notion of running off, to escape being flogged, but was advised by a
+friend to go to one of those conjurers, who could prevent me from
+being flogged. I went and informed him of the difficulty. He said if I
+would pay him a small sum, he would prevent my being flogged. After I
+had paid him, he mixed up some alum, salt and other stuff into a
+powder, and said I must sprinkle it about my master, if he should
+offer to strike me; this would prevent him. He also gave me some kind
+of bitter root to chew, and spit towards him, which would certainly
+prevent my being flogged. According to order I used his remedy, and
+for some cause I was let pass without being flogged that time.
+
+I had then great faith in conjuration and witchcraft. I was led to
+believe that I could do almost as I pleased, without being flogged. So
+on the next Sabbath my conjuration was fully tested by my going off,
+and staying away until Monday morning, without permission. When I
+returned home, my master declared that he would punish me for going
+off; but I did not believe that he could do it while I had this root
+and dust; and as he approached me, I commenced talking saucy to him.
+But he soon convinced me that there was no virtue in them. He became
+so enraged at me for saucing him, that he grasped a handful of
+switches and punished me severely, in spite of all my roots and
+powders.
+
+But there was another old slave in that neighborhood, who professed to
+understand all about conjuration, and I thought I would try his skill.
+He told me that the first one was only a quack, and if I would only
+pay him a certain amount in cash, that he would tell me how to prevent
+any person from striking me. After I had paid him his charge, he told
+me to go to the cow-pen after night, and get some fresh cow manure,
+and mix it with red pepper and white people's hair, all to be put into
+a pot over the fire, and scorched until it could be ground into snuff.
+I was then to sprinkle it about my master's bed-room, in his hat and
+boots, and it would prevent him from ever abusing me in any way. After
+I got it all ready prepared, the smallest pinch of it scattered over a
+room, was enough to make a horse sneeze from the strength of it; but
+it did no good. I tried it to my satisfaction. It was my business to
+make fires in my master's chamber, night and morning. Whenever I could
+get a chance, I sprinkled a little of this dust about the linen of the
+bed, where they would breathe it on retiring. This was to act upon
+them as what is called a kind of love powder, to change their
+sentiments of anger, to those of love, towards me, but this all
+proved to be vain imagination. The old man had my money, and I was
+treated no better for it.
+
+One night when I went in to make a fire, I availed myself of the
+opportunity of sprinkling a very heavy charge of this powder about my
+master's bed. Soon after their going to bed, they began to cough and
+sneeze. Being close around the house, watching and listening, to know
+what the effect would be, I heard them ask each other what in the
+world it could be, that made them cough and sneeze so. All the while,
+I was trembling with fear, expecting every moment I should be called
+and asked if I knew any thing about it. After this, for fear they
+might find me out in my dangerous experiments upon them, I had to give
+them up, for the time being. I was then convinced that running away
+was the most effectual way by which a slave could escape cruel
+punishment.
+
+As all the instrumentalities which I as a slave, could bring to bear
+upon the system, had utterly failed to palliate my sufferings, all
+hope and consolation fled. I must be a slave for life, and suffer
+under the lash or die. The influence which this had only tended to
+make me more unhappy. I resolved that I would be free if running away
+could make me so. I had heard that Canada was a land of liberty,
+somewhere in the North; and every wave of trouble that rolled across
+my breast, caused me to think more and more about Canada, and liberty.
+But more especially after having been flogged, I have fled to the
+highest hills of the forest, pressing my way to the North for refuge;
+but the river Ohio was my limit. To me it was an impassable gulf. I
+had no rod wherewith to smite the stream, and thereby divide the
+waters. I had no Moses to go before me and lead the way from bondage
+to a promised land. Yet I was in a far worse state than Egyptian
+bondage; for they had houses and land; I had none; they had oxen and
+sheep; I had none; they had a wise counsel, to tell them what to do,
+and where to go, and even to go with them; I had none. I was
+surrounded by opposition on every hand. My friends were few and far
+between. I have often felt when running away as if I had scarcely a
+friend on earth.
+
+Sometimes standing on the Ohio River bluff, looking over on a free
+State, and as far north as my eyes could see, I have eagerly gazed
+upon the blue sky of the free North, which at times constrained me to
+cry out from the depths of my soul, Oh! Canada, sweet land of
+rest--Oh! when shall I get there! Oh, that I had the wings of a dove,
+that I might soar away to where there is no slavery; no clanking of
+chains, no captives, no lacerating of backs, no parting of husbands
+and wives; and where man ceases to be the property of his fellow man.
+These thoughts have revolved in my mind a thousand times. I have stood
+upon the lofty banks of the river Ohio, gazing upon the splendid
+steamboats, wafted with all their magnificence up and down the river,
+and I thought of the fishes of the water, the fowls of the air, the
+wild beasts of the forest, all appeared to be free, to go just where
+they pleased, and I was an unhappy slave!
+
+But my attention was gradually turned in a measure from this subject,
+by being introduced into the society of young women. This for the time
+being took my attention from running away, as waiting on the girls
+appeared to be perfectly congenial to my nature. I wanted to be well
+thought of by them, and would go to great lengths to gain their
+affection. I had been taught by the old superstitious slaves, to
+believe in conjuration, and it was hard for me to give up the notion,
+for all I had been deceived by them. One of these conjurers, for a
+small sum agreed to teach me to make any girl love me that I wished.
+After I had paid him, he told me to get a bull frog, and take a
+certain bone out of the frog, dry it, and when I got a chance I must
+step up to any girl whom I wished to make love me, and scratch her
+somewhere on her naked skin with this bone, and she would be certain
+to love me, and would follow me in spite of herself; no matter who she
+might be engaged to, nor who she might be walking with.
+
+So I got me a bone for a certain girl, whom I knew to be under the
+influence of another young man. I happened to meet her in the company
+of her lover, one Sunday evening, walking out; so when I got a chance,
+I fetched her a tremendous rasp across her neck with this bone, which
+made her jump. But in place of making her love me, it only made her
+angry with me. She felt more like running after me to retaliate on me
+for thus abusing her, than she felt like loving me. After I found
+there was no virtue in the bone of a frog, I thought I would try some
+other way to carry out my object. I then sought another counsellor
+among the old superstitious influential slaves; one who professed to
+be a great friend of mine, told me to get a lock of hair from the head
+of any girl, and wear it in my shoes: this would cause her to love me
+above all other persons. As there was another girl whose affections I
+was anxious to gain, but could not succeed, I thought, without trying
+the experiment of this hair. I slipped off one night to see the girl,
+and asked her for a lock of her hair; but she refused to give it.
+Believing that my success depended greatly upon this bunch of hair, I
+was bent on having a lock before I left that night let it cost what it
+might. As it was time for me to start home in order to get any sleep
+that night, I grasped hold of a lock of her hair, which caused her to
+screech, but I never let go until I had pulled it out. This of course
+made the girl mad with me, and I accomplished nothing but gained her
+displeasure.
+
+Such are the superstitious notions of the great masses of southern
+slaves. It is given to them by tradition, and can never be erased,
+while the doors of education are bolted and barred against them. But
+there is a prohibition by law, of mental and religious instruction.
+The state of Georgia, by an act of 1770, declared "that it shall not
+be lawful for any number of free negroes, molattoes or mestinos, or
+even slaves in company with white persons, to meet together for the
+purpose of mental instruction, either before the rising of the sun or
+after the going down of the same." 2d Brevard's Digest, 254-5. Similar
+laws exist in most of the slave States, and patrols are sent out after
+night and on the Sabbath day to enforce them. They go through their
+respective towns to prevent slaves from meeting for religious worship
+or mental instruction.
+
+This is the regulation and law of American Slavery, as sanctioned by
+the Government of the United States, and without which it could not
+exist. And almost the whole moral, political, and religious power of
+the nation are in favor of slavery and aggression, and against liberty
+and justice. I only judge by their actions, which speak louder than
+words. Slaveholders are put into the highest offices in the gift of
+the people in both Church and State, thereby making slaveholding
+popular and reputable.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Police peculiar to the South.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_My Courtship and Marriage.--Change of owner.--My first born.--Its
+sufferings.--My wife abused.--My own anguish._
+
+
+The circumstances of my courtship and marriage, I consider to be among
+the most remarkable events of my life while a slave. To think that
+after I had determined to carry out the great idea which is so
+universally and practically acknowledged among all the civilized
+nations of the earth, that I would be free or die, I suffered myself
+to be turned aside by the fascinating charms of a female, who
+gradually won my attention from an object so high as that of liberty;
+and an object which I held paramount to all others.
+
+But when I had arrived at the age of eighteen, which was in the year
+of 1833, it was my lot to be introduced to the favor of a mulatto
+slave girl named Malinda, who lived in Oldham County, Kentucky, about
+four miles from the residence of my owner. Malinda was a medium sized
+girl, graceful in her walk, of an extraordinary make, and active in
+business. Her skin was of a smooth texture, red cheeks, with dark and
+penetrating eyes. She moved in the highest circle[2] of slaves, and
+free people of color. She was also one of the best singers I ever
+heard, and was much esteemed by all who knew her, for her benevolence,
+talent and industry. In fact, I considered Malinda to be equalled by
+few, and surpassed by none, for the above qualities, all things
+considered.
+
+It is truly marvellous to see how sudden a man's mind can be changed
+by the charms and influence of a female. The first two or three visits
+that I paid this dear girl, I had no intention of courting or marrying
+her, for I was aware that such a step would greatly obstruct my way to
+the land of liberty. I only visited Malinda because I liked her
+company, as a highly interesting girl. But in spite of myself, before
+I was aware of it, I was deeply in love; and what made this passion so
+effectual and almost irresistable, I became satisfied that it was
+reciprocal. There was a union of feeling, and every visit made the
+impression stronger and stronger. One or two other young men were
+paying attention to Malinda, at the same time; one of whom her mother
+was anxious to have her marry. This of course gave me a fair
+opportunity of testing Malinda's sincerity. I had just about
+opposition enough to make the subject interesting. That Malinda loved
+me above all others on earth, no one could deny. I could read it by
+the warm reception with which the dear girl always met me, and treated
+me in her mother's house. I could read it by the warm and affectionate
+shake of the hand, and gentle smile upon her lovely cheek. I could
+read it by her always giving me the preference of her company; by her
+pressing invitations to visit even in opposition to her mother's will.
+I could read it in the language of her bright and sparkling eye,
+penciled by the unchangable finger of nature, that spake but could not
+lie. These strong temptations gradually diverted my attention from my
+actual condition and from liberty, though not entirely.
+
+But oh! that I had only then been enabled to have seen as I do now, or
+to have read the following slave code, which is but a stereotyped law
+of American slavery. It would have saved me I think from having to
+lament that I was a husband and am the father of slaves who are still
+left to linger out their days in hopeless bondage. The laws of
+Kentucky, my native State, with Maryland and Virginia, which are said
+to be the mildest slave States in the Union, noted for their humanity,
+Christianity and democracy, declare that "Any slave, for rambling in
+the night, or riding horseback without leave, or running away, may be
+punished by whipping, cropping and branding in the cheek, or
+otherwise, not rendering him unfit for labor." "Any slave convicted of
+petty larceny, murder, or wilfully burning of dwelling houses, may be
+sentenced to have his right hand cut off; to be hanged in the usual
+manner, or the head severed from the body, the body divided into four
+quarters, and head and quarters stuck up in the most public place in
+the county, where such act was committed."
+
+At the time I joined my wife in holy wedlock, I was ignorant of these
+ungodly laws; I knew not that I was propogating victims for this kind
+of torture and cruelty. Malinda's mother was free, and lived in
+Bedford, about a quarter of a mile from her daughter; and we often met
+and passed off the time pleasantly. Agreeable to promise, on one
+Saturday evening, I called to see Malinda, at her mother's residence,
+with an intention of letting her know my mind upon the subject of
+marriage. It was a very bright moonlight night; the dear girl was
+standing in the door, anxiously waiting my arrival. As I approached
+the door she caught my hand with an affectionate smile, and bid me
+welcome to her mother's fire-side. After having broached the subject
+of marriage, I informed her of the difficulties which I conceived to
+be in the way of our marriage, and that I could never engage myself to
+marry any girl only on certain conditions; near as I can recollect the
+substance of our conversation upon the subject, it was, that I was
+religiously inclined; that I intended to try to comply with the
+requisitions of the gospel, both theoretically and practically through
+life. Also that I was decided on becoming a freeman before I died; and
+that I expected to get free by running away, and going to Canada,
+under the British Government. Agreement on those two cardinal
+questions I made my test for marriage.
+
+I said, "I never will give my heart nor hand to any girl in marriage,
+until I first know her sentiments upon the all-important subjects of
+Religion and Liberty. No matter how well I might love her nor how
+great the sacrifice in carrying out these God-given principles. And I
+here pledge myself from this course never to be shaken while a single
+pulsation of my heart shall continue to throb for Liberty." With this
+idea Malinda appeared to be well pleased, and with a smile she looked
+me in the face and said, "I have long entertained the same views, and
+this has been one of the greatest reasons why I have not felt inclined
+to enter the married state while a slave; I have always felt a desire
+to be free; I have long cherished a hope that I should yet be free,
+either by purchase or running away. In regard to the subject of
+Religion, I have always felt that it was a good thing, and something
+that I would seek for at some future period." After I found that
+Malinda was right upon these all important questions, and that she
+truly loved me well enough to make me an affectionate wife, I made
+proposals for marriage. She very modestly declined answering the
+question then, considering it to be one of a grave character, and
+upon which our future destiny greatly depended. And notwithstanding
+she confessed that I had her entire affections, she must have some
+time to consider the matter. To this I of course consented, and was to
+meet her on the next Saturday night to decide the question. But for
+some cause I failed to come, and the next week she sent for me, and on
+the Sunday evening following I called on her again; she welcomed me
+with all the kindness of an affectionate lover, and seated me by her
+side. We soon broached the old subject of marriage, and entered upon a
+conditional contract of matrimony, viz: that we would marry if our
+minds should not change within one year; that after marriage we would
+change our former course and live a pious life; and that we would
+embrace the earliest opportunity of running away to Canada for our
+liberty. Clasping each other by the hand, pledging our sacred honor
+that we would be true, we called on high heaven to witness the
+rectitude of our purpose. There was nothing that could be more binding
+upon us as slaves than this; for marriage among American slaves, is
+disregarded by the laws of this country. It is counted a mere
+temporary matter; it is a union which may be continued or broken off,
+with or without the consent of a slaveholder, whether he is a priest
+or a libertine.
+
+There is no legal marriage among the slaves of the South; I never saw
+nor heard of such a thing in my life, and I have been through seven of
+the slave states. A slave marrying according to law, is a thing
+unknown in the history of American Slavery. And be it known to the
+disgrace of our country that every slaveholder, who is the keeper of a
+number of slaves of both sexes, is also the keeper of a house or
+houses of ill-fame. Licentious white men, can and do, enter at night
+or day the lodging places of slaves; break up the bonds of affection
+in families; destroy all their domestic and social union for life; and
+the laws of the country afford them no protection. Will any man count,
+if they can be counted, the churches of Maryland, Kentucky, and
+Virginia, which have slaves connected with them, living in an open
+state of adultery, never having been married according to the laws of
+the State, and yet regular members of these various denominations, but
+more especially the Baptist and Methodist churches? And I hazard
+nothing in saying, that this state of things exists to a very wide
+extent in the above states.
+
+I am happy to state that many fugitive slaves, who have been enabled
+by the aid of an over-ruling providence to escape to the free North
+with those whom they claim as their wives, notwithstanding all their
+ignorance and superstition, are not at all disposed to live together
+like brutes, as they have been compelled to do in slaveholding
+Churches. But as soon as they get free from slavery they go before
+some anti-slavery clergyman, and have the solemn ceremony of marriage
+performed according to the laws of the country. And if they profess
+religion, and have been baptized by a slaveholding minister, they
+repudiate it after becoming free, and are re-baptized by a man who is
+worthy of doing it according to the gospel rule.
+
+The time and place of my marriage, I consider one of the most trying
+of my life. I was opposed by friends and foes; my mother opposed me
+because she thought I was too young, and marrying she thought would
+involve me in trouble and difficulty. My mother-in-law opposed me,
+because she wanted her daughter to marry a slave who belonged to a
+very rich man living near by, and who was well known to be the son of
+his master. She thought no doubt that his master or father might
+chance to set him free before he died, which would enable him to do a
+better part by her daughter than I could! and there was no prospect
+then of my ever being free. But his master has neither died nor yet
+set his son free, who is now about forty years of age, toiling under
+the lash, waiting and hoping that his master may die and will him to
+be free.
+
+The young men were opposed to our marriage for the same reason that
+Paddy opposed a match when the clergyman was about to pronounce the
+marriage ceremony of a young couple. He said "if there be any present
+who have any objections to this couple being joined together in holy
+wedlock, let them speak now, or hold their peace henceforth." At this
+time Paddy sprang to his feet and said, "Sir, I object to this." Every
+eye was fixed upon him. "What is your objection?" said the clergyman.
+"Faith," replied Paddy, "Sir I want her myself."
+
+The man to whom I belonged was opposed, because he feared my taking
+off from his farm some of the fruits of my own labor for Malinda to
+eat, in the shape of pigs, chickens, or turkeys, and would count it
+not robbery. So we formed a resolution, that if we were prevented from
+joining in wedlock, that we would run away, and strike for Canada, let
+the consequences be what they might. But we had one consolation;
+Malinda's master was very much in favor of the match, but entirely
+upon selfish principles. When I went to ask his permission to marry
+Malinda, his answer was in the affirmative with but one condition
+which I consider to be too vulgar to be written in this book. Our
+marriage took place one night during the Christmas holydays; at which
+time we had quite a festival given us. All appeared to be wide awake,
+and we had quite a jolly time at my wedding party. And notwithstanding
+our marriage was without license or sanction of law, we believed it to
+be honorable before God, and the bed undefiled. Our Christmas holydays
+were spent in matrimonial visiting among our friends, while it should
+have been spent in running away to Canada, for our liberty. But
+freedom was little thought of by us, for several months after
+marriage. I often look back to that period even now as one of the most
+happy seasons of my life; notwithstanding all the contaminating and
+heart-rendering features with which the horrid system of slavery is
+marked, and must carry with it to its final grave, yet I still look
+back to that season with sweet remembrance and pleasure, that yet hath
+power to charm and drive back dull cares which have been accumulated
+by a thousand painful recollections of slavery. Malinda was to me an
+affectionate wife. She was with me in the darkest hours of adversity.
+She was with me in sorrow, and joy, in fasting and feasting, in trial
+and persecution, in sickness and health, in sunshine and in shade.
+
+Some months after our marriage, the unfeeling master to whom I
+belonged, sold his farm with the view of moving his slaves to the
+State of Missouri, regardless of the separation of husbands and wives
+forever; but for fear of my resuming my old practice of running away,
+if he should have forced me to leave my wife, by my repeated requests,
+he was constrained to sell me to his brother, who lived within seven
+miles of Wm. Gatewood, who then held Malinda as his property. I was
+permitted to visit her only on Saturday nights, after my work was
+done, and I had to be at home before sunrise on Monday mornings or
+take a flogging. He proved to be so oppressive, and so unreasonable in
+punishing his victims, that I soon found that I should have to run
+away in self-defence. But he soon began to take the hint, and sold me
+to Wm. Gatewood the owner of Malinda. With my new residence I confess
+that I was much dissatisfied. Not that Gatewood was a more cruel
+master than my former owner--not that I was opposed to living with
+Malinda, who was then the centre and object of my affections--but to
+live where I must be eye witness to her insults, scourgings and
+abuses, such as are common to be inflicted upon slaves, was more than
+I could bear. If my wife must be exposed to the insults and licentious
+passions of wicked slavedrivers and overseers; if she must bear the
+stripes of the lash laid on by an unmerciful tyrant; if this is to be
+done with impunity, which is frequently done by slaveholders and their
+abettors, Heaven forbid that I should be compelled to witness the
+sight.
+
+Not many months after I took up my residence on Wm. Gatewood's
+plantation, Malinda made me a father. The dear little daughter was
+called Mary Frances. She was nurtured and caressed by her mother and
+father, until she was large enough to creep over the floor after her
+parents, and climb up by a chair before I felt it to be my duty to
+leave my family and go into a foreign country for a season. Malinda's
+business was to labor out in the field the greater part of her time,
+and there was no one to take care of poor little Frances, while her
+mother was toiling in the field. She was left at the house to creep
+under the feet of an unmerciful old mistress, whom I have known to
+slap with her hand the face of little Frances, for crying after her
+mother, until her little face was left black and blue. I recollect
+that Malinda and myself came from the field one summer's day at noon,
+and poor little Frances came creeping to her mother smiling, but with
+large tear drops standing in her dear little eyes, sobbing and trying
+to tell her mother that she had been abused, but was not able to utter
+a word. Her little face was bruised black with the whole print of Mrs.
+Gatewood's hand. This print was plainly to be seen for eight days
+after it was done. But oh! this darling child was a slave; born of a
+slave mother. Who can imagine what could be the feelings of a father
+and mother, when looking upon their infant child whipped and tortured
+with impunity, and they placed in a situation where they could afford
+it no protection. But we were all claimed and held as property; the
+father and mother were slaves!
+
+On this same plantation I was compelled to stand and see my wife
+shamefully scourged and abused by her master; and the manner in which
+this was done, was so violently and inhumanly committed upon the
+person of a female, that I despair in finding decent language to
+describe the bloody act of cruelty. My happiness or pleasure was then
+all blasted; for it was sometimes a pleasure to be with my little
+family even in slavery. I loved them as my wife and child. Little
+Frances was a pretty child; she was quiet, playful, bright, and
+interesting. She had a keen black eye, and the very image of her
+mother was stamped upon her cheek; but I could never look upon the
+dear child without being filled with sorrow and fearful apprehensions,
+of being separated by slaveholders, because she was a slave, regarded
+as property. And unfortunately for me, I am the father of a slave, a
+word too obnoxious to be spoken by a fugitive slave. It calls fresh to
+my mind the separation of husband and wife; of stripping, tying up and
+flogging; of tearing children from their parents, and selling them on
+the auction block. It calls to mind female virtue trampled under foot
+with impunity. But oh! when I remember that my daughter, my only
+child, is still there, destined to share the fate of all these
+calamities, it is too much to bear. If ever there was any one act of
+my life while a slave, that I have to lament over, it is that of being
+a father and a husband of slaves. I have the satisfaction of knowing
+that I am only the father of one slave. She is bone of my bone, and
+flesh of my flesh; poor unfortunate child. She was the first and shall
+be the last slave that ever I will father, for chains and slavery on
+this earth.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[2] The distinction among slaves is as marked, as the classes of
+society are in any aristocratic community. Some refusing to associate
+with others whom they deem beneath them in point of character, color,
+condition, or the superior importance of their respective masters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_My first adventure for liberty.--Parting Scene.--Journey up the
+river.--Safe arrival in Cincinnati.--Journey to Canada.--Suffering
+from cold and hunger.--Denied food and shelter by some.--One noble
+exception.--Subsequent success.--Arrival at Perrysburgh.--I obtained
+employment through the winter.--My return to Kentucky to get my
+family._
+
+
+In the fall or winter of 1837 I formed a resolution that I would
+escape, if possible, to Canada, for my Liberty. I commenced from that
+hour making preparations for the dangerous experiment of breaking the
+chains that bound me as a slave. My preparation for this voyage
+consisted in the accumulation of a little money, perhaps not exceeding
+two dollars and fifty cents, and a suit which I had never been seen or
+known to wear before; this last was to avoid detection.
+
+On the twenty-fifth of December, 1837, my long anticipated time had
+arrived when I was to put into operation my former resolution, which
+was to bolt for Liberty or consent to die a Slave. I acted upon the
+former, although I confess it to be one of the most self-denying acts
+of my whole life, to take leave of an affectionate wife, who stood
+before me on my departure, with dear little Frances in her arms, and
+with tears of sorrow in her eyes as she bid me a long farewell. It
+required all the moral courage that I was master of to suppress my
+feelings while taking leave of my little family.
+
+Had Malinda known my intention at that time, it would not have been
+possible for me to have got away, and I might have this day been a
+slave. Notwithstanding every inducement was held out to me to run away
+if I would be free, and the voice of liberty was thundering in my very
+soul, "Be free, oh, man! be free," I was struggling against a thousand
+obstacles which had clustered around my mind to bind my wounded spirit
+still in the dark prison of mental degradation. My strong attachments
+to friends and relatives, with all the love of home and birth-place
+which is so natural among the human family, twined about my heart and
+were hard to break away from. And withal, the fear of being pursued
+with guns and blood-hounds, and of being killed, or captured and
+taken to the extreme South, to linger out my days in hopeless bondage
+on some cotton or sugar plantation, all combined to deter me. But I
+had counted the cost, and was fully prepared to make the sacrifice.
+The time for fulfilling my pledge was then at hand. I must forsake
+friends and neighbors, wife and child, or consent to live and die a
+slave.
+
+By the permission of my keeper, I started out to work for myself on
+Christmas. I went to the Ohio River, which was but a short distance
+from Bedford. My excuse for wanting to go there was to get work. High
+wages were offered for hands to work in a slaughter-house. But in
+place of my going to work there, according to promise, when I arrived
+at the river I managed to find a conveyance to cross over into a free
+state. I was landed in the village of Madison, Indiana, where
+steamboats were landing every day and night, passing up and down the
+river, which afforded me a good opportunity of getting a boat passage
+to Cincinnati. My anticipation being worked up to the highest pitch,
+no sooner was the curtain of night dropped over the village, than I
+secreted myself where no one could see me, and changed my suit ready
+for the passage. Soon I heard the welcome sound of a Steamboat coming
+up the river Ohio, which was soon to waft me beyond the limits of the
+human slave markets of Kentucky. When the boat had landed at Madison,
+notwithstanding my strong desire to get off, my heart trembled within
+me in view of the great danger to which I was exposed in taking
+passage on board of a Southern Steamboat; hence before I took passage,
+I kneeled down before the Great I Am, and prayed for his aid and
+protection, which He bountifully bestowed even beyond my expectation;
+for I felt myself to be unworthy. I then stept boldly on the deck of
+this splendid swift-running Steamer, bound for the city of Cincinnati.
+This being the first voyage that I had ever taken on board of a
+Steamboat, I was filled with fear and excitement, knowing that I was
+surrounded by the vilest enemies of God and man, liable to be seized
+and bound hand and foot, by any white man, and taken back into
+captivity. But I crowded myself back from the light among the deck
+passengers, where it would be difficult to distinguish me from a white
+man. Every time during the night that the mate came round with a
+light after the hands, I was afraid he would see I was a colored man,
+and take me up; hence I kept from the light as much as possible. Some
+men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; but
+this was not the case with myself; it was to avoid detection in doing
+right. This was one of the instances of my adventures that my affinity
+with the Anglo-Saxon race, and even slaveholders, worked well for my
+escape. But no thanks to them for it. While in their midst they have
+not only robbed me of my labor and liberty, but they have almost
+entirely robbed me of my dark complexion. Being so near the color of a
+slaveholder, they could not, or did not find me out that night among
+the white passengers. There was one of the deck hands on board called
+out on his watch, whose hammock was swinging up near by me. I asked
+him if he would let me lie in it. He said if I would pay him
+twenty-five cents that I might lie in it until day. I readily paid him
+the price and got into the hammock. No one could see my face to know
+whether I was white or colored, while I was in the hammock; but I
+never closed my eyes for sleep that night. I had often heard of
+explosions on board of Steamboats; and every time the boat landed, and
+blowed off steam, I was afraid the boilers had bursted and we should
+all be killed; but I lived through the night amid the many dangers to
+which I was exposed. I still maintained my position in the hammock,
+until the next morning about 8 o'clock, when I heard the passengers
+saying the boat was near Cincinnati; and by this time I supposed that
+the attention of the people would be turned to the city, and I might
+pass off unnoticed.
+
+There were no questions asked me while on board the boat. The boat
+landed about 9 o'clock in the morning in Cincinnati, and I waited
+until after most of the passengers had gone off of the boat; I then
+walked as gracefully up street as if I was not running away, until I
+had got pretty well up Broadway. My object was to go to Canada, but
+having no knowledge of the road, it was necessary for me to make some
+inquiry before I left the city. I was afraid to ask a white person,
+and I could see no colored person to ask. But fortunately for me I
+found a company of little boys at play in the street, and through
+these little boys, by asking them indirect questions, I found the
+residence of a colored man.
+
+"Boys, can you tell me where that old colored man lives who saws wood,
+and works at jobs around the streets?"
+
+"What is his name?" said one of the boys.
+
+"I forget."
+
+"Is it old Job Dundy?"
+
+"Is Dundy a colored man?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"That is the very man I am looking for; will you show me where he
+lives?"
+
+"Yes," said the little boy, and pointed me out the house.
+
+Mr. D. invited me in, and I found him to be a true friend. He asked me
+if I was a slave from Kentucky, and if I ever intended to go back into
+slavery? Not knowing yet whether he was truly in favor of slaves
+running away, I told him that I had just come over to spend my
+christmas holydays, and that I was going back. His reply was, "my son,
+I would never go back if I was in your place; you have a right to your
+liberty." I then asked him how I should get my freedom? He referred me
+to Canada, over which waved freedom's flag, defended by the British
+Government, upon whose soil there cannot be the foot print of a slave.
+
+He then commenced telling me of the facilities for my escape to
+Canada; of the Abolitionists; of the Abolition Societies, and of their
+fidelity to the cause of suffering humanity. This was the first time
+in my life that ever I had heard of such people being in existence as
+the Abolitionists. I supposed that they were a different race of
+people. He conducted me to the house of one of these warm-hearted
+friends of God and the slave. I found him willing to aid a poor
+fugitive on his way to Canada, even to the dividing of the last cent,
+or morsel of bread if necessary.
+
+These kind friends gave me something to eat and started me on my way
+to Canada, with a recommendation to a friend on my way. This was the
+commencement of what was called the under ground rail road to Canada.
+I walked with bold courage, trusting in the arm of Omnipotence; guided
+by the unchangable North Star by night, and inspired by an elevated
+thought that I was fleeing from a land of slavery and oppression,
+bidding farewell to handcuffs, whips, thumb-screws and chains.
+
+I travelled on until I had arrived at the place where I was directed
+to call on an Abolitionist, but I made no stop: so great were my fears
+of being pursued by the pro-slavery hunting dogs of the South. I
+prosecuted my journey vigorously for nearly forty-eight hours without
+food or rest, struggling against external difficulties such as no one
+can imagine who has never experienced the same: not knowing what
+moment I might be captured while travelling among strangers, through
+cold and fear, breasting the north winds, being thinly clad, pelted by
+the snow storms through the dark hours of the night and not a house in
+which I could enter to shelter me from the storm.
+
+The second night from Cincinnati, about midnight, I thought that I
+should freeze; my shoes were worn through, and my feet were exposed to
+the bare ground. I approached a house on the road-side, knocked at the
+door, and asked admission to their fire, but was refused. I went to
+the next house, and was refused the privilege of their fire-side, to
+prevent my freezing. This I thought was hard treatment among the human
+family. But--
+
+    "Behind a frowning Providence there was a smiling face,"
+
+which soon shed beams of light upon unworthy me.
+
+The next morning I was still found struggling on my way faint, hungry,
+lame, and rest-broken. I could see people taking breakfast from the
+road-side, but I did not dare to enter their houses to get my
+breakfast, for neither love nor money. In passing a low cottage, I saw
+the breakfast table spread with all its bounties, and I could see no
+male person about the house; the temptation for food was greater than
+I could resist.
+
+I saw a lady about the table, and I thought that if she was ever so
+much disposed to take me up, that she would have to catch and hold me,
+and that would have been impossible. I stepped up to the door with my
+hat off, and asked her if she would be good enough to sell me a
+sixpence worth of bread and meat. She cut off a piece and brought it
+to me; I thanked her for it, and handed her the pay, but instead of
+receiving it, she burst into tears, and said "never mind the money,"
+but gently turned away bidding me go on my journey. This was
+altogether unexpected to me: I had found a friend in the time of need
+among strangers, and nothing could be more cheering in the day of
+trouble than this. When I left that place I started with bolder
+courage. The next night I put up at a tavern, and continued stopping
+at public houses until my means were about gone. When I got to the
+Black Swamp in the county of Wood, Ohio, I stopped one night at a
+hotel, after travelling all day through mud and snow; but I soon found
+that I should not be able to pay my bill. This was about the time that
+the "wild-cat banks" were in a flourishing state, and "shin
+plasters"[3] in abundance; they would charge a dollar for one night's
+lodging.
+
+After I had found out this, I slipped out of the bar room into the
+kitchen where the landlady was getting supper; as she had quite a
+number of travellers to cook for that night, I told her if she would
+accept my services, I would assist her in getting supper; that I was a
+cook. She very readily accepted the offer, and I went to work.
+
+She was very much pleased with my work, and the next morning I helped
+her to get breakfast. She then wanted to hire me for all winter, but I
+refused for fear I might be pursued. My excuse to her was that I had a
+brother living in Detroit, whom I was going to see on some important
+business, and after I got that business attended to, I would come back
+and work for them all winter.
+
+When I started the second morning they paid me fifty cents beside my
+board, with the understanding that I was to return; but I have not
+gone back yet.
+
+I arrived the next morning in the village of Perrysburgh, where I
+found quite a settlement of colored people, many of whom were fugitive
+slaves. I made my case known to them and they sympathized with me. I
+was a stranger, and they took me in and persuaded me to spend the
+winter in Perrysburgh, where I could get employment and go to Canada
+the next spring, in a steamboat which run from Perrysburgh, if I
+thought it proper so to do.
+
+I got a job of chopping wood during that winter which enabled me to
+purchase myself a suit, and after paying my board the next spring, I
+had saved fifteen dollars in cash. My intention was to go back to
+Kentucky after my wife.
+
+When I got ready to start, which was about the first of May, my
+friends all persuaded me not to go, but to get some other person to
+go, for fear I might be caught and sold off from my family into
+slavery forever. But I could not refrain from going back myself,
+believing that I could accomplish it better than a stranger.
+
+The money that I had would not pass in the South, and for the purpose
+of getting it off to a good advantage, I took a steamboat passage to
+Detroit, Michigan, and there I spent all my money for dry goods, to
+peddle out on my way back through the State of Ohio. I also purchased
+myself a pair of false whiskers to put on when I got back to Kentucky,
+to prevent any one from knowing me after night, should they see me. I
+then started back after my little family.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] Nickname for temporary paper money.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_My safe arrival at Kentucky.--Surprise and delight to find my
+family.--Plan for their escape projected.--Return to Cincinnati.--My
+betrayal by traitors.--Imprisonment in Covington, Kentucky.--Return to
+slavery.--Infamous proposal of the slave catchers.--My reply._
+
+
+I succeeded very well in selling out my goods, and when I arrived in
+Cincinnati, I called on some of my friends who had aided me on my
+first escape. They also opposed me in going back only for my own good.
+But it has ever been characteristic of me to persevere in what I
+undertake.
+
+I took a Steamboat passage which would bring me to where I should want
+to land about dark, so as to give me a chance to find my family during
+the night if possible. The boat landed me at the proper place, and at
+the proper time accordingly. This landing was about six miles from
+Bedford, where my mother and wife lived, but with different families.
+My mother was the cook at a tavern, in Bedford. When I approached the
+house where mother was living, I remembered where she slept in the
+kitchen; her bed was near the window.
+
+It was a bright moonlight night, and in looking through the kitchen
+window, I saw a person lying in bed about where my mother had formerly
+slept. I rapped on the glass which awakened the person, in whom I
+recognised my dear mother, but she knew me not, as I was dressed in
+disguise with my false whiskers on; but she came to the window and
+asked who I was and what I wanted. But when I took off my false
+whiskers, and spoke to her, she knew my voice, and quickly sprang to
+the door, clasping my hand, exclaiming, "Oh! is this my son," drawing
+me into the room, where I was so fortunate as to find Malinda, and
+little Frances, my wife and child, whom I had left to find the fair
+climes of liberty, and whom I was then seeking to rescue from
+perpetual slavery.
+
+They never expected to see me again in this life. I am entirely unable
+to describe what my feelings were at that time. It was almost like the
+return of the prodigal son. There was weeping and rejoicing. They were
+filled with surprise and fear; with sadness and joy. The sensation of
+joy at that moment flashed like lightning over my afflicted mind,
+mingled with a thousand dreadful apprehensions, that none but a heart
+wounded slave father and husband like myself can possibly imagine.
+After talking the matter over, we decided it was not best to start
+with my family that night, as it was very uncertain whether we should
+get a boat passage immediately. And in case of failure, if Malinda
+should get back even before day-light the next morning, it would have
+excited suspicion against her, as it was not customary for slaves to
+leave home at that stage of the week without permission. Hence we
+thought it would be the most effectual way for her to escape, to start
+on Saturday night; this being a night on which the slaves of Kentucky
+are permitted to visit around among their friends, and are often
+allowed to stay until the afternoon on Sabbath day.
+
+I gave Malinda money to pay her passage on board of a Steamboat to
+Cincinnati, as it was not safe for me to wait for her until Saturday
+night; but she was to meet me in Cincinnati, if possible, the next
+Sunday. Her father was to go with her to the Ohio River on Saturday
+night, and if a boat passed up during the night she was to get on
+board at Madison, and come to Cincinnati. If she should fail in
+getting off that night, she was to try it the next Saturday night.
+This was the understanding when we separated. This we thought was the
+best plan for her escape, as there had been so much excitement caused
+by my running away.
+
+The owners of my wife were very much afraid that she would follow me;
+and to prevent her they had told her and other slaves that I had been
+persuaded off by the Abolitionists, who had promised to set me free,
+but had sold me off to New Orleans. They told the slaves to beware of
+the abolitionists, that their object was to decoy off slaves and then
+sell them off in New Orleans. Some of them believed this, and others
+believed it not; and the owners of my wife were more watchful over her
+than they had ever been before as she was unbelieving.
+
+This was in the month of June, 1838. I left Malinda on a bright but
+lonesome Wednesday night. When I arrived at the river Ohio, I found a
+small craft chained to a tree, in which I ferried myself across the
+stream.
+
+I succeeded in getting a Steamboat passage back to Cincinnati, where I
+put up with one of my abolition friends who knew that I had gone after
+my family, and who appeared to be much surprised to see me again. I
+was soon visited by several friends who knew of my having gone back
+after my family. They wished to know why I had not brought my family
+with me; but after they understood the plan, and that my family was
+expected to be in Cincinnati within a few days, they thought it the
+best and safest plan for us to take a stage passage out to Lake Erie.
+But being short of money, I was not able to pay my passage in the
+stage, even if it would have prevented me from being caught by the
+slave hunters of Cincinnati, or save me from being taken back into
+bondage for life.
+
+These friends proposed helping me by subscription; I accepted their
+kind offer, but in going among friends to solicit aid for me, they
+happened to get among traitors, and kidnappers, both white and colored
+men, who made their living by that kind of business. Several persons
+called on me and made me small donations, and among them two white men
+came in professing to be my friends. They told me not to be afraid of
+them, they were abolitionists. They asked me a great many questions.
+They wanted to know if I needed any help? and they wanted to know if
+it could be possible that a man so near white as myself could be a
+slave? Could it be possible that men would make slaves of their own
+children? They expressed great sympathy for me, and gave me fifty
+cents each; by this they gained my confidence. They asked my master's
+name; where he lived, &c. After which they left the room, bidding me
+God speed. These traitors, or land pirates, took passage on board of
+the first Steamboat down the river, in search of my owners. When they
+found them, they got a reward of three hundred dollars offered for the
+re-capture of this "stray" which they had so long and faithfully been
+hunting, by day and by night, by land and by water, with dogs and with
+guns, but all without success. This being the last and only chance for
+dragging me back into hopeless bondage, time and money was no object
+when they saw a prospect of my being re-taken.
+
+Mr. Gatewood got two of his slaveholding neighbors to go with him to
+Cincinnati, for the purpose of swearing to anything which might be
+necessary to change me back into property. They came on to Cincinnati,
+and with but little effort they soon rallied a mob of ruffians who
+were willing to become the watch-dogs of slaveholders, for a dram, in
+connection with a few slavehunting petty constables.
+
+While I was waiting the arrival of my family, I got a job of digging a
+cellar for the good lady where I was stopping, and while I was digging
+under the house, all at once I heard a man enter the house; another
+stept up to the cellar door to where I was at work; he looked in and
+saw me with my coat off at work. He then rapped over the cellar door
+on the house side, to notify the one who had entered the house to look
+for me that I was in the cellar. This strange conduct soon excited
+suspicion so strong in me, that I could not stay in the cellar and
+started to come out, but the man who stood by the door, rapped again
+on the house side, for the other to come to his aid, and told me to
+stop. I attempted to pass out by him, and he caught hold of me, and
+drew a pistol, swearing if I did not stop he would shoot me down. By
+this time I knew that I was betrayed.
+
+I asked him what crime I had committed that I should be murdered.
+
+"I will let you know, very soon," said he.
+
+By this time there were others coming to his aid, and I could see no
+way by which I could possibly escape the jaws of that hell upon earth.
+
+All my flattering prospects of enjoying my own fire-side, with my
+little family, were then blasted and gone; and I must bid farewell to
+friends and freedom forever.
+
+In vain did I look to the infamous laws of the Commonwealth of Ohio,
+for that protection against violence and outrage, that even the vilest
+criminal with a white skin might enjoy. But oh! the dreadful thought,
+that after all my sacrifice and struggling to rescue my family from
+the hands of the oppressor; that I should be dragged back into cruel
+bondage to suffer the penalty of a tyrant's law, to endure stripes and
+imprisonment, and to be shut out from all moral as well as
+intellectual improvement, and linger out almost a living death.
+
+When I saw a crowd of blood-thirsty, unprincipled slave hunters
+rushing upon me armed with weapons of death, it was no use for me to
+undertake to fight my way through against such fearful odds.
+
+But I broke away from the man who stood by with his pistol drawn to
+shoot me if I should resist, and reached the fence and attempted to
+jump over it before I was overtaken; but the fence being very high I
+was caught by my legs before I got over.
+
+I kicked and struggled with all my might to get away, but without
+success. I kicked a new cloth coat off of his back, while he was
+holding on to my leg. I kicked another in his eye; but they never let
+me go until they got more help. By this time, there was a crowd on the
+out side of the fence with clubs to beat me back. Finally, they
+succeeded in dragging me from the fence and overpowered me by numbers
+and choked me almost to death.
+
+These ruffians dragged me through the streets of Cincinnati, to what
+was called a justice office. But it was more like an office of
+injustice.
+
+When I entered the room I was introduced to three slaveholders, one of
+whom was a son of Wm. Gatewood, who claimed me as his property. They
+pretended to be very glad to see me.
+
+They asked me if I did not want to see my wife and child; but I made
+no reply to any thing that was said until I was delivered up as a
+slave. After they were asked a few questions by the court, the old
+pro-slavery squire very gravely pronounced me to be the property of
+Mr. Gatewood.
+
+The office being crowded with spectators, many of whom were colored
+persons, Mr. G. was afraid to keep me in Cincinnati, two or three
+hours even, until a steamboat got ready to leave for the South. So
+they took me across the river, and locked me up in Covington jail, for
+safe keeping. This was the first time in my life that I had been put
+into a jail. It was truly distressing to my feelings to be locked up
+in a cold dungeon for no crime. The jailor not being at home, his wife
+had to act in his place. After my owners had gone back to Cincinnati,
+the jailor's wife, in company with another female, came into the jail
+and talked with me very friendly.
+
+I told them all about my situation, and these ladies said they hoped
+that I might get away again, and went so far as to tell me if I should
+be kept in the jail that night, there was a hole under the wall of the
+jail where a prisoner had got out. It was only filled up with loose
+dirt, they said, and I might scratch it out and clear myself.
+
+This I thought was a kind word from an unexpected friend: I had power
+to have taken the key from those ladies, in spite of them, and have
+cleared myself; but knowing that they would have to suffer perhaps for
+letting me get away, I thought I would wait until after dark, at which
+time I should try to make my escape, if they should not take me out
+before that time. But within two or three hours, they came after me,
+and conducted me on board of a boat, on which we all took passage down
+to Louisville. I was not confined in any way, but was well guarded by
+five men, three of whom were slaveholders, and the two young men from
+Cincinnati, who had betrayed me.
+
+After the boat had got fairly under way, with these vile men standing
+around me on the upper deck of the boat, and she under full speed
+carrying me back into a land of torment, I could see no possible way
+of escape. Yet, while I was permitted to gaze on the beauties of
+nature, on free soil, as I passed down the river, things looked to me
+uncommonly pleasant: The green trees and wild flowers of the forest;
+the ripening harvest fields waving with the gentle breezes of Heaven;
+and the honest farmers tilling their soil and living by their own
+toil. These things seem to light upon my vision with a peculiar charm.
+I was conscious of what must be my fate; a wretched victim for Slavery
+without limit; to be sold like an ox, into hopeless bondage, and to be
+worked under the flesh devouring lash during life, without wages.
+
+This was to me an awful thought; every time the boat run near the
+shore, I was tempted to leap from the deck down into the water, with a
+hope of making my escape. Such was then my feeling.
+
+But on a moment's reflection, reason with her warning voice overcame
+this passion by pointing out the dreadful consequences of one's
+committing suicide. And this I thought would have a very striking
+resemblance to the act, and I declined putting into practice this
+dangerous experiment, though the temptation was great.
+
+These kidnapping gentlemen, seeing that I was much dissatisfied,
+commenced talking to me, by saying that I must not be cast down; they
+were going to take me back home to live with my family, if I would
+promise not to run away again.
+
+To this I agreed, and told them that this was all that I could ask,
+and more than I had expected.
+
+But they were not satisfied with having recaptured me, because they
+had lost other slaves and supposed that I knew their whereabouts; and
+truly I did. They wanted me to tell them; but before telling I wanted
+them to tell who it was that had betrayed me into their hands. They
+said that I was betrayed by two colored men in Cincinnati, whose names
+they were backward in telling, because their business in connection
+with themselves was to betray and catch fugitive slaves for the reward
+offered. They undertook to justify the act by saying if they had not
+betrayed me, that somebody else would, and if I would tell them where
+they could catch a number of other runaway slaves, they would pay for
+me and set me free, and would then take me in as one of the Club. They
+said I would soon make money enough to buy my wife and child out of
+slavery.
+
+But I replied, "No, gentlemen, I cannot commit or do an act of that
+kind, even if it were in my power so to do. I know that I am now in
+the power of a master who can sell me from my family for life, or
+punish me for the crime of running away, just as he pleases: I know
+that I am a prisoner for life, and have no way of extricating myself;
+and I also know that I have been deceived and betrayed by men who
+professed to be my best friends; but can all this justify me in
+becoming a traitor to others? Can I do that which I complain of others
+for doing unto me? Never, I trust, while a single pulsation of my
+heart continues to beat, can I consent to betray a fellow man like
+myself back into bondage, who has escaped. Dear as I love my wife and
+little child, and as much as I should like to enjoy freedom and
+happiness with them, I am unwilling to bring this about by betraying
+and destroying the liberty and happiness of others who have never
+offended me!"
+
+I then asked them again if they would do me the kindness to tell me
+who it was betrayed me into their hands at Cincinnati? They agreed to
+tell me with the understanding that I was to tell where there was
+living, a family of slaves at the North, who had run away from Mr.
+King of Kentucky. I should not have agreed to this, but I knew the
+slaves were in Canada, where it was not possible for them to be
+captured. After they had told me the names of the persons who betrayed
+me, and how it was done, then I told them their slaves were in Canada,
+doing well. The two white men were Constables, who claimed the right
+of taking up any strange colored person as a slave; while the two
+colored kidnappers, under the pretext of being abolitionists, would
+find out all the fugitives they could, and inform these Constables for
+which they got a part of the reward, after they had found out where
+the slaves were from, the name of his master, &c. By the agency of
+these colored men, they were seized by a band of white ruffians,
+locked up in jail, and their master sent for. These colored
+kidnappers, with the Constables, were getting rich by betraying
+fugitive slaves. This was told to me by one of the Constables, while
+they were all standing around trying to induce me to engage in the
+same business for the sake of regaining my own liberty, and that of my
+wife and child. But my answer even there, under the most trying
+circumstances, surrounded by the strongest enemies of God and man, was
+most emphatically in the negative. "Let my punishment be what it may,
+either with the lash or by selling me away from my friends and home;
+let my destiny be what you please, I can never engage in this business
+for the sake of getting free."
+
+They said I should not be sold nor punished with the lash for what I
+had done, but I should be carried back to Bedford, to live with my
+wife. Yet when the boat got to where we should have landed, she wafted
+by without making any stop. I felt awful in view of never seeing my
+family again; they asked what was the matter? what made me look so
+cast down? I informed them that I knew I was to be sold in the
+Louisville slave market, or in New Orleans, and I never expected to
+see my family again. But they tried to pacify me by promising not to
+sell me to a slave trader who would take me off to New Orleans;
+cautioning me at the same time not to let it be known that I had been
+a runaway. This would very much lessen the value of me in market. They
+would not punish me by putting irons on my limbs, but would give me a
+good name, and sell me to some gentleman in Louisville for a house
+servant. They thought I would soon make money enough to buy myself,
+and would not part with me if they could get along without. But I had
+cost them so much in advertising and looking for me, that they were
+involved by it. In the first place they paid eight hundred and fifty
+dollars for me; and when I first run away, they paid one hundred for
+advertising and looking after me; and now they had to pay about forty
+dollars, expenses travelling to and from Cincinnati, in addition to
+the three hundred dollars reward; and they were not able to pay the
+reward without selling me.
+
+I knew then the only alternative left for me to extricate myself was
+to use deception, which is the most effectual defence a slave can use.
+I pretended to be satisfied for the purpose of getting an opportunity
+of giving them the slip.
+
+But oh, the distress of mind, the lamentable thought that I should
+never again see the face nor hear the gentle voice of my nearest and
+dearest friends in this life. I could imagine what must be my fate
+from my peculiar situation. To be sold to the highest bidder, and then
+wear the chains of slavery down to the grave. The day star of liberty
+which had once cheered and gladdened my heart in freedom's land, had
+then hidden itself from my vision, and the dark and dismal frown of
+slavery had obscured the sunshine of freedom from me, as they supposed
+for all time to come.
+
+But the understanding between us was, I was not to be tied, chained,
+nor flogged; for if they should take me into the city handcuffed and
+guarded by five men the question might be asked what crime I had
+committed? And if it should be known that I had been a runaway to
+Canada, it would lessen the value of me at least one hundred dollars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_Arrival at Louisville, Ky.--Efforts to sell me.--Fortunate escape
+from the man-stealers in the public street.--I return to Bedford,
+Ky.--The rescue of my family again attempted.--I started alone
+expecting them to follow.--After waiting some months I resolve to go
+back again to Kentucky._
+
+
+When the boat arrived at Louisville, the day being too far spent for
+them to dispose of me, they had to put up at a Hotel. When we left the
+boat, they were afraid of my bolting from them in the street, and to
+prevent this they took hold of my arms, one on each side of me,
+gallanting me up to the hotel with as much propriety as if I had been
+a white lady. This was to deceive the people, and prevent my getting
+away from them.
+
+They called for a bed-room to which I was conducted and locked within.
+That night three of them lodged in the same room to guard me. They
+locked the door and put the key under the head of their bed. I could
+see no possible way for my escape without jumping out of a high three
+story house window.
+
+It was almost impossible for me to sleep that night in my peculiar
+situation. I passed the night in prayer to our Heavenly Father, asking
+that He would open to me even the smallest chance for escape.
+
+The next morning after they had taken breakfast, four of them left me
+in the care of Dan Lane. He was what might be called one of the watch
+dogs of Kentucky. There was nothing too mean for him to do. He never
+blushed to rob a slave mother of her children, no matter how young or
+small. He was also celebrated for slave selling, kidnapping, and negro
+hunting. He was well known in that region by the slaves as well as the
+slaveholders, to have all the qualifications necessary for his
+business. He was a drunkard, a gambler, a profligate, and a
+slaveholder.
+
+While the other four were looking around through the city for a
+purchaser, Dan was guarding me with his bowie knife and pistols. After
+a while the others came in with two persons to buy me, but on seeing
+me they remarked that they thought I would run away, and asked me if I
+had ever run away. Dan sprang to his feet and answered the question
+for me, by telling one of the most palpable falsehoods that ever came
+from the lips of a slaveholder. He declared that I had never run away
+in my life!
+
+Fortunately for me, Dan, while the others were away, became unwell;
+and from taking salts, or from some other cause, was compelled to
+leave his room. Off he started to the horse stable which was located
+on one of the most public streets of Louisville, and of course I had
+to accompany him. He gallanted me into the stable by the arm, and
+placed himself back in one of the horses stalls and ordered me to
+stand by until he was ready to come out.
+
+At this time a thousand thoughts were flashing through my mind with
+regard to the propriety of trying the springs of my heels, which
+nature had so well adapted for taking the body out of danger, even in
+the most extraordinary emergencies. I thought in the attempt to get
+away by running, if I should not succeed, it could make my condition
+no worse, for they could but sell me and this they were then trying to
+do. These thoughts impelled me to keep edging towards the door, though
+very cautiously. Dan kept looking around after me as if he was not
+satisfied at my getting so near to the door. But the last I saw of him
+in the stable was just as he turned his eyes from me; I nerved myself
+with all the moral courage I could command and bolted for the door,
+perhaps with the fleetness of a much frightened deer, who never looks
+behind in time of peril. Dan was left in the stable to make ready for
+the race, or jump out into the street half dressed, and thereby
+disgrace himself before the public eye.
+
+It would be impossible for me to set forth the speed with which I run
+to avoid my adversary; I succeeded in turning a corner before Dan got
+sight of me, and by fast running, turning corners, and jumping high
+fences, I was enabled to effect my escape.
+
+In running so swiftly through the public streets, I thought it would
+be a safer course to leave the public way, and as quick as thought I
+spied a high board fence by the way and attempted to leap over it. The
+top board broke and down I came into a hen-coop which stood by the
+fence. The dogs barked, and the hens flew and cackled so, that I
+feared it would lead to my detection before I could get out of the
+yard.
+
+The reader can only imagine how great must have been the excited state
+of my mind while exposed to such extraordinary peril and danger on
+every side. In danger of being seized by a savage dog, which sprang at
+me when I fell into the hen-coop; in danger of being apprehended by
+the tenants of the lot; in danger of being shot or wounded by any one
+who might have attempted to stop me, a runaway slave; and in danger on
+the other hand of being overtaken and getting in conflict with my
+adversary. With these fearful apprehensions, caution dictated me not
+to proceed far by day-light in this slaveholding city.
+
+At this moment every nerve and muscle of my whole system was in full
+stretch; and every facility of the mind brought into action striving
+to save myself from being re-captured. I dared not go to the forest,
+knowing that I might be tracked by blood-hounds, and overtaken. I was
+so fortunate as to find a hiding place in the city which seemed to be
+pointed out by the finger of Providence. After running across lots,
+turning corners, and shunning my fellow men, as if they were wild
+ferocious beasts. I found a hiding place in a pile of boards or
+scantling, where I kept concealed during that day.
+
+No tongue nor pen can describe the dreadful apprehensions under which
+I labored for the space of ten or twelve hours. My hiding place
+happened to be between two workshops, where there were men at work
+within six or eight feet of me. I could imagine that I heard them
+talking about me, and at other times thought I heard the footsteps of
+Daniel Lane in close pursuit. But I retained my position there until 9
+or 10 o'clock at night, without being discovered; after which I
+attempted to find my way out, which was exceedingly difficult. The
+night being very dark, in a strange city, among slaveholders and slave
+hunters, to me it was like a person entering a wilderness among wolves
+and vipers, blindfolded. I was compelled from necessity to enter this
+place for refuge under the most extraordinary state of excitement,
+without regard to its geographical position. I found myself surrounded
+with a large block of buildings, which comprised a whole square,
+built up mostly on three sides, so that I could see no way to pass out
+without exposing myself perhaps to the gaze of patrols, or slave
+catchers.
+
+In wandering around through the dark, I happened to find a calf in a
+back yard, which was bawling after the cow; the cow was also lowing in
+another direction, as if they were trying to find each other. A
+thought struck me that there must be an outlet somewhere about, where
+the cow and calf were trying to meet. I started in the direction where
+I heard the lowing of the cow, and I found an arch or tunnel extending
+between two large brick buildings, where I could see nothing of the
+cow but her eyes, shining like balls of fire through the dark tunnel,
+between the walls, through which I passed to where she stood. When I
+entered the streets I found them well lighted up. My heart was
+gladdened to know there was another chance for my escape. No bird ever
+let out of a cage felt more like flying, than I felt like running.
+
+Before I left the city, I chanced to find by the way, an old man of
+color. Supposing him to be a friend, I ventured to make known my
+situation, and asked him if he would get me a bite to eat. The old man
+most cheerfully complied with my request. I was then about forty miles
+from the residence of Wm. Gatewood, where my wife, whom I sought to
+rescue from slavery, was living. This was also in the direction it was
+necessary for me to travel in order to get back to the free North.
+Knowing that the slave catchers would most likely be watching the
+public highway for me, to avoid them I made my way over the rocky
+hills, woods and plantations, back to Bedford.
+
+I travelled all that night, guided on my way by the shining stars of
+heaven alone. The next morning just before the break of day, I came
+right to a large plantation, about which I secreted myself, until the
+darkness of the next night began to disappear. The morning larks
+commenced to chirp and sing merrily--pretty soon I heard the whip
+crack, and the voice of the ploughman driving in the corn field. About
+breakfast time, I heard the sound of a horn; saw a number of slaves in
+the field with a white man, who I supposed to be their overseer. He
+started to the house before the slaves, which gave me an opportunity
+to get the attention of one of the slaves, whom I met at the fence,
+before he started to his breakfast, and made known to him my wants and
+distresses. I also requested him to bring me a piece of bread if he
+could when he came back to the field.
+
+The hospitable slave complied with my request. He came back to the
+field before his fellow laborers, and brought me something to eat, and
+as an equivolent for his kindness, I instructed him with regard to
+liberty, Canada, the way of escape, and the facilities by the way. He
+pledged his word that himself and others would be in Canada, in less
+than six months from that day. This closed our interview, and we
+separated. I concealed myself in the forest until about sunset, before
+I pursued my journey; and the second night from Louisville, I arrived
+again in the neighborhood of Bedford, where my little family were held
+in bondage, whom I so earnestly strove to rescue.
+
+I concealed myself by the aid of a friend in that neighborhood,
+intending again to make my escape with my family.
+
+This confidential friend then carried a message to Malinda, requesting
+her to meet me on one side of the village.
+
+We met under the most fearful apprehensions, for my pursuers had
+returned from Louisville, with the lamentable story that I was gone,
+and yet they were compelled to pay three hundred dollars to the
+Cincinnati slave catchers for re-capturing me there.
+
+Daniel Lane's account of my escape from him, looked so unreasonable to
+slaveholders, that many of them charged him with selling me and
+keeping the money; while others believed that I had got away from him,
+and was then in the neighborhood, trying to take off my wife and
+child, which was true. Lane declared that in less than five minutes
+after I run out of the stable in Louisville, he had over twenty men
+running and looking in every direction after me; but all without
+success. They could hear nothing of me. They had turned over several
+tons of hay in a large loft, in search, and I was not to be found
+there. Dan imputed my escape to my godliness! He said that I must have
+gone up in a chariot of fire, for I went off by flying; and that he
+should never again have any thing to do with a praying negro.
+
+Great excitement prevailed in Bedford, and many were out watching for
+me at the time Malinda was relating to me these facts. The excitement
+was then so great among the slaveholders--who were anxious to have me
+re-captured as a means of discouraging other slaves from running
+away--that time and money were no object while there was the least
+prospect of their success. I therefore declined making an effort just
+at that time to escape with my little family. Malinda managed to get
+me into the house of a friend that night, in the village, where I kept
+concealed several days seeking an opportunity to escape with Malinda
+and Frances to Canada.
+
+But for some time Malinda was watched so very closely by white and by
+colored persons, both day and night, that it was not possible for us
+to escape together. They well knew that my little family was the only
+object of attraction that ever had or ever would induce me to come
+back and risk my liberty over the threshold of slavery--therefore this
+point was well guarded by the watch dogs of slavery, and I was
+compelled again to forsake my wife for a season, or surrender, which
+was suicidal to the cause of freedom, in my judgment.
+
+The next day after my arrival in Bedford, Daniel Lane came to the very
+house wherein I was concealed and talked in my hearing to the family
+about my escape from him out of the stable in Louisville. He was near
+enough for me to have laid my hands on his head while in that
+house--and the intimidation which this produced on me was more than I
+could bear. I was also aware of the great temptation of the reward
+offered to white or colored persons for my apprehension; I was exposed
+to other calamities which rendered it altogether unsafe for me to stay
+longer under that roof.
+
+One morning about 2 o'clock, I took leave of my little family and
+started for Canada. This was almost like tearing off the limbs from my
+body. When we were about to separate, Malinda clasped my hand
+exclaiming, "oh my soul! my heart is almost broken at the thought of
+this dangerous separation. This may be the last time we shall ever see
+each other's faces in this life, which will destroy all my future
+prospects of life and happiness forever." At this time the poor
+unhappy woman burst into tears and wept loudly; and my eyes were not
+dry. We separated with the understanding that she was to wait until
+the excitement was all over; after which she was to meet me at a
+certain place in the State of Ohio; which would not be longer than two
+months from that time.
+
+I succeeded that night in getting a steamboat conveyance back to
+Cincinnati, or within ten miles of the city. I was apprehensive that
+there were slave-hunters in Cincinnati, watching the arrival of every
+boat up the river, expecting to catch me; and the boat landing to take
+in wood ten miles below the city, I got off and walked into
+Cincinnati, to avoid detection.
+
+On my arrival at the house of a friend, I heard that the two young men
+who betrayed me for the three hundred dollars had returned and were
+watching for me. One of my friends in whom they had great confidence,
+called on the traitors, after he had talked with me, and asked them
+what they had done with me. Their reply was that I had given them the
+slip, and that they were glad of it, because they believed that I was
+a good man, and if they could see me on my way to Canada, they would
+give me money to aid me on my escape. My friend assured them that if
+they would give any thing to aid me on my way, much or little, if they
+would put the same into his hands, he would give it to me that night,
+or return it to them the next morning.
+
+They then wanted to know where I was and whether I was in the city;
+but he would not tell them, but one of them gave him one dollar for
+me, promising that if I was in the city, and he would let him know the
+next morning, he would give me ten dollars.
+
+But I never waited for the ten dollars. I received one dollar of the
+amount which they got for betraying me, and started that night for the
+north. Their excuse for betraying me, was, that catching runaways was
+their business, and if they had not done it somebody else would, but
+since they had got the reward they were glad that I had made my
+escape.
+
+Having travelled the road several times from Cincinnati to Lake Erie,
+I travelled through without much fear or difficulty. My friends in
+Perrysburgh, who knew that I had gone back into the very jaws of
+slavery after my family, were much surprised at my return, for they
+had heard that I was re-captured.
+
+After I had waited three months for the arrival of Malinda, and she
+came not, it caused me to be one of the most unhappy fugitives that
+ever left the South. I had waited eight or nine months without hearing
+from my family. I felt it to be my duty, as a husband and father, to
+make one more effort. I felt as if I could not give them up to be
+sacrificed on the "bloody altar of slavery." I felt as if love, duty,
+humanity and justice, required that I should go back, putting my trust
+in the God of Liberty for success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_My safe return to Kentucky.--The perils I encountered there.--Again
+betrayed, and taken by a mob; ironed and imprisoned.--Narrow escape
+from death.--Life in a slave prison._
+
+
+I prepared myself for the journey before named, and started back in
+the month of July, 1839.
+
+My intention was, to let no person know my business until I returned
+back to the North. I went to Cincinnati, and got a passage down on
+board of a boat just as I did the first time, without any misfortune
+or delay. I called on my mother, and the raising of a dead body from
+the grave could not have been more surprising to any one than my
+arrival was to her, on that sad summer's night. She was not able to
+suppress her feelings. When I entered the room, there was but one
+other person in the house with my mother, and this was a little slave
+girl who was asleep when I entered. The impulsive feeling which is
+ever ready to act itself out at the return of a long absent friend,
+was more than my bereaved mother could suppress. And unfortunately for
+me, the loud shouts of joy at that late hour of the night, awakened
+the little slave girl, who afterwards betrayed me. She kept perfectly
+still, and never let either of us know that she was awake, in order
+that she might hear our conversation and report it. Mother informed me
+where my family was living, and that she would see them the next day,
+and would make arrangements for us to meet the next night at that
+house after the people in the village had gone to bed. I then went off
+and concealed myself during the next day, and according to promise
+came back the next night about eleven o'clock.
+
+When I got near the house, moving very cautiously, filled with fearful
+apprehensions, I saw several men walking around the house as if they
+were looking for some person. I went back and waited about one hour,
+before I returned, and the number of men had increased. They were
+still to be seen lurking about this house, with dogs following them.
+This strange movement frightened me off again, and I never returned
+until after midnight, at which time I slipped up to the window, and
+rapped for my mother, who sprang to it and informed me that I was
+betrayed by the girl who overheard our conversation the night before.
+She thought that if I could keep out of the way for a few days, the
+white people would think that this girl was mistaken, or had lied. She
+had told her old mistress that I was there that night, and had made a
+plot with my mother to get my wife and child there the next night, and
+that I was going to take them off to Canada.
+
+I went off to a friend of mine, who rendered me all the aid that one
+slave could render another, under the circumstances. Thank God he is
+now free from slavery, and is doing well. He was a messenger for me to
+my wife and mother, until at the suggestion of my mother, I changed an
+old friend for a new one, who betrayed me for the sum of five dollars.
+
+We had set the time when we were to start for Canada, which was to be
+on the next Saturday night. My mother had an old friend whom she
+thought was true, and she got him to conceal me in a barn, not over
+two miles from the village. This man brought provisions to me, sent by
+my mother, and would tell me the news which was in circulation about
+me, among the citizens. But the poor fellow was not able to withstand
+the temptation of money.
+
+My owners had about given me up, and thought the report of the slave
+girl was false; but they had offered a little reward among the slaves
+for my apprehension. The night before I was betrayed, I met with my
+mother and wife, and we had set up nearly all night plotting to start
+on the next Saturday night. I hid myself away in the flax in the barn,
+and being much rest broken I slept until the next morning about 9
+o'clock. Then I was awakened by a mob of blood thirsty slaveholders,
+who had come armed with all the implements of death, with a
+determination to reduce me again to a life of slavery, or murder me on
+the spot.
+
+When I looked up and saw that I was surrounded, they were exclaiming
+at the top of their voices, "shoot him down! shoot him down!" "If he
+offers to run, or to resist, kill him!"
+
+I saw it was no use then for me to make any resistance, as I should be
+murdered. I felt confident that I had been betrayed by a slave, and
+all my flattering prospects of rescuing my family were gone for ever,
+and the grim monster slavery with all its horrors was staring me in
+the face.
+
+I surrendered myself to this hostile mob at once. The first thing
+done, after they had laid violent hands on me, was to bind my hands
+behind me with a cord, and rob me of all I possessed.
+
+In searching my pockets, they found my certificate from the Methodist
+E. Church, which had been given me by my classleader, testifying to my
+worthiness as a member of that church. And what made the matter look
+more disgraceful to me, many of this mob were members of the M.E.
+Church, and they were the persons who took away my church ticket, and
+then robbed me also of fourteen dollars in cash, a silver watch for
+which I paid ten dollars, a pocket knife for which I paid seventy-five
+cents, and a Bible for which I paid sixty-two and one half cents. All
+this they tyrannically robbed me of, and yet my owner, Wm. Gatewood,
+was a regular member of the same church to which I belonged.
+
+He then had me taken to a blacksmith's shop, and most wickedly had my
+limbs bound with heavy irons, and then had my body locked within the
+cold dungeon walls of the Bedford jail, to be sold to a Southern slave
+trader.
+
+My heart was filled with grief--my eyes were filled with tears. I
+could see no way of escape. I could hear no voice of consolation.
+Slaveholders were coming to the dungeon window in great numbers to ask
+me questions. Some were rejoicing--some swearing, and others saying
+that I ought to be hung; while others were in favor of sending both me
+and my wife to New Orleans. They supposed that I had informed her all
+about the facilities for slaves to escape to Canada, and that she
+would tell other slaves after I was gone; hence we must all be sent
+off to where we could neither escape ourselves, nor instruct others
+the way.
+
+In the afternoon of the same day Malinda was permitted to visit the
+prison wherein I was locked, but was not permitted to enter the door.
+When she looked through the dungeon grates and saw my sad situation,
+which was caused by my repeated adventures to rescue her and my little
+daughter from the grasp of slavery, it was more than she could bear
+without bursting in tears. She plead for admission into the cold
+dungeon where I was confined, but without success. With manacled
+limbs; with wounded spirit; with sympathising tears and with bleeding
+heart, I intreated Malinda to weep not for me, for it only added to my
+grief, which was greater than I could bear.
+
+I have often suffered from the sting of the cruel slave driver's lash
+on my quivering flesh--I have suffered from corporeal punishment in
+its various forms--I have mingled my sorrows with those that were
+bereaved by the ungodly soul drivers--and I also know what it is to
+shed the sympathetic tear at the grave of a departed friend; but all
+this is but a mere trifle compared with my sufferings from then to the
+end of six months subsequent.
+
+The second night while I was in jail, two slaves came to the dungeon
+grates about the dead hour of night, and called me to the grates to
+have some conversation about Canada, and the facilities for getting
+there. They knew that I had travelled over the road, and they were
+determined to run away and go where they could be free. I of course
+took great pleasure in giving them directions how and where to go, and
+they started in less than a week from that time and got clear to
+Canada. I have seen them both since I came back to the north myself.
+They were known by the names of King and Jack.
+
+The third day I was brought out of the prison to be carried off with
+my little family to the Louisville slave market. My hands were
+fastened together with heavy irons, and two men to guard me with
+loaded rifles, one of whom led the horse upon which I rode. My wife
+and child were set upon another nag. After we were all ready to start
+my old master thought I was not quite safe enough, and ordered one of
+the boys to bring him a bed cord from the store. He then tied my feet
+together under the horse, declaring that if I flew off this time, I
+should fly off with the horse.
+
+Many tears were shed on that occasion by our friends and relatives,
+who saw us dragged off in irons to be sold in the human flesh market.
+No tongue could express the deep anguish of my soul when I saw the
+silent tear drops streaming down the sable cheeks of an aged slave
+mother, at my departure; and that too, caused by a black hearted
+traitor who was himself a slave:
+
+    "I love the man with a feeling soul.
+    Whose passions are deep and strong;
+    Whose cords, when touched with a kindred power,
+    Will vibrate loud and long:
+
+    "The man whose word is bond and law--
+    Who ne'er for gold or power,
+    Would kiss the hand that would stab the heart
+    In adversity's trying hour."
+
+    "I love the man who delights to help
+    The panting, struggling poor:
+    The man that will open his heart,
+    Nor close against the fugitive at his door.
+
+    "Oh give me a heart that will firmly stand,
+    When the storm of affliction shall lower--
+    A hand that will never shrink, if grasped,
+    In misfortune's darkest hour."
+
+As we approached the city of Louisville, we attracted much attention,
+my being tied and handcuffed, and a person leading the horse upon
+which I rode. The horse appeared to be much frightened at the
+appearance of things in the city, being young and skittish. A carriage
+passing by jammed against the nag, which caused him to break from the
+man who was leading him, and in his fright throw me off backwards. My
+hands being confined with irons, and my feet tied under the horse with
+a rope, I had no power to help myself. I fell back off of the horse
+and could not extricate myself from this dreadful condition; the horse
+kicked with all his might while I was tied so close to his rump that
+he could only strike me with his legs by kicking.
+
+The breath was kicked out of my body, but my bones were not broken. No
+one who saw my situation would have given five dollars for me. It was
+thought by all that I was dead and would never come to life again.
+When the horse was caught the cords were cut from my limbs, and I was
+rubbed with whiskey, camphor, &c, which brought me to life again.
+
+Many bystanders expressed sympathy for me in my deplorable condition,
+and contempt for the tyrant who tied me to the young horse.
+
+I was then driven through the streets of the city with my little
+family on foot, to jail, wherein I was locked with handcuffs yet on. A
+physician was then sent for, who doctored me several days before I was
+well enough to be sold in market.
+
+The jail was one of the most disagreeable places I ever was confined
+in. It was not only disagreeable on account of the filth and dirt of
+the most disagreeable kind; but there were bed-bugs, fleas, lice and
+musquitoes in abundance, to contend with. At night we had to lie down
+on the floor in this filth. Our food was very scanty, and of the most
+inferior quality. No gentleman's dog would eat what we were compelled
+to eat or starve.
+
+I had not been in this prison many days before Madison Garrison, the
+soul driver, bought me and my family to sell again in the New Orleans
+slave market. He was buying up slaves to take to New Orleans. So he
+took me and my little family to the work-house, to be kept under lock
+and key at work until he had bought up as many as he wished to take
+off to the South.
+
+The work-house of Louisville was a very large brick building, built on
+the plan of a jail or State's prison, with many apartments to it,
+divided off into cells wherein prisoners were locked up after night.
+The upper apartments were occupied by females, principally. This
+prison was enclosed by a high stone wall, upon which stood watchmen
+with loaded guns to guard the prisoners from breaking out, and on
+either side there were large iron gates.
+
+When Garrison conducted me with my family to the prison in which we
+were to be confined until he was ready to take us to New Orleans, I
+was shocked at the horrid sight of the prisoners on entering the yard.
+When the large iron gate or door was thrown open to receive us, it was
+astonishing to see so many whites as well as colored men loaded down
+with irons, at hard labor, under the supervision of overseers.
+
+Some were sawing stone, some cutting stone, and others breaking stone.
+The first impression which was made on my mind when I entered this
+place of punishment, made me think of hell, with all its terrors of
+torment; such as "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth," which was
+then the idea that I had of the infernal regions from oral
+instruction. And I doubt whether there can be a better picture of it
+drawn, than may be sketched from an American slave prison.
+
+In this prison almost every prisoner had a heavy log chain riveted
+about his leg. It would indeed be astonishing to a Christian man to
+stand in that prison one half hour and hear and see the contaminating
+influences of Southern slavery on the body and mind of man--you may
+there find almost every variety of character to look on. Some singing,
+some crying, some praying, and others swearing. The people of color
+who were in there were slaves, there without crime, but for safe
+keeping, while the whites were some of the most abandoned characters
+living. The keeper took me up to the anvil block and fastened a chain
+about my leg, which I had to drag after me both day and night during
+three months. My labor was sawing stone; my food was coarse corn bread
+and beef shanks and cows heads with pot liquor, and a very scanty
+allowance of that.
+
+I have often seen the meat spoiled when brought to us, covered with
+flies and fly blows, and even worms crawling over it, when we were
+compelled to eat it, or go without any at all. It was all spread out
+on a long table in separate plates; and at the sound of a bell, every
+one would take his plate, asking no questions. After hastily eating,
+we were hurried back to our work, each man dragging a heavy log chain
+after him to his work.
+
+About a half hour before night they were commanded to stop work, take
+a bite to eat, and then be locked up in a small cell until the next
+morning after sunrise. The prisoners were locked in, two together. My
+bed was a cold stone floor with but little bedding! My visitors were
+bed-bugs and musquitoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_Character of my prison companions.--Jail breaking
+contemplated.--Defeat of our plan.--My wife and child
+removed.--Disgraceful proposal to her, and cruel punishment.--Our
+departure in a coffle for New Orleans.--Events of our journey._
+
+
+Most of the inmates of this prison I have described, were white men
+who had been sentenced there by the law, for depredations committed by
+them. There was in that prison, gamblers, drunkards, thieves, robbers,
+adulterers, and even murderers. There were also in the female
+department, harlots, pick-pockets, and adulteresses. In such company,
+and under such influences, where there was constant swearing, lying,
+cheating, and stealing, it was almost impossible for a virtuous person
+to avoid pollution, or to maintain their virtue. No place or places in
+this country can be better calculated to inculcate vice of every kind
+than a Southern work house or house of correction.
+
+After a profligate, thief, or a robber, has learned all that they can
+out of the prison, they might go in one of those prisons and learn
+something more--they might properly be called robber colleges; and if
+slaveholders understood this they would never let their slaves enter
+them. No man would give much for a slave who had been kept long in one
+of these prisons.
+
+I have often heard them telling each other how they robbed houses, and
+persons on the high way, by knocking them down, and would rob them,
+pick their pockets, and leave them half dead. Others would tell of
+stealing horses, cattle, sheep, and slaves; and when they would be
+sometimes apprehended, by the aid of their friends, they would break
+jail. But they could most generally find enough to swear them clear of
+any kind of villany. They seemed to take great delight in telling of
+their exploits in robbery. There was a regular combination of them who
+had determined to resist law, wherever they went, to carry out their
+purposes.
+
+In conversing with myself, they learned that I was notorious for
+running away, and professed sympathy for me. They thought that I
+might yet get to Canada, and be free, and suggested a plan by which I
+might accomplish it; and one way was, to learn to read and write, so
+that I might write myself a pass ticket, to go just where I pleased,
+when I was taken out of the prison; and they taught me secretly all
+they could while in the prison.
+
+But there was another plan which they suggested to me to get away from
+slavery; that was to break out of the prison and leave my family. I
+consented to engage in this plot, but not to leave my family.
+
+By my conduct in the prison, after having been there several weeks, I
+had gained the confidence of the keeper, and the turnkey. So much so,
+that when I wanted water or anything of the kind, they would open my
+door and hand it in to me. One of the turnkeys was an old colored man,
+who swept and cleaned up the cells, supplied the prisoners with water,
+&c.
+
+On Sundays in the afternoon, the watchmen of the prison were most
+generally off, and this old slave, whose name was Stephen, had the
+prisoners to attend to. The white prisoners formed a plot to break out
+on Sunday in the afternoon, by making me the agent to get the prison
+keys from old Stephen.
+
+I was to prepare a stone that would weigh about one pound, tie it up
+in a rag, and keep it in my pocket to strike poor old Stephen with,
+when he should open my cell door. But this I would not consent to do,
+without he should undertake to betray me.
+
+I gave old Stephen one shilling to buy me a water melon, which he was
+to bring to me in the afternoon. All the prisoners were to be ready to
+strike, just as soon as I opened their doors. When Stephen opened my
+door to hand me the melon, I was to grasp him by the collar, raise the
+stone over his head, and say to him, that if he made any alarm that I
+should knock him down with the stone. But if he would be quiet he
+should not be hurt. I was then to take all the keys from him, and lock
+him up in the cell--take a chisel and cut the chain from my own leg,
+then unlock all the cells below, and let out the other prisoners, who
+were all to cut off their chains. We were then to go and let out old
+Stephen, and make him go off with us. We were to form a line and march
+to the front gate of the prison with a sledge hammer, and break it
+open, and if we should be discovered, and there should be any out-cry,
+we were all to run and raise the alarm of fire, so as to avoid
+detection. But while we were all listening for Stephen to open the
+door with the melon, he came and reported that he could not get one,
+and handed me back the money through the window. All were
+disappointed, and nothing done. I looked upon it as being a fortunate
+thing for me, for it was certainly a very dangerous experiment for a
+slave, and they could never get me to consent to be the leader in that
+matter again.
+
+A few days after, another plot was concocted to to break prison, but
+it was betrayed by one of the party, which resulted in the most cruel
+punishment to the prisoners concerned in it; and I felt thankful that
+my name was not connected with it. They were not only flogged, but
+they were kept on bread and water alone, for many days. A few days
+after we were put in this prison, Garrison came and took my wife and
+child out, I knew not for what purpose, nor to what place, but after
+the absence of several days I supposed that he had sold them. But one
+morning, the outside door was thrown open, and Malinda thrust in by
+the ruthless hand of Garrison, whose voice was pouring forth the most
+bitter oaths and abusive language that could be dealt out to a female;
+while her heart-rending shrieks and sobbing, was truly melting to the
+soul of a father and husband.
+
+The language of Malinda was, "Oh! my dear little child is gone? What
+shall I do? my child is gone." This most distressing sound struck a
+sympathetic chord through all the prison among the prisoners. I was
+not permitted to go to my wife and inquire what had become of little
+Frances. I never expected to see her again, for I supposed that she
+was sold.
+
+That night, however, I had a short interview with my much abused wife,
+who told me the secret. She said that Garrison had taken her to a
+private house where he kept female slaves for the basest purposes. It
+was a resort for slave trading profligates and soul drivers, who were
+interested in the same business.
+
+Soon after she arrived at this place, Garrison gave her to understand
+what he brought her there for, and made a most disgraceful assault on
+her virtue, which she promptly repeled; and for which Garrison
+punished her with the lash, threatening her that if she did not submit
+that he would sell her child. The next day he made the same attempt,
+which she resisted, declaring that she would not submit to it; and
+again he tied her up and flogged her until her garments were stained
+with blood.
+
+He then sent our child off to another part of the city, and said he
+meant to sell it, and that she should never see it again. He then
+drove Malinda before him to the work-house, swearing by his Maker that
+she should submit to him or die. I have already described her entrance
+in the prison.
+
+Two days after this he came again and took Malinda out of the prison.
+It was several weeks before I saw her again, and learned that he had
+not sold her or the child. At the same time he was buying up other
+slaves to take to New Orleans. At the expiration of three months he
+was ready to start with us for the New Orleans slave market, but we
+never knew when we were to go, until the hour had arrived for our
+departure.
+
+One Sabbath morning Garrison entered the prison and commanded that our
+limbs should be made ready for the coffles. They called us up to an
+anvill block, and the heavy log chains which we had been wearing on
+our legs during three months, were cut off. I had been in the prison
+over three months; but he had other slaves who had not been there so
+long. The hand-cuffs were then put on to our wrists. We were coupled
+together two and two--the right hand of one to the left hand of
+another, and a long chain to connect us together.
+
+The other prisoners appeared to be sorry to see us start off in this
+way. We marched off to the river Ohio, to take passage on board of the
+steamboat Water Witch. But this was at a very low time of water, in
+the fall of 1839. The boat got aground, and did not get off that
+night; and Garrison had to watch us all night to keep any from getting
+away. He also had a very large savage dog, which was trained up to
+catch runaway slaves.
+
+We were more than six weeks getting to the city of New Orleans, in
+consequence of low water. We were shifted on to several boats before
+we arrived at the mouth of the river Ohio. But we got but very little
+rest at night. As all were chained together night and day, it was
+impossible to sleep, being annoyed by the bustle and crowd of the
+passengers on board; by the terrible thought that we were destined to
+be sold in market as sheep or oxen; and annoyed by the galling chains
+that cramped our wearied limbs on the tedious voyage. But I had
+several opportunities to have run away from Garrison before we got to
+the mouth of the Ohio river. While they were shifting us from one boat
+to another, my hands were some times loosed, until they got us all on
+board--and I know that I should have broke away had it not been for
+the sake of my wife and child who was with me. I could see no chance
+to get them off, and I could not leave them in that condition--and
+Garrison was not so much afraid of my running away from him while he
+held on to my family, for he knew from the great sacrifices which I
+had made to rescue them from slavery, that my attachment was too
+strong to run off and leave them in his hands, while there was the
+least hope of ever getting them away with me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_Our arrival and examination at Vicksburg.--An account of slave
+sales.--Cruel punishment with the paddle.--Attempts to sell myself by
+Garrison's direction.--Amusing interview with a slave buyer.--Deacon
+Whitfield's examination.--He purchases the family.--Character of the
+Deacon._
+
+
+When we arrived at the city of Vicksburg, he intended to sell a
+portion of his slaves there, and stopped for three weeks trying to
+sell. But he met with very poor success.
+
+We had there to pass through an examination or inspection by a city
+officer, whose business it was to inspect slave property that was
+brought to that market for sale. He examined our backs to see if we
+had been much scarred by the lash. He examined our limbs, to see
+whether we were inferior.
+
+As it is hard to tell the ages of slaves, they look in their mouths at
+their teeth, and prick up the skin on the back of their hands, and if
+the person is very far advanced in life, when the skin is pricked up,
+the pucker will stand so many seconds on the back of the hand.
+
+But the most rigorous examinations of slaves by those slave
+inspectors, is on the mental capacity. If they are found to be very
+intelligent, this is pronounced the most objectionable of all other
+qualities connected with the life of a slave. In fact, it undermines
+the whole fabric of his chattelhood; it prepares for what slaveholders
+are pleased to pronounce the unpardonable sin when committed by a
+slave. It lays the foundation for running away, and going to Canada.
+They also see in it a love for freedom, patriotism, insurrection,
+bloodshed, and exterminating war against American slavery.
+
+Hence they are very careful to inquire whether a slave who is for sale
+can read or write. This question has been asked me often by slave
+traders, and cotton planters, while I was there for market. After
+conversing with me, they have sworn by their Maker, that they would
+not have me among their negroes; and that they saw the devil in my
+eye; I would run away, &c.
+
+I have frequently been asked also, if I had ever run away; but
+Garrison would generally answer this question for me in the negative.
+He could have sold my little family without any trouble, for the sum
+of one thousand dollars. But for fear he might not get me off at so
+great an advantage, as the people did not like my appearance, he could
+do better by selling us all together. They all wanted my wife, while
+but very few wanted me. He asked for me and my family twenty-five
+hundred dollars, but was not able to get us off at that price.
+
+He tried to speculate on my Christian character. He tried to make it
+appear that I was so pious and honest that I would not runaway for ill
+treatment; which was a gross mistake, for I never had religion enough
+to keep me from running away from slavery in my life.
+
+But we were taken from Vicksburgh, to the city of New Orleans, were we
+were to be sold at any rate. We were taken to a trader's yard or a
+slave prison on the corner of St. Joseph street. This was a common
+resort for slave traders, and planters who wanted to buy slaves; and
+all classes of slaves were kept there for sale, to be sold in private
+or public--young or old, males or females, children or parents,
+husbands or wives.
+
+Every day at 10 o'clock they were exposed for sale. They had to be in
+trim for showing themselves to the public for sale. Every one's head
+had to be combed, and their faces washed, and those who were inclined
+to look dark and rough, were compelled to wash in greasy dish water,
+in order to make them look slick and lively.
+
+When spectators would come in the yard, the slaves were ordered out to
+form a line. They were made to stand up straight, and look as
+sprightly as they could; and when they were asked a question, they had
+to answer it as promptly as they could, and try to induce the
+spectators to buy them. If they failed to do this, they were severely
+paddled after the spectators were gone. The object for using the
+paddle in the place of a lash was, to conceal the marks which would be
+made by the flogging. And the object for flogging under such
+circumstances, is to make the slaves anxious to be sold.
+
+The paddle is made of a piece of hickory timber, about one inch thick,
+three inches in width, and about eighteen inches in length. The part
+which is applied to the flesh is bored full of quarter inch auger
+holes; and every time this is applied to the flesh of the victim, the
+blood gushes through the holes of the paddle, or a blister makes its
+appearance. The persons who are thus flogged, are always stripped
+naked, and their hands tied together. They are then bent over double,
+their knees are forced between their elbows, and a stick is put
+through between the elbows and the bend of the legs, in order to hold
+the victim in that position, while the paddle is applied to those
+parts of the body which would not be so likely to be seen by those who
+wanted to buy slaves.
+
+I was kept in this prison for several months, and no one would buy me
+for fear I would run away. One day while I was in this prison,
+Garrison got mad with my wife, and took her off in one of the rooms,
+with his paddle in hand, swearing that he would paddle her; and I
+could afford her no protection at all, while the strong arm of the
+law, public opinion and custom, were all against me. I have often
+heard Garrison say, that he had rather paddle a female, than eat when
+he was hungry--that it was music for him to hear them scream, and to
+see their blood run.
+
+After the lapse of several months, he found that he could not dispose
+of my person to a good advantage, while he kept me in that prison
+confined among the other slaves. I do not speak with vanity when I say
+the contrast was so great between myself and ordinary slaves, from the
+fact that I had enjoyed superior advantages, to which I have already
+referred. They have their slaves classed off and numbered.
+
+Garrison came to me one day and informed me that I might go out
+through the city and find myself a master. I was to go to the Hotels,
+boarding houses, &c.--tell them that my wife was a good cook,
+wash-woman, &c,--and that I was a good dining room servant, carriage
+driver, or porter--and in this way I might find some gentleman who
+would buy us both; and that this was the only hope of our being sold
+together.
+
+But before starting me out, he dressed me up in a suit of his old
+clothes, so as to make me look respectable, and I was so much better
+dressed than usual that I felt quite gay. He would not allow my wife
+to go out with me however, for fear we might get away. I was out every
+day for several weeks, three or four hours in each day, trying to
+find a new master, but without success.
+
+Many of the old French inhabitants have taken slaves for their wives,
+in this city, and their own children for their servants. Such commonly
+are called Creoles. They are better treated than other slaves, and I
+resembled this class in appearance so much that the French did not
+want me. Many of them set their mulatto children free, and make
+slaveholders of them.
+
+At length one day I heard that there was a gentleman in the city from
+the State of Tennessee, to buy slaves. He had brought down two rafts
+of lumber for market, and I thought if I could get him to buy me with
+my family, and take us to Tennessee, from there, I would stand a
+better opportunity to run away again and get to Canada, than I would
+from the extreme South.
+
+So I brushed up myself and walked down to the river's bank, where the
+man was pointed out to me standing on board of his raft, I approached
+him, and after passing the usual compliments I said:
+
+"Sir, I understand that you wish to purchase a lot of servants and I
+have called to know if it is so."
+
+He smiled and appeared to be much pleased at my visit on such laudable
+business, supposing me to be a slave trader. He commenced rubbing his
+hands together, and replied by saying: "Yes sir, I am glad to see you.
+It is a part of my business here to buy slaves, and if I could get you
+to take my lumber in part pay I should like to buy four or five of
+your slaves at any rate. What kind of slaves have you, sir?"
+
+After I found that he took me to be a slave trader I knew that it
+would be of no use for me to tell him that I was myself a slave
+looking for a master, for he would have doubtless brought up the same
+objection that others had brought up,--that I was too white; and that
+they were afraid that I could read and write; and would never serve as
+a slave, but run away. My reply to the question respecting the quality
+of my slaves was, that I did not think his lumber would suit me--that
+I must have the cash for my negroes, and turned on my heel and left
+him!
+
+I returned to the prison and informed my wife of the fact that I had
+been taken to be a slaveholder. She thought that in addition to my
+light complexion my being dressed up in Garrison's old slave trading
+clothes might have caused the man to think that I was a slave trader,
+and she was afraid that we should yet be separated if I should not
+succeed in finding some body to buy us.
+
+Every day to us was a day of trouble, and every night brought new and
+fearful apprehensions that the golden link which binds together
+husband and wife might be broken by the heartless tyrant before the
+light of another day.
+
+Deep has been the anguish of my soul when looking over my little
+family during the silent hours of the night, knowing the great danger
+of our being sold off at auction the next day and parted forever. That
+this might not come to pass, many have been the tears and prayers
+which I have offered up to the God of Israel that we might be
+preserved.
+
+While waiting here to be disposed of, I heard of one Francis
+Whitfield, a cotton planter, who wanted to buy slaves. He was
+represented to be a very pious soul, being a deacon of a Baptist
+church. As the regulations, as well as public opinion generally, were
+against slaves meeting for religious worship, I thought it would give
+me a better opportunity to attend to my religious duties should I fall
+into the hands of this deacon.
+
+So I called on him and tried to show to the best advantage, for the
+purpose of inducing him to buy me and my family. When I approached
+him, I felt much pleased at his external appearance--I addressed him
+in the following words as well as I can remember:
+
+"Sir, I understand you are desirous of purchasing slaves?"
+
+With a very pleasant smile, he replied, "Yes, I do want to buy some,
+are you for sale?"
+
+"Yes sir, with my wife and one child."
+
+Garrison had given me a note to show wherever I went, that I was for
+sale, speaking of my wife and child, giving us a very good character
+of course--and I handed him the note.
+
+After reading it over he remarked, "I have a few questions to ask you,
+and if you will tell me the truth like a good boy, perhaps I may buy
+you with your family. In the first place, my boy, you are a little too
+near white. I want you to tell me now whether you can read or write?"
+
+My reply was in the negative.
+
+"Now I want you to tell me whether you have run away? Don't tell me no
+stories now, like a good fellow, and perhaps I may buy you."
+
+But as I was not under oath to tell him the whole truth, I only gave
+him a part of it, by telling him that I had run away once.
+
+He appeared to be pleased at that, but cautioned me to tell him the
+truth, and asked me how long I stayed away, when I run off?
+
+I told him that I was gone a month.
+
+He assented to this by a bow of his head, and making a long grunt
+saying, "That's right, tell me the truth like a good boy."
+
+The whole truth was that I had been off in the state of Ohio, and
+other free states, and even to Canada; besides this I was notorious
+for running away, from my boyhood.
+
+I never told him that I had been a runaway longer than one
+month--neither did I tell him that I had not run away more than once
+in my life; for these questions he never asked me.
+
+I afterwards found him to be one of the basest hypocrites that I ever
+saw. He looked like a saint--talked like the best of slave holding
+Christians, and acted at home like the devil.
+
+When he saw my wife and child, he concluded to buy us. He paid for me
+twelve hundred dollars, and one thousand for my wife and child. He
+also bought several other slaves at the same time, and took home with
+him. His residence was in the parish of Claiborn, fifty miles up from
+the mouth of Red River.
+
+When we arrived there, we found his slaves poor, ragged, stupid, and
+half-starved. The food he allowed them per week, was one peck of corn
+for each grown person, one pound of pork, and sometimes a quart of
+molasses. This was all that they were allowed, and if they got more
+they stole it.
+
+He had one of the most cruel overseers to be found in that section of
+country. He weighed and measured out to them, their week's allowance
+of food every Sabbath morning. The overseer's horn was sounded two
+hours before daylight for them in the morning, in order that they
+should be ready for work before daylight. They were worked from
+daylight until after dark, without stopping but one half hour to eat
+or rest, which was at noon. And at the busy season of the year, they
+were compelled to work just as hard on the Sabbath, as on any other
+day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_Cruel treatment on Whitfield's farm--Exposure of the children--Mode
+of extorting extra labor--Neglect of the sick--Strange medicine
+used--Death of our second child._
+
+
+My first impressions when I arrived on the Deacon's farm, were that he
+was far more like what the people call the devil, than he was like a
+deacon. Not many days after my arrival there, I heard the Deacon tell
+one of the slave girls, that he had bought her for a wife for his boy
+Stephen, which office he compelled her fully to perform against her
+will. This he enforced by a threat. At first the poor girl neglected
+to do this, having no sort of affection for the man--but she was
+finally forced to it by an application of the driver's lash, as
+threatened by the Deacon.
+
+The next thing I observed was that he made the slave driver strip his
+own wife, and flog her for not doing just as her master had ordered.
+He had a white overseer, and a colored man for a driver, whose
+business it was to watch and drive the slaves in the field, and do the
+flogging according to the orders of the overseer.
+
+Next a mulatto girl who waited about the house, on her mistress,
+displeased her, for which the Deacon stripped and tied her up. He then
+handed me the lash and ordered me to put it on--but I told him I never
+had done the like, and hoped he would not compel me to do it. He then
+informed me that I was to be his overseer, and that he had bought me
+for that purpose. He was paying a man eight hundred dollars a year to
+oversee, and he believed I was competent to do the same business, and
+if I would do it up right he would put nothing harder on me to do; and
+if I knew not how to flog a slave, he would set me an example by which
+I might be governed. He then commenced on this poor girl, and gave her
+two hundred lashes before he had her untied.
+
+After giving her fifty lashes, he stopped and lectured her a while,
+asking her if she thought that she could obey her mistress, &c. She
+promised to do all in her power to please him and her mistress, if he
+would have mercy on her. But this plea was all vain. He commenced on
+her again; and this flogging was carried on in the most inhuman manner
+until she had received two hundred stripes on her naked quivering
+flesh, tied up and exposed to the public gaze of all. And this was the
+example that I was to copy after.
+
+He then compelled me to wash her back off with strong salt brine,
+before she was untied, which was so revolting to my feelings, that I
+could not refrain from shedding tears.
+
+For some cause he never called on me again to flog a slave. I presume
+he saw that I was not savage enough. The above were about the first
+items of the Deacon's conduct which struck me with peculiar disgust.
+
+After having enjoyed the blessings of civil and religious liberty for
+a season, to be dragged into that horrible place with my family, to
+linger out my existence without the aid of religious societies, or the
+light of revelation, was more than I could endure. I really felt as if
+I had got into one of the darkest corners of the earth. I thought I
+was almost out of humanity's reach, and should never again have the
+pleasure of hearing the gospel sound, as I could see no way by which I
+could extricate myself; yet I never omitted to pray for deliverance. I
+had faith to believe that the Lord could see our wrongs and hear our
+cries.
+
+I was not used quite as bad as the regular field hands, as the greater
+part of my time was spent working about the house; and my wife was the
+cook.
+
+This country was full of pine timber, and every slave had to prepare a
+light wood torch, over night, made of pine knots, to meet the overseer
+with, before daylight in the morning. Each person had to have his
+torch lit, and come with it in his hand to the gin house, before the
+overseer and driver, so as to be ready to go to the cotton field by
+the time they could see to pick out cotton. These lights looked
+beautiful at a distance.
+
+The object of blowing the horn for them two hours before day, was,
+that they should get their bite to eat, before they went to the field,
+that they need not stop to eat but once during the day. Another object
+was, to do up their flogging which had been omitted over night. I have
+often heard the sound of the slave driver's lash on the backs, of the
+slaves and their heart-rending shrieks, which were enough to melt the
+heart of humanity, even among the most barbarous nations of the
+earth.
+
+But the Deacon would keep no overseer on his plantation, who neglected
+to perform this every morning. I have heard him say that he was no
+better pleased than when he could hear the overseer's loud complaining
+voice, long before daylight in the morning, and the sound of the
+driver's lash among the toiling slaves.
+
+This was a very warm climate, abounding with musquitoes, galinippers
+and other insects which were exceedingly annoying to the poor slaves
+by night and day, at their quarters and in the field. But more
+especially to their helpless little children, which they had to carry
+with them to the cotton fields, where they had to set on the damp
+ground alone from morning till night, exposed to the scorching rays of
+the sun, liable to be bitten by poisonous rattle snakes which are
+plenty in that section of the country, or to be devoured by large
+alligators, which are often seen creeping through the cotton fields
+going from swamp to swamp seeking their prey.
+
+The cotton planters generally, never allow a slave mother time to go
+to the house, or quarter during the day to nurse her child; hence they
+have to carry them to the cotton fields and tie them in the shade of a
+tree, or in clusters of high weeds about in the fields, where they can
+go to them at noon, when they are allowed to stop work for one half
+hour. This is the reason why so very few slave children are raised on
+these cotton plantations, the mothers have no time to take care of
+them--and they are often found dead in the field and in the quarter
+for want of the care of their mothers. But I never was eye witness to
+a case of this kind but have heard many narrated by my slave brothers
+and sisters, some of which occurred on the deacon's plantation.
+
+Their plan of getting large quantities of cotton picked is not only to
+extort it from them by the lash, but hold out an inducement and
+deceive them by giving small prizes. For example; the overseer will
+offer something worth one or two dollars to any slave who will pick
+out the most cotton in one day, dividing the hands off in three
+classes and offering a prize to the one who will pick out the most
+cotton in each of the classes. By this means they are all interested
+in trying to get the prize.
+
+After making them try it over several times and weighing what cotton
+they pick every night, the overseer can tell just how much every hand
+can pick. He then gives the present to those that pick the most
+cotton, and then if they do not pick just as much afterward they are
+flogged.
+
+I have known the slaves to be so much fatigued from labor that they
+could scarcely get to their lodging places from the field at night.
+And then they would have to prepare something to eat before they could
+lie down to rest. Their corn they had to grind on a hand mill for
+bread stuff, or pound it in a mortar; and by the time they would get
+their suppers it would be midnight; then they would herd down all
+together and take but two or three hours rest, before the overseer's
+horn called them up again to prepare for the field.
+
+At the time of sickness among slaves they had but very little
+attention. The master was to be the judge of their sickness, but never
+had studied the medical profession. He always pronounced a slave who
+said he was sick, a liar and a hypocrite; said there was nothing the
+matter, and he only wanted to keep from work.
+
+His remedy was most generally strong red pepper tea, boiled till it
+was red. He would make them drink a pint cup full of it at one dose.
+If he should not get better very soon after it, the dose was repeated.
+If that should not accomplish the object for which it was given, or
+have the desired effect, a pot or kettle was then put over the fire
+with a large quantity of chimney soot, which was boiled down until it
+was as strong as the juice of tobacco, and the poor sick slave was
+compelled to drink a quart of it.
+
+This would operate on the system like salts, or castor oil. But if the
+slave should not be very ill, he would rather work as long as he could
+stand up, than to take this dreadful medicine.
+
+If it should be a very valuable slave, sometimes a physician was sent
+for and something done to save him. But no special aid is afforded the
+suffering slave even in the last trying hour, when he is called to
+grapple with the grim monster death. He has no Bible, no family altar,
+no minister to address to him the consolations of the gospel, before
+he launches into the spirit world. As to the burial of slaves, but
+very little more care is taken of their dead bodies than if they were
+dumb beasts.
+
+My wife was very sick while we were both living with the Deacon. We
+expected every day would be her last. While she was sick, we lost our
+second child, and I was compelled to dig my own child's grave and bury
+it myself without even a box to put it in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_I attend a prayer meeting.--Punishment therefor threatened.--I
+attempt to escape alone.--My return to take my family.--Our
+sufferings.--Dreadful attack of wolves.--Our recapture._
+
+
+Some months after Malinda had recovered from her sickness, I got
+permission from the Deacon, on one Sabbath day, to attend a prayer
+meeting, on a neighboring plantation, with a few old superannuated
+slaves, although this was contrary to the custom of the country--for
+slaves were not allowed to assemble for religious worship. Being more
+numerous than the whites there was fear of rebellion, and the
+overpowering of their oppressors in order to obtain freedom.
+
+But this gentleman on whose plantation I attended the meeting was not
+a Deacon nor a professor of religion. He was not afraid of a few old
+Christian slaves rising up to kill their master because he allowed
+them to worship God on the Sabbath day.
+
+We had a very good meeting, although our exercises were not conducted
+in accordance with an enlightened Christianity; for we had no
+Bible--no intelligent leader--but a conscience, prompted by our own
+reason, constrained us to worship God the Creator of all things.
+
+When I returned home from meeting I told the other slaves what a good
+time we had at our meeting, and requested them to go with me to
+meeting there on the next Sabbath. As no slave was allowed to go from
+the plantation on a visit without a written pass from his master, on
+the next Sabbath several of us went to the Deacon, to get permission
+to attend that prayer meeting; but he refused to let any go. I thought
+I would slip off and attend the meeting and get back before he would
+miss me, and would not know that I had been to the meeting.
+
+When I returned home from the meeting as I approached the house I saw
+Malinda, standing out at the fence looking in the direction in which I
+was expected to return. She hailed my approach, not with joy, but with
+grief. She was weeping under great distress of mind, but it was hard
+for me to extort from her the reason why she wept. She finally
+informed me that her master had found out that I had violated his law,
+and I should suffer the penalty, which was five hundred lashes, on my
+naked back.
+
+I asked her how he knew that I had gone?
+
+She said I had not long been gone before he called for me and I was
+not to be found. He then sent the overseer on horseback to the place
+where we were to meet to see if I was there. But when the overseer got
+to the place, the meeting was over and I had gone back home, but had
+gone a nearer route through the woods and the overseer happened not to
+meet me. He heard that I had been there and hurried back home before
+me and told the Deacon, who ordered him to take me on the next
+morning, strip off my clothes, drive down four stakes in the ground
+and fasten my limbs to them; then strike me five hundred lashes for
+going to the prayer meeting. This was what distressed my poor
+companion. She thought it was more than I could bear, and that it
+would be the death of me. I concluded then to run away--but she
+thought they would catch me with the blood hounds by their taking my
+track. But to avoid them I thought I would ride off on one of the
+Deacon's mules. She thought if I did, they would sell me.
+
+"No matter, I will try it," said I, "let the consequences be what they
+may. The matter can be no worse than it now is." So I tackled up the
+Deacon's best mule with his saddle, &c., and started that night and
+went off eight or ten miles from home. But I found the mule to be
+rather troublesome, and was like to betray me by braying, especially
+when he would see cattle, horses, or any thing of the kind in the
+woods.
+
+The second night from home I camped in a cane break down in the Red
+river swamp not a great way off from the road, perhaps not twenty
+rods, exposed to wild ferocious beasts which were numerous in that
+section of country. On that night about the middle of the night the
+mule heard the sound of horses feet on the road, and he commenced
+stamping and trying to break away. As the horses seemed to come
+nearer, the mule commenced trying to bray, and it was all that I could
+do to prevent him from making a loud bray there in the woods, which
+would have betrayed me.
+
+I supposed that it was the overseer out with the dogs looking for me,
+and I found afterwards that I was not mistaken. As soon as the people
+had passed by, I mounted the mule and took him home to prevent his
+betraying me. When I got near by home I stripped off the tackling and
+turned the mule loose. I then slipt up to the cabin wherein my wife
+laid and found her awake, much distressed about me. She informed me
+that they were then out looking for me, and that the Deacon was bent
+on flogging me nearly to death, and then selling me off from my
+family. This was truly heart-rending to my poor wife; the thought of
+our being torn apart in a strange land after having been sold away
+from all her friends and relations, was more than she could bear.
+
+The Deacon had declared that I should not only suffer for the crime of
+attending a prayer meeting without his permission, and for running
+away, but for the awful crime of stealing a jackass, which was death
+by the law when committed by a negro.
+
+But I well knew that I was regarded as property, and so was the ass;
+and I thought if one piece of property took off another, there could
+be no law violated in the act; no more sin committed in this than if
+one jackass had rode off another.
+
+But after consultation with my wife I concluded to take her and my
+little daughter with me and they would be guilty of the same crime
+that I was, so far as running away was concerned; and if the Deacon
+sold one he might sell us all, and perhaps to the same person.
+
+So we started off with our child that night, and made our way down to
+the Red river swamps among the buzzing insects and wild beasts of the
+forest. We wandered about in the wilderness for eight or ten days
+before we were apprehended, striving to make our way from slavery; but
+it was all in vain. Our food was parched corn, with wild fruit such as
+pawpaws, percimmons, grapes, &c. We did at one time chance to find a
+sweet potato patch where we got a few potatoes; but most of the time,
+while we were out, we were lost. We wanted to cross the Red river but
+could find no conveyance to cross in.
+
+I recollect one day of finding a crooked tree which bent over the
+river or over one fork of the river, where it was divided by an
+island. I should think that the tree was at least twenty feet from
+the surface of the water. I picked up my little child, and my wife
+followed me, saying, "if we perish let us all perish together in the
+stream." We succeeded in crossing over. I often look back to that
+dangerous event even now with astonishment, and wonder how I could
+have run such a risk. What would induce me to run the same risk now?
+What could induce me now to leave home and friends and go to the wild
+forest and lay out on the cold ground night after night without
+covering, and live on parched corn?
+
+What would induce me to take my family and go into the Red river
+swamps of Louisiana among the snakes and alligators, with all the
+liabilities of being destroyed by them, hunted down with blood hounds,
+or lay myself liable to be shot down like the wild beasts of the
+forest? Nothing I say, nothing but the strongest love of liberty,
+humanity, and justice to myself and family, would induce me to run
+such a risk again.
+
+When we crossed over on the tree we supposed that we had crossed over
+the main body of the river, but we had not proceeded far on our
+journey before we found that we were on an Island surrounded by water
+on either side. We made our bed that night in a pile of dry leaves
+which had fallen from off the trees. We were much rest-broken,
+wearied from hunger and travelling through briers, swamps and
+cane-brakes--consequently we soon fell asleep after lying down. About
+the dead hour of the night I was aroused by the awful howling of a
+gang of blood-thirsty wolves, which had found us out and surrounded us
+as their prey, there in the dark wilderness many miles from any house
+or settlement.
+
+My dear little child was so dreadfully alarmed that she screamed
+loudly with fear--my wife trembling like a leaf on a tree, at the
+thought of being devoured there in the wilderness by ferocious wolves.
+
+The wolves kept howling, and were near enough for us to see their
+glaring eyes, and hear their chattering teeth. I then thought that the
+hour of death for us was at hand; that we should not live to see the
+light of another day; for there was no way for our escape. My little
+family were looking up to me for protection, but I could afford them
+none. And while I was offering up my prayers to that God who never
+forsakes those in the hour of danger who trust in him, I thought of
+Deacon Whitfield; I thought of his profession, and doubted his piety.
+I thought of his hand-cuffs, of his whips, of his chains, of his
+stocks, of his thumb-screws, of his slave driver and overseer, and of
+his religion; I also thought of his opposition to prayer meetings, and
+of his five hundred lashes promised me for attending a prayer meeting.
+I thought of God, I thought of the devil, I thought of hell; and I
+thought of heaven, and wondered whether I should ever see the Deacon
+there. And I calculated that if heaven was made up of such Deacons, or
+such persons, it could not be filled with love to all mankind, and
+with glory and eternal happiness, as we know it is from the truth of
+the Bible.
+
+The reader may perhaps think me tedious on this topic, but indeed it
+is one of so much interest to me, that I find myself entirely unable
+to describe what my own feelings were at that time. I was so much
+excited by the fierce howling of the savage wolves, and the frightful
+screams of my little family, that I thought of the future; I thought
+of the past; I thought the time of my departure had come at last.
+
+My impression is, that all these thoughts and thousands of others,
+flashed through my mind, while I was surrounded by those wolves. But
+it seemed to be the will of a merciful providence, that our lives
+should be spared, and that we should not be destroyed by them.
+
+I had no weapon of defence but a long bowie knife which I had slipped
+from the Deacon. It was a very splendid blade, about two feet in
+length, and about two inches in width. This used to be a part of his
+armor of defence while walking about the plantation among his slaves.
+
+The plan which I took to expel the wolves was a very dangerous one,
+but it proved effectual. While they were advancing to me, prancing and
+accumulating in number, apparently of all sizes and grades, who had
+come to the feast, I thought just at this time, that there was no
+alternative left but for me to make a charge with my bowie knife. I
+well knew from the action of the wolves, that if I made no farther
+resistance, they would soon destroy us, and if I made a break at them,
+the matter could be no worse. I thought if I must die, I would die
+striving to protect my little family from destruction, die striving
+to escape from slavery. My wife took a club in one hand, and her child
+in the other, while I rushed forth with my bowie knife in hand, to
+fight off the savage wolves. I made one desperate charge at them, and
+at the same time making a loud yell at the top of my voice, that
+caused them to retreat and scatter, which was equivalent to a victory
+on our part. Our prayers were answered, and our lives spared through
+the night. We slept no more that night, and the next morning there
+were no wolves to be seen or heard, and we resolved not to stay on
+that island another night.
+
+We travelled up and down the river side trying to find a place where
+we could cross. Finally we found a lot of drift wood clogged together,
+extending across the stream at a narrow place in the river, upon which
+we crossed over. But we had not yet surmounted our greatest
+difficulty. We had to meet one which was far more formidable than the
+first. Not many days after I had to face the Deacon.
+
+We had been wandering about through the cane brakes, bushes, and
+briers, for several days, when we heard the yelping of blood hounds, a
+great way off, but they seemed to come nearer and nearer to us. We
+thought after awhile that they must be on our track; we listened
+attentively at the approach. We knew it was no use for us to undertake
+to escape from them, and as they drew nigh, we heard the voice of a
+man hissing on the dogs.
+
+After awhile we saw the hounds coming in full speed on our track, and
+the soul drivers close after them on horse back, yelling like tigers,
+as they came in sight. The shrill yelling of the savage blood hounds
+as they drew nigh made the woods echo.
+
+The first impulse was to run to escape the approaching danger of
+ferocious dogs, and blood thirsty slave hunters, who were so rapidly
+approaching me with loaded muskets and bowie knives, with a
+determination to kill or capture me and my family. I started to run
+with my little daughter in my arms, but stumbled and fell down and
+scratched the arm of little Frances with a brier, so that it bled very
+much; but the dear child never cried, for she seemed to know the
+danger to which we were exposed.
+
+But we soon found that it was no use for us to run. The dogs were
+soon at our heels, and we were compelled to stop, or be torn to pieces
+by them. By this time, the soul drivers came charging up on their
+horses, commanding us to stand still or they would shoot us down.
+
+Of course I surrendered up for the sake of my family. The most abusive
+terms to be found in the English language were poured forth on us with
+bitter oaths. They tied my hands behind me, and drove us home before
+them, to suffer the penalty of a slaveholder's broken law.
+
+As we drew nigh the plantation my heart grew faint. I was aware that
+we should have to suffer almost death for running off. I was filled
+with dreadful apprehensions at the thought of meeting a professed
+follower of Christ, whom I knew to be a hypocrite! No tongue, no pen
+can ever describe what my feelings were at that time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_My sad condition before Whitfield.--My terrible
+punishment.--Incidents of a former attempt to escape--Jack at a farm
+house.--Six pigs and a turkey.--Our surprise and arrest._
+
+
+The reader may perhaps imagine what must have been my feelings when I
+found myself surrounded on the island with my little family, at
+midnight, by a gang of savage wolves. This was one of those trying
+emergencies in my life when there was apparently but one step between
+us and the grave. But I had no cords wrapped about my limbs to prevent
+my struggling against the impending danger to which I was then
+exposed. I was not denied the consolation of resisting in self
+defence, as was now the case. There was no Deacon standing before me,
+with a loaded rifle, swearing that I should submit to the torturing
+lash, or be shot down like a dumb beast.
+
+I felt that my chance was by far better among the howling wolves in
+the Red river swamp, than before Deacon Whitfield, on the cotton
+plantation. I was brought before him as a criminal before a bar,
+without counsel, to be tried and condemned by a tyrant's law. My arms
+were bound with a cord, my spirit broken, and my little family
+standing by weeping. I was not allowed to plead my own cause, and
+there was no one to utter a word in my behalf.
+
+He ordered that the field hands should be called together to witness
+my punishment, that it might serve as a caution to them never to
+attend a prayer meeting, or runaway as I had, lest they should receive
+the same punishment.
+
+At the sound of the overseer's horn, all the slaves came forward and
+witnessed my punishment. My clothing was stripped off and I was
+compelled to lie down on the ground with my face to the earth. Four
+stakes were driven in the ground, to which my hands and feet were
+tied. Then the overseer stood over me with the lash and laid it on
+according to the Deacon's order. Fifty lashes were laid on before
+stopping. I was then lectured with reference to my going to prayer
+meeting without his orders, and running away to escape flogging.
+
+While I suffered under this dreadful torture, I prayed, and wept, and
+implored mercy at the hand of slavery, but found none. After I was
+marked from my neck to my heels, the Deacon took the gory lash, and
+said he thought there was a spot on my back yet where he could put in
+a few more. He wanted to give me something to remember him by, he
+said.
+
+After I was flogged almost to death in this way, a paddle was brought
+forward and eight or ten blows given me with it, which was by far
+worse than the lash. My wounds were then washed with salt brine, after
+which I was let up. A description of such paddles I have already given
+in another page. I was so badly punished that I was not able to work
+for several days. After being flogged as described, they took me off
+several miles to a shop and had a heavy iron collar riveted on my neck
+with prongs extending above my head, on the end of which there was a
+small bell. I was not able to reach the bell with my hand. This heavy
+load of iron I was compelled to wear for six weeks. I never was
+allowed to lie in the same house with my family again while I was the
+slave of Whitfield. I either had to sleep with my feet in the stocks,
+or be chained with a large log chain to a log over night, with no bed
+or bedding to rest my wearied limbs on, after toiling all day in the
+cotton field. I suffered almost death while kept in this confinement;
+and he had ordered the overseer never to let me loose again; saying
+that I thought of getting free by running off, but no negro should
+ever get away from him alive.
+
+I have omitted to state that this was the second time I had run away
+from him; while I was gone the first time, he extorted from my wife
+the fact that I had been in the habit of running away, before we left
+Kentucky; that I had been to Canada, and that I was trying to learn
+the art of reading and writing. All this was against me.
+
+It is true that I was striving to learn myself to write. I was a kind
+of a house servant and was frequently sent off on errands, but never
+without a written pass; and on Sundays I have sometimes got permission
+to visit our neighbor's slaves, and I have often tried to write myself
+a pass.
+
+Whenever I got hold of an old letter that had been thrown away, or a
+piece of white paper, I would save it to write on. I have often gone
+off in the woods and spent the greater part of the day alone, trying
+to learn to write myself a pass, by writing on the backs of old
+letters; copying after the pass that had been written by Whitfield; by
+so doing I got the use of the pen and could form letters as well as I
+can now, but knew not what they were.
+
+The Deacon had an old slave by the name of Jack whom he bought about
+the time that he bought me. Jack was born in the State of Virginia. He
+had some idea of freedom; had often run away, but was very ignorant;
+knew not where to go for refuge; but understood all about providing
+something to eat when unjustly deprived of it.
+
+So for ill treatment, we concluded to take a tramp together. I was to
+be the pilot, while Jack was to carry the baggage and keep us in
+provisions. Before we started, I managed to get hold of a suit of
+clothes the Deacon possessed, with his gun, ammunition and bowie
+knife. We also procured a blanket, a joint of meat, and some bread.
+
+We started in a northern direction, being bound for the city of Little
+Rock, State of Arkansas. We travelled by night and laid by in the day,
+being guided by the unchangeable North Star; but at length, our
+provisions gave out, and it was Jack's place to get more. We came in
+sight of a large plantation one morning, where we saw people of color,
+and Jack said he could get something there, among the slaves, that
+night, for us to eat. So we concealed ourselves, in sight of this
+plantation, until about bed time, when we saw the lights extinguished.
+
+During the day we saw a female slave passing from the dwelling house
+to the kitchen as if she was the cook; the house being about three
+rods from the landlord's dwelling. After we supposed the whites were
+all asleep, Jack slipped up softly to the kitchen to try his luck with
+the cook, to see if he could get any thing from her to eat.
+
+I would remark that the domestic slaves are often found to be traitors
+to their own people, for the purpose of gaining favor with their
+masters; and they are encouraged and trained up by them to report
+every plot they know of being formed about stealing any thing, or
+running away, or any thing of the kind; and for which they are paid.
+This is one of the principal causes of the slaves being divided among
+themselves, and without which they could not be held in bondage one
+year, and perhaps not half that time.
+
+I now proceed to describe the unsuccessful attempt of poor Jack to
+obtain something from the female slave to satisfy hunger. The
+planter's house was situated on an elevated spot on the side of a
+hill. The fencing about the house and garden was very crookedly laid
+up with rails. The night was rather dark and rainy, and Jack left me
+with the understanding that I was to stay at a certain place until he
+returned. I cautioned him before he left me to be very careful--and
+after he started, I left the place where he was to find me when he
+returned, for fear something might happen which might lead to my
+detection, should I remain at that spot. So I left it and went off
+where I could see the house, and that place too.
+
+Jack had not long been gone, before I heard a great noise; a man,
+crying out with a loud voice, "Catch him! Catch him!" and hissing the
+dogs on, and they were close after Jack. The next thing I saw, was
+Jack running for life, and an old white man after him, with a gun, and
+his dogs. The fence being on sidling ground, and wet with the rain,
+when Jack run against it he knocked down several panels of it and
+fell, tumbling over and over to the foot of the hill; but soon
+recovered and ran to where he had left me; but I was gone. The dogs
+were still after him.
+
+There happened to be quite a thicket of small oak shrubs and bushes in
+the direction he ran. I think he might have been heard running and
+straddling bushes a quarter of a mile! The poor fellow hurt himself
+considerably in straddling over bushes in that way, in making his
+escape.
+
+Finally the dogs relaxed their chase and poor Jack and myself again
+met in the thick forest. He said when he rapped on the cook-house
+door, the colored woman came to the door. He asked her if she would
+let him have a bite of bread if she had it, that he was a poor hungry
+absconding slave. But she made no reply to what he said but
+immediately sounded the alarm by calling loudly after her master,
+saying, "here is a runaway negro!" Jack said that he was going to
+knock her down but her master was out within one moment, and he had to
+run for his life.
+
+As soon as we got our eyes fixed on the North Star again, we started
+on our way. We travelled on a few miles and came to another large
+plantation, where Jack was determined to get something to eat. He
+left me at a certain place while he went up to the house to find
+something if possible.
+
+He was gone some time before he returned, but when I saw him coming,
+he appeared to be very heavy loaded with a bag of something. We walked
+off pretty fast until we got some distance in the woods. Jack then
+stopped and opened his bag in which he had six small pigs. I asked him
+how he got them without making any noise; and he said that he found a
+bed of hogs, in which there were the pigs with their mother. While the
+pigs were sucking he crawled up to them without being discovered by
+the sow, and took them by their necks one after another, and choked
+them to death, and slipped them into his bag!
+
+We intended to travel on all that night and lay by the next day in the
+forest and cook up our pigs. We fell into a large road leading on the
+direction which we were travelling, and had not proceeded over three
+miles before I found a white hat lying in the road before me. Jack
+being a little behind me I stopped until he camp up, and showed it to
+him. He picked it up. We looked a few steps farther and saw a man
+lying by the way, either asleep or intoxicated, as we supposed.
+
+I told Jack not to take the hat, but he would not obey me. He had only
+a piece of a hat himself, which he left in exchange for the other. We
+travelled on about five miles farther, and in passing a house
+discovered a large turkey sitting on the fence, which temptation was
+greater than Jack could resist. Notwithstanding he had six very nice
+fat little pigs on his back, he stepped up and took the turkey off the
+fence.
+
+By this time it was getting near day-light and we left the road and
+went off a mile or so among the hills of the forest, where we struck
+camp for the day. We then picked our turkey, dressed our pigs, and
+cooked two of them. We got the hair off by singeing them over the
+fire, and after we had eaten all we wanted, one of us slept while the
+other watched. We had flint, punk, and powder to strike fire with. A
+little after dark the next night, we started on our way.
+
+Buy about ten o'clock that night just as we were passing through a
+thick skirt of woods, five men sprang out before us with fire-arms,
+swearing if we moved another step, they would shoot us down; and each
+man having a gun drawn up for shooting we had no chance to make any
+defence, and surrendered sooner than run the risk of being killed.
+
+They had been lying in wait for us there, for several hours. They had
+seen a reward out, for notices were put up in the most public places,
+that fifty dollars would be paid for me, dead or alive, if I should
+not return home within so many days. And the reader will remember that
+neither Jack nor myself was able to read the advertisement. It was of
+very little consequence with the slave catchers, whether they killed
+us or took us alive, for the reward was the same to them.
+
+After we were taken and tied, one of the men declared to me that he
+would have shot me dead just as sure as he lived, if I had moved one
+step after they commanded us to stop. He had his gun levelled at my
+breast, already cocked, and his finger on the trigger. The way they
+came to find us out was from the circumstance of Jack's taking the
+man's hat in connection with the advertisement. The man whose hat was
+taken was drunk; and the next morning when he came to look for his hat
+it was gone and Jack's old hat lying in the place of it; and in
+looking round he saw the tracks of two persons in the dust, who had
+passed during the night, and one of them having but three toes on one
+foot. He followed these tracks until they came to a large mud pond in
+a lane on one side of which a person might pass dry shod; but the man
+with three toes on one foot had plunged through the mud. This led the
+man to think there must be runaway slaves, and from out of that
+neighborhood; for all persons in that settlement knew which side of
+that mud hole to go. He then got others to go with him, and they
+followed us until our track left the road. They supposed that we had
+gone off in the woods to lay by until night, after which we should
+pursue our course.
+
+After we were captured they took us off several miles to where one of
+them lived, and kept us over night. One of our pigs was cooked for us
+to eat that night; and the turkey the next morning. But we were both
+tied that night with our hands behind us, and our feet were also tied.
+The doors were locked, and a bedstead was set against the front door,
+and two men slept in it to prevent our getting out in the night. They
+said that they knew how to catch runaway negroes, and how to keep them
+after they were caught.
+
+They remarked that after they found we had stopped to lay by until
+night, and they saw from our tracks what direction we were travelling,
+they went about ten miles on that direction, and hid by the road side
+until we came up that night. That night after all had got fast to
+sleep, I thought I would try to get out, and I should have succeeded,
+if I could have moved the bed from the door. I managed to untie myself
+and crawled under the bed which was placed at the door, and strove to
+remove it, but in so doing I awakened the men and they got up and
+confined me again, and watched me until day light, each with a gun in
+hand.
+
+The next morning they started with us back to Deacon Whitfield's
+plantation; but when they got within ten miles of where he lived they
+stopped at a public house to stay over night; and who should we meet
+there but the Deacon, who was then out looking for me.
+
+The reader may well imagine how I felt to meet him. I had almost as
+soon come in contact with Satan himself. He had two long poles or
+sticks of wood brought in to confine us to. I was compelled to lie on
+my back across one of those sticks with my arms out, and have them
+lashed fast to the log with a cord. My feet were also tied to the
+other, and there I had to lie all that night with my back across this
+stick of wood, and my feet and hands tied. I suffered that night under
+the most excruciating pain. From the tight binding of the cord the
+circulation of the blood in my arms and feet was almost entirely
+stopped. If the night had been much longer I must have died in that
+confinement.
+
+The next morning we were taken back to the Deacon's farm, and both
+flogged for going off, and set to work. But there was some allowance
+made for me on account of my being young. They said that they knew old
+Jack had persuaded me off, or I never would have gone. And the
+Deacon's wife begged that I might be favored some, for that time, as
+Jack had influenced me, so as to bring up my old habits of running
+away that I had entirely given up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_I am sold to gamblers.--They try to purchase my family.--Our parting
+scene.--My good usage.--I am sold to an Indian.--His confidence in my
+integrity manifested._
+
+
+The reader will remember that this brings me back to the time the
+Deacon had ordered me to be kept in confinement until he got a chance
+to sell me, and that no negro should ever get away from him and live.
+Some days after this we were all out at the gin house ginning cotton,
+which was situated on the road side, and there came along a company of
+men, fifteen or twenty in number, who were Southern sportsmen. Their
+attention was attracted by the load of iron which was fastened about
+my neck with a bell attached. They stopped and asked the Deacon what
+that bell was put on my neck for? and he said it was to keep me from
+running away, &c.
+
+They remarked that I looked as if I might be a smart negro, and asked
+if he wanted to sell me. The reply was, yes. They then got off their
+horses and struck a bargain with him for me. They bought me at a
+reduced price for speculation.
+
+After they had purchased me, I asked the privilege of going to the
+house to take leave of my family before I left, which was granted by
+the sportsmen. But the Deacon said I should never again step my foot
+inside of his yard; and advised the sportsmen not to take the irons
+from my neck until they had sold me; that if they gave me the least
+chance I would run away from them, as I did from him. So I was
+compelled to mount a horse and go off with them as I supposed, never
+again to meet my family in this life.
+
+We had not proceeded far before they informed me that they had bought
+me to sell again, and if they kept the irons on me it would be
+detrimental to the sale, and that they would therefore take off the
+irons and dress me up like a man, and throw away the old rubbish which
+I then had on; and they would sell me to some one who would treat me
+better than Deacon Whitfield. After they had cut off the irons and
+dressed me up, they crossed over Red River into Texas, where they
+spent some time horse racing and gambling; and although they were
+wicked black legs of the basest character, it is but due to them to
+say, that they used me far better than ever the Deacon did. They gave
+me plenty to eat and put nothing hard on me to do. They expressed much
+sympathy for me in my bereavement; and almost every day they gave me
+money more or less, and by my activity in waiting on them, and upright
+conduct, I got into the good graces of them all, but they could not
+get any person to buy me on account of the amount of intelligence
+which they supposed me to have; for many of them thought that I could
+read and write. When they left Texas, they intended to go to the
+Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, to attend a great horse race
+which was to take place. Not being much out of their way to go past
+Deacon Whitfield's again, I prevailed on them to call on him for the
+purpose of trying to purchase my wife and child; and I promised them
+that if they would buy my wife and child, I would get some person to
+purchase us from them. So they tried to grant my request by calling on
+the Deacon, and trying to make the purchase. As we approached the
+Deacon's plantation, my heart was filled with a thousand painful and
+fearful apprehensions. I had the fullest confidence in the blacklegs
+with whom I travelled, believing that they would do according to
+promise, and go to the fullest extent of their ability to restore
+peace and consolation to a bereaved family--to re-unite husband and
+wife, parent and child, who had long been severed by slavery through
+the agency of Deacon Whitfield. But I knew his determination in
+relation to myself, and I feared his wicked opposition to a
+restoration of myself and little family, which he had divided, and
+soon found that my fears were not without foundation.
+
+When we rode up and walked into his yard, the Deacon came out and
+spoke to all but myself; and not finding me in tattered rags as a
+substitute for clothes, nor having an iron collar or bell about my
+neck, as was the case when he sold me, he appeared to be much
+displeased.
+
+"What did you bring that negro back here for?" said he.
+
+"We have come to try to buy his wife and child; for we can find no one
+who is willing to buy him alone; and we will either buy or sell so
+that the family may be together," said they.
+
+While this conversation was going on, my poor bereaved wife, who
+never expected to see me again in this life, spied me and came rushing
+to me through the crowd, throwing her arms about my neck exclaiming in
+the most sympathetic tones, "Oh! my dear husband! I never expected to
+see you again!" The poor woman was bathed with tears of sorrow and
+grief. But no sooner had she reached me, than the Deacon peremptorily
+commanded her to go to her work. This she did not obey, but prayed
+that her master would not separate us again, as she was there alone,
+far from friends and relations whom she should never meet again. And
+now to take away her husband, her last and only true friend, would be
+like taking her life!
+
+But such appeals made no impression on the unfeeling Deacon's heart.
+While he was storming with abusive language, and even using the gory
+lash with hellish vengeance to separate husband and wife, I could see
+the sympathetic teardrop, stealing its way down the cheek of the
+profligate and black-leg, whose object it now was to bind up the
+broken heart of a wife, and restore to the arms of a bereaved husband,
+his companion.
+
+They were disgusted at the conduct of Whitfield and cried out shame,
+even in his presence. They told him that they would give a thousand
+dollars for my wife and child, or any thing in reason. But no! he
+would sooner see me to the devil than indulge or gratify me after my
+having run away from him; and if they did not remove me from his
+presence very soon, he said he should make them suffer for it.
+
+But all this, and even the gory lash had yet failed to break the grasp
+of poor Malinda, whose prospect of connubial, social, and future
+happiness was all at stake. When the dear woman saw there was no help
+for us, and that we should soon be separated forever, in the name of
+Deacon Whitfield, and American slavery to meet no more as husband and
+wife, parent and child--the last and loudest appeal was made on our
+knees. We appealed to the God of justice and to the sacred ties of
+humanity; but this was all in vain. The louder we prayed the harder he
+whipped, amid the most heart-rending shrieks from the poor slave
+mother and child, as little Frances stood by, sobbing at the abuse
+inflicted on her mother.
+
+"Oh! how shall I give my husband the parting hand never to meet
+again? This will surely break my heart," were her parting words.
+
+I can never describe to the reader the awful reality of that
+separation--for it was enough to chill the blood and stir up the
+deepest feelings of revenge in the hearts of slaveholding black-legs,
+who as they stood by, were threatening, some weeping, some swearing
+and others declaring vengeance against such treatment being inflicted
+on a human being. As we left the plantation, as far as we could see
+and hear, the Deacon was still laying on the gory lash, trying to
+prevent poor Malinda from weeping over the loss of her departed
+husband, who was then, by the hellish laws of slavery, to her,
+theoretically and practically dead. One of the black-legs exclaimed
+that hell was full of just such Deacon's as Whitfield. This occurred
+in December, 1840. I have never seen Malinda, since that period. I
+never expect to see her again.
+
+The sportsmen to whom I was sold, showed their sympathy for me not
+only by word but by deeds. They said that they had made the most
+liberal offer to Whitfield, to buy or sell for the sole purpose of
+reuniting husband and wife. But he stood out against it--they felt
+sorry for me. They said they had bought me to speculate on, and were
+not able to lose what they had paid for me. But they would make a
+bargain with me, if I was willing, and would lay a plan, by which I
+might yet get free. If I would use my influence so as to get some
+person to buy me while traveling about with them, they would give me a
+portion of the money for which they sold me, and they would also give
+me directions by which I might yet run away and go to Canada.
+
+This offer I accepted, and the plot was made. They advised me to act
+very stupid in language and thought, but in business I must be spry;
+and that I must persuade men to buy me, and promise them that I would
+be smart.
+
+We passed through the State of Arkansas and stopped at many places,
+horse-racing and gambling. My business was to drive a wagon in which
+they carried their gambling apparatus, clothing, &c. I had also to
+black boots and attend to horses. We stopped at Fayettville, where
+they almost lost me, betting on a horse race.
+
+They went from thence to the Indian Territory, among the Cherokee
+Indians, to attend the great races which were to take place there.
+During the races there was a very wealthy half Indian of that tribe,
+who became much attached to me, and had some notion of buying me,
+after hearing that I was for sale, being a slaveholder. The idea
+struck me rather favorable, for several reasons. First, I thought I
+should stand a better chance to get away from an Indian than from a
+white man. Second, he wanted me only for a kind of a body servant to
+wait on him--and in this case I knew that I should fare better than I
+should in the field. And my owners also told me that it would be an
+easy place to get away from. I took their advice for fear I might not
+get another chance so good as that, and prevailed on the man to buy
+me. He paid them nine hundred dollars, in gold and silver, for me. I
+saw the money counted out.
+
+After the purchase was made, the sportsmen got me off to one side, and
+according to promise they gave me a part of the money, and directions
+how to get from there to Canada. They also advised me how to act until
+I got a good chance to run away. I was to embrace the earliest
+opportunity of getting away, before they should become acquainted with
+me. I was never to let it be known where I was from, nor where I was
+born. I was to act quite stupid and ignorant. And when I started I was
+to go up the boundary line, between the Indian Territory and the
+States of Arkansas and Missouri, and this would fetch me out on the
+Missouri river, near Jefferson city, the capital of Missouri. I was to
+travel at first by night, and to lay by in daylight, until I got out
+of danger.
+
+The same afternoon that the Indian bought me, he started with me to
+his residence, which was fifty or sixty miles distant. And so great
+was his confidence in me, that he intrusted me to carry his money. The
+amount must have been at least five hundred dollars, which was all in
+gold and silver; and when we stopped over night the money and horses
+were all left in my charge.
+
+It would have been a very easy matter for me to have taken one of the
+best horses, with the money, and run off. And the temptation was truly
+great to a man like myself, who was watching for the earliest
+opportunity to escape; and I felt confident that I should never have a
+better opportunity to escape full handed than then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_Character of my Indian Master.--Slavery among the Indians less
+cruel.--Indian carousal.--Enfeebled health of my Indian Master.--His
+death.--My escape.--Adventure in a wigwam.--Successful progress toward
+liberty._
+
+
+The next morning I went home with my new master; and by the way it is
+only doing justice to the dead to say, that he was the most
+reasonable, and humane slaveholder that I have ever belonged to. He
+was the last man that pretended to claim property in my person; and
+although I have freely given the names and residences of all others
+who have held me as a slave, for prudential reasons I shall omit
+giving the name of this individual.
+
+He was the owner of a large plantation and quite a number of slaves.
+He raised corn and wheat for his own consumption only. There was no
+cotton, tobacco, or anything of the kind produced among them for
+market. And I found this difference between negro slavery among the
+Indians, and the same thing among the white slaveholders of the South.
+The Indians allow their slaves enough to eat and wear. They have no
+overseers to whip nor drive them. If a slave offends his master, he
+sometimes, in a heat of passion, undertakes to chastise him; but it is
+as often the case as otherwise, that the slave gets the better of the
+fight, and even flogs his master;[4] for which there is no law to
+punish him; but when the fight is over that is the last of it. So far
+as religious instruction is concerned, they have it on terms of
+equality, the bond and the free; they have no respect of persons, they
+have neither slave laws nor negro pews. Neither do they separate
+husbands and wives, nor parents and children. All things considered,
+if I must be a slave, I had by far, rather be a slave to an Indian,
+than to a white man, from the experience I have had with both.
+
+A majority of the Indians were uneducated, and still followed up their
+old heathen traditional notions. They made it a rule to have an Indian
+dance or frolic, about once a fortnight; and they would come together
+far and near to attend these dances. They would most generally
+commence about the middle of the afternoon; and would give notice by
+the blowing of horns. One would commence blowing and another would
+answer, and so it would go all round the neighborhood. When a number
+had got together, they would strike a circle about twenty rods in
+circumference, and kindle up fires about twenty feet apart, all
+around, in this circle. In the centre they would have a large fire to
+dance around, and at each one of the small fires there would be a
+squaw to keep up the fire, which looked delightful off at a distance.
+
+But the most degrading practice of all, was the use of intoxicating
+drinks, which were used to a great excess by all that attended these
+stump dances. At almost all of these fires there was some one with rum
+to sell. There would be some dancing, some singing, some gambling,
+some fighting, and some yelling; and this was kept up often for two
+days and nights together.
+
+Their dress for the dance was most generally a great bunch of bird
+feathers, coon tails, or something of the kind stuck in their heads,
+and a great many shells tied about their legs to rattle while dancing.
+Their manner of dancing is taking hold of each others hands and
+forming a ring around the large fire in the centre, and go stomping
+around it until they would get drunk or their heads would get to
+swimming, and then they would go off and drink, and another set come
+on. Such were some of the practises indulged in by these Indian
+slaveholders.
+
+My last owner was in a declining state of health when he bought me;
+and not long after he bought me he went off forty or fifty miles from
+home to be doctored by an Indian doctor, accompanied by his wife. I
+was taken along also to drive the carriage and to wait upon him during
+his sickness. But he was then so feeble, that his life was of but
+short duration after the doctor commenced on him.
+
+While he lived, I waited on him according to the best of my ability. I
+watched over him night and day until he died, and even prepared his
+body for the tomb, before I left him. He died about midnight and I
+understood from his friends that he was not to be buried until the
+second day after his death. I pretended to be taking on at a great
+rate about his death, but I was more excited about running away, than
+I was about that, and before daylight the next morning I proved it,
+for I was on my way to Canada.
+
+I never expected a better opportunity would present itself for my
+escape. I slipped out of the room as if I had gone off to weep for the
+deceased, knowing that they would not feel alarmed about me until
+after my master was buried and they had returned back to his
+residence. And even then, they would think that I was somewhere on my
+way home; and it would be at least four or five days before they would
+make any stir in looking after me. By that time, if I had no bad luck,
+I should be out of much danger.
+
+After the first day, I laid by in the day and traveled by night for
+several days and nights, passing in this way through several tribes of
+Indians. I kept pretty near the boundary line. I recollect getting
+lost one dark rainy night. Not being able to find the road I came into
+an Indian settlement at the dead hour of the night. I was wet,
+wearied, cold and hungry; and yet I felt afraid to enter any of their
+houses or wigwams, not knowing whether they would be friendly or not.
+But I knew the Indians were generally drunkards, and that occasionally
+a drunken white man was found straggling among them, and that such an
+one would be more likely to find friends from sympathy than an upright
+man.
+
+So I passed myself off that night as a drunkard among them. I walked
+up to the door of one of their houses, and fell up against it, making
+a great noise like a drunken man; but no one came to the door. I
+opened it and staggered in, falling about, and making a great noise.
+But finally an old woman got up and gave me a blanket to lie down on.
+
+There was quite a number of them lying about on the dirt floor, but
+not one could talk or understand a word of the English language. I
+made signs so as to let them know that I wanted something to eat, but
+they had nothing, so I had to go without that night. I laid down and
+pretended to be asleep, but I slept none that night, for I was afraid
+that they would kill me if I went to sleep. About one hour before day,
+the next morning, three of the females got up and put into a tin
+kettle a lot of ashes with water, to boil, and then poured into it
+about one quart of corn. After letting it stand a few moments, they
+poured it into a trough, and pounded it into thin hominy. They washed
+it out, and boiled it down, and called me up to eat my breakfast of
+it.
+
+After eating, I offered them six cents, but they refused to accept it.
+I then found my way to the main road, and traveled all that day on my
+journey, and just at night arrived at a public house kept by an
+Indian, who also kept a store. I walked in and asked if I could get
+lodging, which was granted; but I had not been there long before three
+men came riding up about dusk, or between sunset and dark. They were
+white men, and I supposed slaveholders. At any rate when they asked if
+they could have lodging, I trembled for fear they might be in pursuit
+of me. But the landlord told them that he could not lodge them, but
+they could get lodging about two miles off, with a white man, and they
+turned their horses and started.
+
+The landlord asked me where I was traveling to, and where I was from.
+I told him that I had been out looking at the country; that I had
+thought of buying land, and that I lived in the State of Ohio, in the
+village of Perrysburgh. He then said that he had lived there himself,
+and that he had acted as an interpreter there among the Maumee tribe
+of Indians for several years. He then asked who I was acquainted with
+there? I informed him that I knew Judge Hollister, Francis Hollister,
+J.W. Smith, and others. At this he was so much pleased that he came up
+and took me by the hand, and received me joyfully, after seeing that I
+was acquainted with those of his old friends.
+
+I could converse with him understandingly from personal acquaintance,
+for I had lived there when I first ran away from Kentucky. But I felt
+it to be my duty to start off the next morning before breakfast, or
+sunrise. I bought a dozen of eggs, and had them boiled to carry with
+me to eat on the way. I did not like the looks of those three men, and
+thought I would get on as fast as possible for fear I might be pursued
+by them.
+
+I was then about to enter the territory of another slave State,
+Missouri. I had passed through the fiery ordeal of Sibley, Gatewood,
+and Garrison, and had even slipped through the fingers of Deacon
+Whitfield. I had doubtless gone through great peril in crossing the
+Indian territory, in passing through the various half civilized
+tribes, who seemed to look upon me with astonishment as I passed
+along. Their hands were almost invariably filled with bows and arrows,
+tomahawks, guns, butcher knives, and all the various implements of
+death which are used by them. And what made them look still more
+frightful, their faces were often painted red, and their heads muffled
+with birds feathers, bushes, coons tails and owls heads. But all this
+I had passed through, and my long enslaved limbs and spirit were then
+in full stretch for emancipation. I felt as if one more short struggle
+would set me free.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] This singular fact is corroborated in a letter read by the
+publisher, from an acquaintance while passing through this country in
+1849.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+_Adventure on the Prairie.--I borrow a horse without leave.--Rapid
+traveling one whole night.--Apology for using other men's horses.--My
+manner of living on the road._
+
+Early in the morning I left the Indian territory as I have already
+said, for fear I might be pursued by the three white men whom I had
+seen there over night; but I had not proceeded far before my fears
+were magnified a hundred fold.
+
+I always dreaded to pass through a prairie, and on coming to one which
+was about six miles in width, I was careful to look in every direction
+to see whether there was any person in sight before I entered it; but
+I could see no one. So I started across with a hope of crossing
+without coming in contact with any one on the prairie. I walked as
+fast as I could, but when I got about midway of the prairie, I came to
+a high spot where the road forked, and three men came up from a low
+spot as if they had been there concealed. They were all on horse back,
+and I supposed them to be the same men that had tried to get lodging
+where I stopped over night. Had this been in timbered land, I might
+have stood some chance to have dodged them, but there I was, out in
+the open prairie, where I could see no possible way by which I could
+escape.
+
+They came along slowly up behind me, and finally passed, and spoke or
+bowed their heads on passing, but they traveled in a slow walk and
+kept but a very few steps before me, until we got nearly across the
+prairie. When we were coming near a plantation a piece off from the
+road on the skirt of the timbered land, they whipped up their horses
+and left the road as if they were going across to this plantation.
+They soon got out of my sight by going down into a valley which lay
+between us and the plantation. Not seeing them rise the hill to go up
+to the farm, excited greater suspicion in my mind, so I stepped over
+on the brow of the hill, where I could see what they were doing, and
+to my surprise I saw them going right back in the direction they had
+just came, and they were going very fast. I was then satisfied that
+they were after me and that they were only going back to get more
+help to assist them in taking me, for fear that I might kill some of
+them if they undertook it. The first impression was that I had better
+leave the road immediately; so I bolted from the road and ran as fast
+as I could for some distance in the thick forest, and concealed myself
+for about fifteen or twenty minutes, which were spent in prayer to God
+for his protecting care and guidance.
+
+My impression was that when they should start in pursuit of me again,
+they would follow on in the direction which I was going when they left
+me; and not finding or hearing of me on the road, they would come back
+and hunt through the woods around, and if they could find no track
+they might go and get dogs to trace me out.
+
+I thought my chance of escape would be better, if I went back to the
+same side of the road that they first went, for the purpose of
+deceiving them; as I supposed that they would not suspect my going in
+the same direction that they went, for the purpose of escaping from
+them.
+
+So I traveled all that day square off from the road through the wild
+forest without any knowledge of the country whatever; for I had
+nothing to travel by but the sun by day, and the moon and stars by
+night. Just before night I came in sight of a large plantation, where
+I saw quite a number of horses running at large in a field, and
+knowing that my success in escaping depended upon my getting out of
+that settlement within twenty-four hours, to save myself from
+everlasting slavery, I thought I should be justified in riding one of
+those horses, that night, if I could catch one. I cut a grape vine
+with my knife, and made it into a bridle; and shortly after dark I
+went into the field and tried to catch one of the horses. I got a
+bunch of dry blades of fodder and walked up softly towards the horses,
+calling to them "cope," "cope," "cope;" but there was only one out of
+the number that I was able to get my hand on, and that was an old
+mare, which I supposed to be the mother of all the rest; and I knew
+that I could walk faster than she could travel. She had a bell on and
+was very thin in flesh; she looked gentle and walked on three legs
+only. The young horses pranced and galloped off. I was not able to get
+near them, and the old mare being of no use to me, I left them all.
+After fixing my eyes on the north star I pursued my journey, holding
+on to my bridle with a hope of finding a horse upon which I might ride
+that night.
+
+I found a road leading pretty nearly in the direction which I wanted
+to travel, and I kept it. After traveling several miles I found
+another large plantation where there was a prospect of finding a
+horse. I stepped up to the barn-yard, wherein I found several horses.
+There was a little barn standing with the door open, and I found it
+quite an easy task to get the horses into the barn, and select out the
+best looking one of them. I pulled down the fence, led the noble beast
+out and mounted him, taking a northern direction, being able to find a
+road which led that way. But I had not gone over three or four miles
+before I came to a large stream of water which was past fording; yet I
+could see that it had been forded by the road track, but from high
+water it was then impassible. As the horse seemed willing to go in I
+put him through; but before he got in far, he was in water up to his
+sides and finally the water came over his back and he swam over. I got
+as wet as could be, but the horse carried me safely across at the
+proper place. After I got out a mile or so from the river, I came into
+a large prairie, which I think must have been twenty or thirty miles
+in width, and the road run across it about in the direction that I
+wanted to go. I laid whip to the horse, and I think he must have
+carried me not less than forty miles that night, or before sun rise
+the next morning. I then stopped him in a spot of high grass in an old
+field, and took off the bridle. I thanked God, and thanked the horse
+for what he had done for me, and wished him a safe journey back home.
+
+I know the poor horse must have felt stiff, and tired from his speedy
+jaunt, and I felt very bad myself, riding at that rate all night
+without a saddle; but I felt as if I had too much at stake to favor
+either horse flesh or man flesh. I could indeed afford to crucify my
+own flesh for the sake of redeeming myself from perpetual slavery.
+
+Some may be disposed to find fault with my taking the horse as I did;
+but I did nothing more than nine out of ten would do if they were
+placed in the same circumstances. I had no disposition to steal a
+horse from any man. But I ask, if a white man had been captured by the
+Cherokee Indians and carried away from his family for life into
+slavery, and could see a chance to escape and get back to his family;
+should the Indians pursue him with a determination to take him back or
+take his life, would it be a crime for the poor fugitive, whose life,
+liberty, and future happiness were all at stake, to mount any man's
+horse by the way side, and ride him without asking any questions, to
+effect his escape? Or who would not do the same thing to rescue a
+wife, child, father, or mother? Such an act committed by a white man
+under the same circumstances would not only be pronounced proper, but
+praiseworthy; and if he neglected to avail himself of such a means of
+escape he would be pronounced a fool. Therefore from this act I have
+nothing to regret, for I have done nothing more than any other
+reasonable person would have done under the same circumstances. But I
+had good luck from the morning I left the horse until I got back into
+the State of Ohio. About two miles from where I left the horse, I
+found a public house on the road, where I stopped and took breakfast.
+Being asked where I was traveling, I replied that I was going home to
+Perrysburgh, Ohio, and that I had been out to look at the land in
+Missouri, with a view of buying. They supposed me to be a native of
+Ohio, from the fact of my being so well acquainted with its location,
+its principal cities, inhabitants, &c.
+
+The next night I put up at one of the best hotels in the village where
+I stopped, and acted with as much independence as if I was worth a
+million of dollars; talked about buying land, stock and village
+property, and contrasting it with the same kind of property in the
+State of Ohio. In this kind of talk they were most generally
+interested, and I was treated just like other travelers. I made it a
+point to travel about thirty miles each day on my way to Jefferson
+city. On several occasions I have asked the landlords where I have
+stopped over night, if they could tell me who kept the best house
+where I would stop the next night, which was most generally in a small
+village. But for fear I might forget, I would get them to give me the
+name on a piece of paper as a kind of recommend. This would serve as
+an introduction through which I have always been well received from
+one landlord to another, and I have always stopped at the best houses,
+eaten at the first tables, and slept in the best beds. No man ever
+asked me whether I was bond or free, black or white, rich or poor;
+but I always presented a bold front and showed the best side out,
+which was all the pass I had. But when I got within about one hundred
+miles of Jefferson city, where I expected to take a Steamboat passage
+to St. Louis, I stopped over night at a hotel, where I met with a
+young white man who was traveling on to Jefferson City on horse back,
+and was also leading a horse with a saddle and bridle on.
+
+I asked him if he would let me ride the horse which he was leading, as
+I was going to the same city? He said that it was a hired horse, that
+he was paying at the rate of fifty cents per day for it, but if I
+would pay the same I could ride him. I accepted the offer and we rode
+together to the city. We were on the road together two or three days;
+stopped and ate and slept together at the same hotels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+_Stratagem to get on board, the steamer.--My Irish friends.--My
+success in reaching Cincinnati.--Reflections on again seeing
+Kentucky.--I get employment in a hotel.--My fright at seeing the
+gambler who sold me.--I leave Ohio with Mr. Smith.--His letter.--My
+education._
+
+
+The greatest of my adventures came off when I arrived at Jefferson
+City. There I expected to meet an advertisement for my person; it was
+there I must cross the river or take a steamboat down; it was there I
+expected to be interrogated and required to prove whether I was
+actually a free man or a slave. If I was free, I should have to show
+my free papers; and if I was a slave I should be required to tell who
+my master was.
+
+I stopped at a hotel, however, and ascertained that there was a
+steamboat expected down the river that day for St. Louis. I also found
+out that there were several passengers at that house who were going
+down on board of the first boat. I knew that the captain of a
+steamboat could not take a colored passenger on board of his boat from
+a slave state without first ascertaining whether such person was bond
+or free; I knew that this was more than he would dare to do by the
+laws of the slave states--and now to surmount this difficulty it
+brought into exercise all the powers of my mind. I would have got
+myself boxed up as freight, and have been forwarded to St. Louis, but
+I had no friend that I could trust to do it for me. This plan has
+since been adopted by some with success. But finally I thought I might
+possibly pass myself off as a body servant to the passengers going
+from the hotel down.
+
+So I went to a store and bought myself a large trunk, and took it to
+the hotel. Soon, a boat came in which was bound to St. Louis, and the
+passengers started down to get on board. I took up my large trunk, and
+started along after them as if I was their servant. My heart trembled
+in view of the dangerous experiment which I was then about to try. It
+required all the moral courage that I was master of to bear me up in
+view of my critical condition. The white people that I was following
+walked on board and I after them. I acted as if the trunk was full of
+clothes, but I had not a stitch of clothes in it. The passengers went
+up into the cabin and I followed them with the trunk. I suppose this
+made the captain think that I was their slave.
+
+I not only took the trunk in the cabin but stood by it until after the
+boat had started as if it belonged to my owners, and I was taking care
+of it for them; but as soon as the boat got fairly under way, I knew
+that some account would have to be given of me; so I then took my
+trunk down on the deck among the deck passengers to prepare myself to
+meet the clerk of the boat, when he should come to collect fare from
+the deck passengers.
+
+Fortunately for me there was quite a number of deck passengers on
+board, among whom there were many Irish. I insinuated myself among
+them so as to get into their good graces, believing that if I should
+get into a difficulty they would stand by me. I saw several of these
+persons going up to the saloon buying whiskey, and I thought this
+might be the most effectual way by which I could gain speedily their
+respect and sympathy. So I participated with them pretty freely for
+awhile, or at least until after I got my fare settled. I placed myself
+in a little crowd of them, and invited them all up to the bar with me,
+stating that it was my treat. This was responded to, and they walked
+up and drank and I footed the bill. This, of course, brought us into a
+kind of a union. We sat together and laughed and talked freely. Within
+ten or fifteen minutes I remarked that I was getting dry again, and
+invited them up and treated again. By this time I was thought to be
+one of the most liberal and gentlemanly men on board, by these deck
+passengers; they were ready to do any thing for me--they got to
+singing songs, and telling long yarns in which I took quite an active
+part; but it was all for effect.
+
+By this time the porter came around ringing his bell for all
+passengers who had not paid their fare, to walk up to the captain's
+office and settle it. Some of my Irish friends had not yet settled,
+and I asked one of them if he would be good enough to take my money
+and get me a ticket when he was getting one for himself, and he
+quickly replied "yes sir, I will get you a tacket." So he relieved me
+of my greatest trouble. When they came round to gather the tickets
+before we got to St. Louis, my ticket was taken with the rest, and no
+questions were asked me.
+
+The next day the boat arrived at St. Louis; my object was to take
+passage on board of the first boat which was destined for Cincinnati,
+Ohio; and as there was a boat going out that day for Pittsburgh, I
+went on board to make some inquiry about the fare &c, and found the
+steward to be a colored man with whom I was acquainted. He lived in
+Cincinnati, and had rendered me some assistance in making my escape to
+Canada, in the summer of 1838, and he also very kindly aided me then
+in getting back into a land of freedom. The swift running steamer
+started that afternoon on her voyage, which soon wafted my body beyond
+the tyrannical limits of chattel slavery. When the boat struck the
+mouth of the river Ohio, and I had once more the pleasure of looking
+on that lovely stream, my heart leaped up for joy at the glorious
+prospect that I should again be free. Every revolution of the mighty
+steam-engine seemed to bring me nearer and nearer the "promised land."
+Only a few days had elapsed, before I was permitted by the smiles of a
+good providence, once more to gaze on the green hill-tops and valleys
+of old Kentucky, the State of my nativity. And notwithstanding I was
+deeply interested while standing on the deck of the steamer looking at
+the beauties of nature on either side of the river, as she pressed her
+way up the stream, my very soul was pained to look upon the slaves in
+the fields of Kentucky, still toiling under their task-masters without
+pay. It was on this soil I first breathed, the free air of Heaven, and
+felt the bitter pangs of slavery--it was here that I first learned to
+abhor it. It was here I received the first impulse of human rights--it
+was here that I first entered my protest against the bloody
+institution of slavery, by running away from it, and declared that I
+would no longer work for any man as I had done, without wages.
+
+When the steamboat arrived at Portsmouth, Ohio, I took off my trunk
+with the intention of going to Canada. But my funds were almost
+exhausted, so I had to stop and go to work to get money to travel on.
+I hired myself at the American Hotel to a Mr. McCoy to do the work of
+a porter, to black boots, &c, for which he was to pay me $12 per
+month. I soon found the landlord to be bad pay, and not only that, but
+he would not allow me to charge for blacking boots, although I had to
+black them after everybody had gone to bed at night, and set them in
+the bar-room, where the gentlemen could come and get them in the
+morning while I was at other work. I had nothing extra for this,
+neither would he pay me my regular wages; so I thought this was a
+little too much like slavery, and devised a plan by which I got some
+pay for my work.
+
+I made it a point never to blacken all the boots and shoes over night,
+neither would I put any of them in the bar-room, but lock them up in a
+room where no one could get them without calling for me. I got a piece
+of broken vessel, placed it in the room just before the boots, and put
+into it several pieces of small change, as if it had been given me for
+boot blacking; and almost every one that came in after their boots,
+would throw some small trifle into my contribution box, while I was
+there blacking away. In this way, I made more than my landlord paid
+me, and I soon got a good stock of cash again. One morning I blacked a
+gentleman's boots who came in during the night by a steamboat. After
+he had put on his boots, I was called into the bar-room to button his
+straps; and while I was performing this service, not thinking to see
+anybody that knew me, I happened to look up at the man's face and who
+should it be but one of the very gamblers who had recently sold me. I
+dropped his foot and bolted from the room as if I had been struck by
+an electric shock. The man happened not to recognize me, but this
+strange conduct on my part excited the landlord, who followed me out
+to see what was the matter. He found me with my hand to my breast,
+groaning at a great rate. He asked me what was the matter; but I was
+not able to inform him correctly, but said that I felt very bad
+indeed. He of course thought I was sick with the colic and ran in the
+house and got some hot stuff for me, with spice, ginger, &c. But I
+never got able to go into the bar-room until long after breakfast
+time, when I knew this man was gone; then I got well.
+
+And yet I have no idea that the man would have hurt a hair of my head;
+but my first thought was that he was after me. I then made up my mind
+to leave Portsmouth; its location being right on the border of a slave
+State.
+
+A short time after this a gentleman put up there over night named
+Smith, from Perrysburgh, with whom I was acquainted in the North. He
+was on his way to Kentucky to buy up a drove of fine horses, and he
+wanted me to go and help him to drive his horses out to Perrysburgh,
+and said he would pay all my expenses if I would go. So I made a
+contract to go and agreed to meet him the next week, on a set day, in
+Washington, Ky., to start with his drove to the north. Accordingly at
+the time I took a steamboat passage down to Maysville, near where I
+was to meet Mr. Smith with my trunk. When I arrived at Maysville, I
+found that Washington was still six miles back from the river. I
+stopped at a hotel and took my breakfast, and who should I see there
+but a captain of a boat, who saw me but two years previous going down
+the river Ohio with handcuffs on, in a chain gang; but he happened not
+to know me. I left my trunk at the hotel and went out to Washington,
+where I found Mr. Smith, and learned that he was not going to start
+off with his drove until the next day.
+
+The following letter which was addressed to the committee to
+investigate the truth of my narrative, will explain this part of it to
+the reader and corroborate my statements:
+
+                                     MAUMEE CITY, April 5, 1845.
+
+     CHAS. H. STEWART, ESQ.
+
+     DEAR SIR:--Your favor of 13th February, addressed to me at
+     Perrysburgh, was not received until yesterday; having
+     removed to this place, the letter was not forwarded as it
+     should have been. In reply to your inquiry respecting Henry
+     Bibb, I can only say that about the year 1838 I became
+     acquainted with him at Perrysburgh--employed him to do some
+     work by the job which he performed well, and from his
+     apparent honesty and candor, I became much interested in
+     him. About that time he went South for the purpose, as was
+     said, of getting his wife, who was there in slavery. In the
+     spring of 1841, I found him at Portsmouth on the Ohio river,
+     and after much persuasion, employed him to assist my man to
+     drive home some horses and cattle which I was about
+     purchasing near Maysville, Ky. My confidence in him was such
+     that when about half way home I separated the horses from
+     the cattle, and left him with the latter, with money and
+     instructions to hire what help he wanted to get to
+     Perrysburgh. This he accomplished to my entire satisfaction.
+     He worked for me during the summer, and I was unwilling to
+     part with him, but his desire to go to school and mature
+     plans for the liberation of his wife, were so strong that he
+     left for Detroit, where he could enjoy the society of his
+     colored brethren. I have heard his story and must say that I
+     have not the least reason to suspect it being otherwise than
+     true, and furthermore, I firmly believe, and have for a long
+     time, that he has the foundation to make himself useful. I
+     shall always afford him all the facilities in my power to
+     assist him, until I hear of something in relation to him to
+     alter my mind.
+
+          Yours in the cause of truth,
+                                     J.W. SMITH
+
+When I arrived at Perrysburgh, I went to work for Mr. Smith for
+several months. This family I found to be one of the most
+kind-hearted, and unprejudiced that I ever lived with. Mr. and Mrs.
+Smith lived up to their profession.
+
+I resolved to go to Detroit, that winter, and go to school, in January
+1842. But when I arrived at Detroit I soon found that I was not able
+to give myself a very thorough education. I was among strangers, who
+were not disposed to show me any great favors. I had every thing to
+pay for, and clothing to buy, so I graduated within three weeks! And
+this was all the schooling that I have ever had in my life.
+
+W.C. Monroe was my teacher; to him I went about two weeks only. My
+occupation varied according to circumstances, as I was not settled in
+mind about the condition of my bereaved family for several years, and
+could not settle myself down at any permanent business. I saw
+occasionally, fugitives from Kentucky, some of whom I knew, but none
+of them were my relatives; none could give me the information which I
+desired most.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+_Letter from W.H. Gatewood.--My reply.--My efforts as a public
+lecturer.--Singular incident in Steubenville--Meeting with a friend of
+Whitfield in Michigan.--Outrage on a canal packet.--Fruitless efforts
+to find my wife._
+
+
+The first direct information that I received concerning any of my
+relations, after my last escape from slavery, was communicated in a
+letter from Wm. H. Gatewood, my former owner, which I here insert word
+for word, without any correction:
+
+                                    BEDFORD, TRIMBLE COUNTY, KY.
+
+     Mr. H. BIBB.
+
+     DEAR SIR:--After my respects to you and yours &c, I received
+     a small book which you sent to me that I peroseed and found
+     it was sent by H. Bibb I am a stranger in Detroit and know
+     no man there without it is Walton H. Bibb if this be the man
+     please to write to me and tell me all about that place and
+     the people I will tell you the news here as well as I can
+     your mother is still living here and she is well the people
+     are generally well in this cuntry times are dull and produce
+     low give my compliments to King, Jack, and all my friends in
+     that cuntry I read that book you sent me and think it will
+     do very well--George is sold, I do not know any thing about
+     him I have nothing more at present, but remain yours &c
+
+                                        W.H. GATEWOOD.
+
+     February 9th, 1844.
+     P.S. You will please to answer this letter.
+
+Never was I more surprised than at the reception of this letter, it
+came so unexpected to me. There had just been a State Convention held
+in Detroit, by the free people of color, the proceedings of which were
+published in pamphlet form. I forwarded several of them to
+distinguished slaveholders in Kentucky--one among others was Mr.
+Gatewood, and gave him to understand who sent it. After showing this
+letter to several of my anti-slavery friends, and asking their
+opinions about the propriety of my answering it, I was advised to do
+it, as Mr. Gatewood had no claim on me as a slave, for he had sold
+and got the money for me and my family. So I wrote him an answer, as
+near as I can recollect, in the following language:
+
+     DEAR SIR:--I am happy to inform you that you are not
+     mistaken in the man whom you sold as property, and received
+     pay for as such. But I thank God that I am not property now,
+     but am regarded as a man like yourself, and although I live
+     far north, I am enjoying a comfortable living by my own
+     industry. If you should ever chance to be traveling this
+     way, and will call on me, I will use you better than you did
+     me while you held me as a slave. Think not that I have any
+     malice against you, for the cruel treatment which you
+     inflicted on me while I was in your power. As it was the
+     custom of your country, to treat your fellow man as you did
+     me and my little family, I can freely forgive you.
+
+     I wish to be remembered in love to my aged mother, and
+     friends; please tell her that if we should never meet again
+     in this life, my prayer shall be to God that we may meet in
+     Heaven, where parting shall be no more.
+
+     You wish to be remembered to King and Jack. I am pleased,
+     sir, to inform you that they are both here, well, and doing
+     well. They are both living in Canada West. They are now the
+     owners of better farms than the men are who once owned them.
+
+     You may perhaps think hard of us for running away from
+     slavery, but as to myself, I have but one apology to make
+     for it, which is this: I have only to regret that I did not
+     start at an earlier period. I might have been free long
+     before I was. But you had it in your power to have kept me
+     there much longer than you did. I think it is very probable
+     that I should have been a toiling slave on your plantation
+     to-day, if you had treated me differently.
+
+     To be compelled to stand by and see you whip and slash my
+     wife without mercy, when I could afford her no protection,
+     not even by offering myself to suffer the lash in her place,
+     was more than I felt it to be the duty of a slave husband to
+     endure, while the way was open to Canada. My infant child
+     was also frequently flogged by Mrs. Gatewood, for crying,
+     until its skin was bruised literally purple. This kind of
+     treatment was what drove me from home and family, to seek a
+     better home for them. But I am willing to forget the past. I
+     should be pleased to hear from you again, on the reception
+     of this, and should also be very happy to correspond with
+     you often, if it should be agreeable to yourself. I
+     subscribe myself a friend to the oppressed, and Liberty
+     forever.
+
+                                        HENRY BIBB.
+
+     WILLIAM GATEWOOD.
+     Detroit, March 23d, 1844.
+
+The first time that I ever spoke before a public audience, was to give
+a narration of my own sufferings and adventures, connected with
+slavery. I commenced in the village of Adrian, State of Michigan, May,
+1844. From that up to the present period, the principle part of my
+time has been faithfully devoted to the cause of freedom--nerved up
+and encouraged by the sympathy of anti-slavery friends on the one
+hand, and prompted by a sense of duty to my enslaved countrymen on the
+other, especially, when I remembered that slavery had robbed me of my
+freedom--deprived me of education--banished me from my native State,
+and robbed me of my family.
+
+I went from Michigan to the State of Ohio, where I traveled over some
+of the Southern counties of that State, in company with Samuel Brooks,
+and Amos Dresser, lecturing upon the subject of American Slavery. The
+prejudice of the people at that time was very strong against the
+abolitionists; so much so that they were frequently mobbed for
+discussing the subject.
+
+We appointed a series of meetings along on the Ohio River, in sight of
+the State of Virginia; and in several places we had Virginians over to
+hear us upon the subject. I recollect our having appointed a meeting
+in the city of Steubenville, which is situated on the bank of the
+river Ohio. There was but one known abolitionist living in that city,
+named George Ore. On the day of our meeting, when we arrived in this
+splendid city there was not a church, school house, nor hall, that we
+could get for love or money, to hold our meeting in. Finally, I
+believe that the whigs consented to let us have the use of their club
+room, to hold the meeting in; but before the hour had arrived for us
+to commence, they re-considered the matter, and informed us that we
+could not have the use of their house for an abolition meeting.
+
+We then got permission to hold forth in the public market house, and
+even then so great was the hostility of the rabble, that they tried to
+bluff us off, by threats and epithets. Our meeting was advertised to
+take place at nine o'clock, A.M. The pro-slavery parties hired a
+colored man to take a large auction bell, and go all over the city
+ringing it, and crying, "ho ye! ho ye! Negro auction to take place in
+the market house, at nine o'clock, by George Ore!" This cry was
+sounded all over the city, which called out many who would not
+otherwise have been present. They came to see if it was really the
+case. The object of the rabble in having the bell rung was, to prevent
+us from attempting to speak. But at the appointed hour, Bro. Dresser
+opened the meeting with prayer, and Samuel Brooks mounted the block
+and spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, after which Mr. Dresser took
+the block and talked about one hour upon the wickedness of
+slaveholding. There were not yet many persons present. They were
+standing off I suppose to see if I was to be offered for sale. Many
+windows were hoisted and store doors open, and they were looking and
+listening to what was said. After Mr. Dresser was through, I was
+called to take the stand. Just at this moment there was no small stir
+in rushing forward; so much indeed, that I thought they were coming up
+to mob me. I should think that in less than fifteen minutes there were
+about one thousand persons standing around, listening. I saw many of
+them shedding tears while I related the sad story of my wrongs. At
+twelve o'clock we adjourned the meeting, to meet again at the same
+place at two P.M. Our afternoon meeting was well attended until nearly
+sunset, at which time, we saw some signs of a mob and adjourned. The
+mob followed us that night to the house of Mr. Ore, and they were
+yelling like tigers, until late that night, around the house, as if
+they wanted to tear it down.
+
+In the fall of 1844, S.B. Treadwell, of Jackson, and myself, spent two
+or three months in lecturing through the State of Michigan, upon the
+abolition of slavery, in a section of country where abolitionists
+were few and far between. Our meetings were generally appointed in
+small log cabins, school houses, among the farmers, which were some
+times crowded full; and where they had no horse teams, it was often
+the case that there would be four or five ox teams come, loaded down
+with men, women and children, to attend our meetings.
+
+But the people were generally poor, and in many places not able to
+give us a decent night's lodging. We most generally carried with us a
+few pounds of candles to light up the houses wherein we held our
+meetings after night; for in many places, they had neither candles nor
+candlesticks. After meeting was out, we have frequently gone from
+three to eight miles to get lodging, through the dark forest, where
+there was scarcely any road for a wagon to run on.
+
+I have traveled for miles over swamps, where the roads were covered
+with logs, without any dirt over them, which has sometimes shook and
+jostled the wagon to pieces, where we could find no shop or any place
+to mend it. We would have to tie it up with bark, or take the lines to
+tie it with, and lead the horse by the bridle. At other times we were
+in mud up to the hubs of the wheels. I recollect one evening, we
+lectured in a little village where there happened to be a Southerner
+present, who was a personal friend of Deacon Whitfield, who became
+much offended at what I said about his "Bro. Whitfield," and
+complained about it after the meeting was out.
+
+He told the people not to believe a word that I said, that it was all
+a humbug. They asked him how he knew? "Ah!" said he, "he has slandered
+Bro. Whitfield. I am well acquainted with him, we both belonged to one
+church; and Whitfield is one of the most respectable men in all that
+region of country." They asked if he (Whitfield) was a slaveholder?
+
+The reply was "yes, but he treated his slaves well."
+
+"Well," said one, "that only proves that he has told us the truth; for
+all we wish to know, is that there is such a man as Whitfield, as
+represented by Bibb, and that he is a slave holder."
+
+On the 2d Sept., 1847, I started from Toledo on board the canal packet
+Erie, for Cincinnati, Ohio. But before going on board, I was waited on
+by one of the boat's crew, who gave me a card of the boat, upon which
+was printed, that no pains would be spared to render all passengers
+comfortable who might favor them with their patronage to Cincinnati.
+This card I slipped into my pocket, supposing it might be of some use
+to me. There were several drunken loafers on board going through as
+passengers, one of whom used the most vulgar language in the cabin,
+where there were ladies, and even vomited! But he was called a white
+man, and a southerner, which made it all right. I of course took my
+place in the cabin with the rest, and there was nothing said against
+it that night. When the passengers went forward to settle their fare I
+paid as much as any other man, which entitled me to the same
+privileges. The next morning at the ringing of the breakfast bell, the
+proprietor of the packet line, Mr. Samuel Doyle, being on board,
+invited the passengers to sit up to breakfast. He also invited me
+personally to sit up to the table. But after we were all seated, and
+some had began to eat, he came and ordered me up from the table, and
+said I must wait until the rest were done.
+
+I left the table without making any reply, and walked out on the deck
+of the boat. After breakfast the passengers came up, and the cabin boy
+was sent after me to come to breakfast, but I refused. Shortly after,
+this man who had ordered me from the table, came up with the ladies. I
+stepped up and asked him if he was the captain of the boat. His answer
+was no, that he was one of the proprietors. I then informed him that I
+was going to leave his boat at the first stopping place, but before
+leaving I wanted to ask him a few questions: "Have I misbehaved to any
+one on board of this boat? Have I disobeyed any law of this boat?"
+
+"No," said he.
+
+"Have I not paid you as much as any other passenger through to
+Cincinnati?"
+
+"Yes," said he.
+
+"Then I am sure that I have been insulted and imposed upon, on board
+of this boat, without any just cause whatever."
+
+"No one has misused you, for you ought to have known better than to
+have come to the table where there were white people."
+
+"Sir, did you not ask me to come to the table?"
+
+"Yes, but I did not know that you was a colored man, when I asked you;
+and then it was better to insult one man than all the passengers on
+board of the boat."
+
+"Sir, I do not believe that there is a gentleman or lady on board of
+this boat who would have considered it an insult for me to have taken
+my breakfast, and you have imposed upon me by taking my money and
+promising to use me well, and then to insult me as you have."
+
+"I don't want any of your jaw," said he.
+
+"Sir, with all due respect to your elevated station, you have imposed
+upon me in a way which is unbecoming a gentleman. I have paid my
+money, and behaved myself as well as any other man, and I am
+determined that no man shall impose on me as you have, by deceiving
+me, without my letting the world know it. I would rather a man should
+rob me of my money at midnight, than to take it in that way."
+
+I left this boat at the first stopping place, and took the next boat
+to Cincinnati. On the last boat I had no cause to complain of my
+treatment. When I arrived at Cincinnati, I published a statement of
+this affair in the Daily Herald.
+
+The next day Mr. Doyle called on the editor in a great
+passion.--"Here," said he, "what does this mean."
+
+"What, sir?" said the editor quietly.
+
+"Why, the stuff here, read it and see."
+
+"Read it yourself," answered the editor.
+
+"Well, I want to know if you sympathize with this nigger here."
+
+"Who, Mr. Bibb? Why yes, I think he is a gentleman, and should be used
+as such."
+
+"Why this is all wrong--all of it."
+
+"Put your finger on the place, and I will right it."
+
+"Well, he says that we took his money, when we paid part back. And if
+you take his part, why I'll have nothing to do with your paper."
+
+So ended his wrath.
+
+In 1845, the anti-slavery friends of Michigan employed me to take the
+field as an anti-slavery Lecturer, in that State, during the Spring,
+Summer, and Fall, pledging themselves to restore to me my wife and
+child, if they were living, and could be reached by human agency,
+which may be seen by the following circular from the Signal of
+Liberty:
+
+     TO LIBERTY FRIENDS:--In the Signal of the 28th inst. is a
+     report from the undersigned respecting Henry Bibb. His
+     narrative always excites deep sympathy for himself and
+     favorable bias for the cause, which seeks to abolish the
+     evils he so powerfully portrays. Friends and foes attest his
+     efficiency.
+
+     Mr. Bibb has labored much in lecturing, yet has collected
+     but a bare pittance. He has received from Ohio lucrative
+     offers, but we have prevailed on him to remain in this
+     State.
+
+     We think that a strong obligation rests on the friends in
+     this State to sustain Mr. Bibb, and restore to him his wife
+     and child. Under the expectation that Michigan will yield to
+     these claims: will support their laborer, and re-unite the
+     long severed ties of husband and wife, parent and child, Mr.
+     Bibb will lecture through the whole State.
+
+     Our object is to prepare friends for the visit of Mr. Bibb,
+     and to suggest an effective mode of operations for the whole
+     State.
+
+     Let friends in each vicinity appoint a collector--pay to him
+     all contributions for the freedom of Mrs. Bibb and child:
+     then transmit them to us. We will acknowledge them in the
+     Signal, and be responsible for them. We will see that the
+     proper measures for the freedom of Mrs. Bibb and child are
+     taken, and if it be within our means we will accomplish
+     it--nay we will accomplish it, if the objects be living and
+     the friends sustain us. But should we fail, the
+     contributions will be held subject to the order of the
+     donors, less however, by a proportionate deduction of
+     expenses from each.
+
+     The hope of this re-union will nerve the heart and body of
+     Mr. Bibb to re-doubled effort in a cause otherwise dear to
+     him. And as he will devote his whole time systematically to
+     the anti-slavery cause, he must also depend on friends for
+     the means of livelihood. We bespeak for him your
+     hospitality, and such pecuniary contributions as you can
+     afford, trusting that the latter may be sufficient to enable
+     him to keep the field.
+
+                                        A.L. PORTER,
+                                       C.H. STEWART,
+                                    SILAS M. HOLMES
+
+     DETROIT, APRIL 22, 1845.
+
+I have every reason to believe that they acted faithfully in the
+matter, but without success. They wrote letters in every quarter where
+they would be likely to gain any information respecting her. There
+were also two men sent from Michigan in the summer of 1845, down
+South, to find her if possible, and report--and whether they found out
+her condition, and refused to report, I am not able to say--but
+suffice it to say that they never have reported. They were respectable
+men and true friends of the cause, one of whom was a Methodist
+minister, and the other a cabinet maker, and both white men.
+
+The small spark of hope which had still lingered about my heart had
+almost become extinct.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+_My last effort to recover my family.--Sad tidings of my wife.--Her
+degradation.--I am compelled to regard our relation as dissolved
+forever._
+
+
+In view of the failure to hear any thing of my wife, many of my best
+friends advised me to get married again, if I could find a suitable
+person. They regarded my former wife as dead to me, and all had been
+done that could be.
+
+But I was not yet satisfied myself, to give up. I wanted to know
+certainly what had become of her. So in the winter of 1845, I resolved
+to go back to Kentucky, my native State, to see if I could hear
+anything from my family. And against the advice of all my friends, I
+went back to Cincinnati, where I took passage on board of a Southern
+steamboat to Madison, in the State of Indiana, which was only ten
+miles from where Wm. Gatewood lived, who was my former owner. No
+sooner had I landed in Madison, than I learned, on inquiry, and from
+good authority, that my wife was living in a state of adultery with
+her master, and had been for the last three years. This message she
+sent back to Kentucky, to her mother and friends. She also spoke of
+the time and manner of our separation by Deacon Whitfield, my being
+taken off by the Southern black-legs, to where she knew not; and that
+she had finally given me up. The child she said was still with her.
+Whitfield had sold her to this man for the above purposes at a high
+price, and she was better used than ordinary slaves. This was a death
+blow to all my hopes and pleasant plans. While I was in Madison I
+hired a white man to go over to Bedford, in Kentucky, where my mother
+was then living, and bring her over into a free State to see me. I
+hailed her approach with unspeakable joy. She informed me too, on
+inquiring whether my family had ever been heard from, that the report
+which I had just heard in relation to Malinda was substantially true,
+for it was the same message that she had sent to her mother and
+friends. And my mother thought it was no use for me to run any more
+risks, or to grieve myself any more about her.
+
+From that time I gave her up into the hands of an all-wise
+Providence. As she was then living with another man, I could no longer
+regard her as my wife. After all the sacrifices, sufferings, and risks
+which I had run, striving to rescue her from the grasp of slavery;
+every prospect and hope was cut off. She has ever since been regarded
+as theoretically and practically dead to me as a wife, for she was
+living in a state of adultery, according to the law of God and man.
+
+Poor unfortunate woman, I bring no charge of guilt against her, for I
+know not all the circumstances connected with the case. It is
+consistent with slavery, however, to suppose that she became
+reconciled to it, from the fact of her sending word back to her
+friends and relatives that she was much better treated than she had
+ever been before, and that she had also given me up. It is also
+reasonable to suppose that there might have been some kind of
+attachment formed by living together in this way for years; and it is
+quite probable that they have other children according to the law of
+nature, which would have a tendency to unite them stronger together.
+
+In view of all the facts and circumstances connected with this matter,
+I deem further comments and explanations unnecessary on my part.
+Finding myself thus isolated in this peculiarly unnatural state, I
+resolved, in 1846, to spend my days in traveling, to advance the
+anti-slavery cause. I spent the summer in Michigan, but in the
+subsequent fall I took a trip to New England, where I spent the
+winter. And there I found a kind reception wherever I traveled among
+the friends of freedom.
+
+While traveling about in this way among strangers, I was sometimes
+sick, with no permanent home, or bosom friend to sympathise or take
+that care of me which an affectionate wife would. So I conceived the
+idea that it would be better for me to change my position, provided I
+should find a suitable person.
+
+In the month of May, 1847, I attended the anti-slavery anniversary in
+the city of New York, where I had the good fortune to be introduced to
+the favor of a Miss Mary E. Miles, of Boston; a lady whom I had
+frequently heard very highly spoken of, for her activity and devotion
+to the anti-slavery cause, as well as her talents and learning, and
+benevolence in the cause of reforms, generally. I was very much
+impressed with the personal appearance of Miss Miles, and was deeply
+interested in our first interview, because I found that her principles
+and my own were nearly one and the same. I soon found by a few visits,
+as well as by letters, that she possessed moral principle, and
+frankness of disposition, which is often sought for but seldom found.
+These, in connection with other amiable qualities, soon won my entire
+confidence and affection. But this secret I kept to myself until I was
+fully satisfied that this feeling was reciprocal; that there was
+indeed a congeniality of principles and feeling, which time nor
+eternity could never change.
+
+When I offered myself for matrimony, we mutually engaged ourselves to
+each other, to marry in one year, with this condition, viz: that if
+either party should see any reason to change their mind within that
+time, the contract should not be considered binding. We kept up a
+regular correspondence during the time, and in June, 1848, we had the
+happiness to be joined in holy wedlock. Not in slaveholding style,
+which is a mere farce, without the sanction of law or gospel; but in
+accordance with the laws of God and our country. My beloved wife is a
+bosom friend, a help-meet, a loving companion in all the social,
+moral, and religious relations of life. She is to me what a poor
+slave's wife can never be to her husband while in the condition of a
+slave; for she can not be true to her husband contrary to the will of
+her master. She can neither be pure nor virtuous, contrary to the will
+of her master. She dare not refuse to be reduced to a state of
+adultery at the will of her master; from the fact that the
+slaveholding law, customs and teachings are all against the poor
+slaves.
+
+I presume there are no class of people in the United States who so
+highly appreciate the legality of marriage as those persons who have
+been held and treated as property. Yes, it is that fugitive who knows
+from sad experience, what it is to have his wife tyrannically snatched
+from his bosom by a slaveholding professor of religion, and finally
+reduced to a state of adultery, that knows how to appreciate the law
+that repels such high-handed villany. Such as that to which the writer
+has been exposed. But thanks be to God, I am now free from the hand of
+the cruel oppressor, no more to be plundered of my dearest rights; the
+wife of my bosom, and my poor unoffending offspring. Of Malinda I
+will only add a word in conclusion. The relation once subsisting
+between us, to which I clung, hoping against hope, for years, after we
+were torn assunder, not having been sanctioned by any loyal power,
+cannot be cancelled by a legal process. Voluntarily assumed without
+law mutually, it was by her relinquished years ago without my
+knowledge, as before named; during which time I was making every
+effort to secure her restoration. And it was not until after living
+alone in the world for more than eight years without a companion known
+in law or morals, that I changed my condition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+_Comments on S. Gatewood's letter about slaves stealing.--Their
+conduct vindicated.--Comments on W. Gatewood's letter._
+
+
+But it seems that I am not now beyond the reach of the foul slander of
+slaveholders. They are not satisfied with selling and banishing me
+from my native State. As soon as they got news of my being in the free
+North, exposing their peculiar Institution, a libelous letter was
+written by Silas Gatewood of Kentucky, a son of one of my former
+owners, to a Northern Committee, for publication, which he thought
+would destroy my influence and character. This letter will be found in
+the introduction.
+
+He has charged me with the awful crime of taking from my keeper and
+oppressor, some of the fruits of my own labor for the benefit of
+myself and family.
+
+But while writing this letter he seems to have overlooked the
+disgraceful fact that he was guilty himself of what would here be
+regarded highway robbery, in his conduct to me as narrated on page 60
+of this narrative.
+
+A word in reply to Silas Gatewood's letter. I am willing to admit all
+that is true, but shall deny that which is so basely false. In the
+first place, he puts words in my mouth that I never used. He says that
+I represented that "my mother belonged to James Bibb." I deny ever
+having said so in private or public. He says that I stated that Bibb's
+daughter married a Sibley. I deny it. He also says that the first time
+that I left Kentucky for my liberty, I was gone about two years,
+before I went back to rescue my family. I deny it. I was gone from
+Dec. 25th, 1837, to May, or June, 1838. He says that I went back the
+second time for the purpose of taking off my family, and eight or ten
+more slaves to Canada. This I will not pretend to deny. He says I was
+guilty of disposing of articles from the farm for my own use, and
+pocketing the money, and that his father caught me stealing a sack
+full of wheat. I admit the fact. I acknowledge the wheat.
+
+And who had a better right to eat of the fruits of my own hard
+earnings than myself? Many a long summer's day have I toiled with my
+wife and other slaves, cultivating his father's fields, and gathering
+in his harvest, under the scorching rays of the sun, without half
+enough to eat, or clothes to wear, and at the same time his meat-house
+was filled with bacon and bread stuff; his dairy with butter and
+cheese; his barn with grain, husbanded by the unrequited toil of the
+slaves. And yet if a slave presumed to take a little from the
+abundance which he had made by his own sweat and toil, to supply the
+demands of nature, to quiet the craving appetite which is sometimes
+almost irresistible, it is called stealing by slaveholders.
+
+But I did not regard it as stealing then, I do not regard it as such
+now. I hold that a slave has a moral right to eat drink and wear all
+that he needs, and that it would be a sin on his part to suffer and
+starve in a country where there is a plenty to eat and wear within his
+reach. I consider that I had a just right to what I took, because it
+was the labor of my own hands. Should I take from a neighbor as a
+freeman, in a free country, I should consider myself guilty of doing
+wrong before God and man. But was I the slave of Wm. Gatewood to-day,
+or any other slaveholder, working without wages, and suffering with
+hunger or for clothing, I should not stop to inquire whether my master
+would approve of my helping myself to what I needed to eat or wear.
+For while the slave is regarded as property, how can he steal from his
+master? It is contrary to the very nature of the relation existing
+between master and slave, from the fact that there is no law to punish
+a slave for theft, but lynch law; and the way they avoid that is to
+hide well. For illustration, a slave from the State of Virginia, for
+cruel treatment left the State between daylight and dark, being borne
+off by one of his master's finest horses, and finally landed in
+Canada, where the British laws recognise no such thing as property in
+a human being. He was pursued by his owners, who expected to take
+advantage of the British law by claiming him as a fugitive from
+justice, and as such he was arrested and brought before the court of
+Queen's Bench. They swore that he was, at a certain time, the slave of
+Mr. A., and that he ran away at such a time and stole and brought off
+a horse. They enquired who the horse belonged to, and it was
+ascertained that the slave and horse both belonged to the same
+person. The court therefore decided that the horse and the man were
+both recognised, in the State of Virginia, alike, as articles of
+property, belonging to the same person--therefore, if there was theft
+committed on either side, the former must have stolen off the
+latter--the horse brought away the man, and not the man the horse. So
+the man was discharged and pronounced free according to the laws of
+Canada. There are several other letters published in this work upon
+the same subject, from slaveholders, which it is hardly necessary for
+me to notice. However, I feel thankful to the writers for the
+endorsement and confirmation which they have given to my story. No
+matter what their motives were, they have done me and the anti-slavery
+cause good service in writing those letters--but more especially the
+Gatewood's. Silas Gatewood has done more for me than all the rest. He
+has labored so hard in his long communication in trying to expose me,
+that he has proved every thing that I could have asked of him; and for
+which I intend to reward him by forwarding him one of my books, hoping
+that it may be the means of converting him from a slaveholder to an
+honest man, and an advocate of liberty for all mankind.
+
+The reader will see in the introduction that Wm. Gatewood writes a
+more cautious letter upon the subject than his son Silas. "It is not a
+very easy matter to catch old birds with chaff," and I presume if
+Silas had the writing of his letter over again, he would not be so
+free in telling all he knew, and even more, for the sake of making out
+a strong case. The object of his writing such a letter will doubtless
+be understood by the reader. It was to destroy public confidence in
+the victims of slavery, that the system might not be exposed--it was
+to gag a poor fugitive who had undertaken to plead his own cause and
+that of his enslaved brethren. It was a feeble attempt to suppress the
+voice of universal freedom which is now thundering on every gale. But
+thank God it is too late in the day.
+
+    Go stop the mighty thunder's roar,
+    Go hush the ocean's sound,
+    Or upward like the eagle soar
+    To skies' remotest bound.
+
+    And when thou hast the thunder stopped,
+    And hushed the ocean's waves,
+    Then, freedom's spirit bind in chains,
+    And ever hold us slaves.
+
+    And when the eagle's boldest fest,
+    Thou canst perform with skill,
+    Then, think to stop proud freedom's march,
+    And hold the bondman still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+_Review of my narrative.--Licentiousness a prop of slavery.--A case of
+mild slavery given.--Its revolting features.--Times of my purchase and
+sale by professed Christians.--Concluding remarks._
+
+
+I now conclude my narrative, by reviewing briefly what I have written.
+This little work has been written without any personal aid or a
+knowledge of the English grammer, which must in part be my apology for
+many of its imperfections.
+
+I find in several places, where I have spoken out the deep feelings of
+my soul, in trying to describe the horrid treatment which I have so
+often received at the hands of slaveholding professors of religion,
+that I might possibly make a wrong impression on the minds of some
+northern freemen, who are unacquainted theoretically or practically
+with the customs and treatment of American slaveholders to their
+slaves. I hope that it may not be supposed by any, that I have
+exaggerated in the least, for the purpose of making out the system of
+slavery worse than it really is, for, to exaggerate upon the cruelties
+of this system, would be almost impossible; and to write herein the
+most horrid features of it would not be in good taste for my book.
+
+I have long thought from what has fallen under my own observation
+while a slave, that the strongest reason why southerners stick with
+such tenacity to their "peculiar institution," is because licentious
+white men could not carry out their wicked purposes among the
+defenceless colored population as they now do, without being exposed
+and punished by law, if slavery was abolished. Female virtue could not
+be trampled under foot with impunity, and marriage among the people of
+color kept in utter obscurity.
+
+On the other hand, lest it should be said by slaveholders and their
+apologists, that I have not done them the justice to give a sketch of
+the best side of slavery, if there can be any best side to it;
+therefore in conclusion, they may have the benefit of the following
+case, that fell under the observation of the writer. And I challenge
+America to show a milder state of slavery than this. I once knew a
+Methodist in the state of Ky., by the name of Young, who was the owner
+of a large number of slaves, many of whom belonged to the same church
+with their master. They worshipped together in the same church.
+
+Mr. Young never was known to flog one of his slaves or sell one. He
+fed and clothed them well, and never over-worked them. He allowed each
+family a small house to themselves with a little garden spot, whereon
+to raise their own vegetables; and a part of the day on Saturdays was
+allowed them to cultivate it.
+
+In process of time he became deeply involved in debt by endorsing
+notes, and his property was all advertised to be sold by the sheriff
+at public auction. It consisted in slaves, many of whom were his
+brothers and sisters in the church.
+
+On the day of sale there were slave traders and speculators on the
+ground to buy. The slaves were offered on the auction block one after
+another, until they were all sold before their old master's face. The
+first man offered on the block was an old gray-headed slave by the
+name of Richard. His wife followed him up to the block, and when they
+had bid him up to seventy or eighty dollars one of the bidders asked
+Mr. Young what he could do, as he looked very old and infirm? Mr.
+Young replied by saying, "he is not able to accomplish much manual
+labor, from his extreme age and hard labor in early life. Yet I would
+rather have him than many of those who are young and vigorous; who are
+able to perform twice as much labor--because I know him to be faithful
+and trustworthy, a Christian in good standing in my church. I can
+trust him anywhere with confidence. He has toiled many long years on
+my plantation and I have always found him faithful."
+
+This giving him a good Christian character caused them to run him up
+to near two hundred dollars. His poor old companion stood by weeping
+and pleading that they might not be separated. But the marriage
+relation was soon dissolved by the sale, and they were separated never
+to meet again.
+
+Another man was called up whose wife followed him with her infant in
+her arms, beseeching to be sold with her husband, which proved to be
+all in vain. After the men were all sold they then sold the women and
+children. They ordered the first woman to lay down her child and
+mount the auction block; she refused to give up her little one and
+clung to it as long as she could, while the cruel lash was applied to
+her back for disobedience. She pleaded for mercy in the name of God.
+But the child was torn from the arms of its mother amid the most
+heart-rending shrieks from the mother and child on the one hand, and
+bitter oaths and cruel lashes from the tyrants on the other. Finally
+the poor little child was torn from the mother while she was
+sacrificed to the highest bidder. In this way the sale was carried on
+from beginning to end.
+
+There was each speculator with his hand-cuffs to bind his victims
+after the sale; and while they were doing their writings, the
+Christian portion of the slaves asked permission to kneel in prayer on
+the ground before they separated, which was granted. And while bathing
+each other with tears of sorrow on the verge of their final
+separation, their eloquent appeals in prayer to the Most High seemed
+to cause an unpleasant sensation upon the ears of their tyrants, who
+ordered them to rise and make ready their limbs for the caffles. And
+as they happened not to bound at the first sound, they were soon
+raised from their knees by the sound of the lash, and the rattle of
+the chains, in which they were soon taken off by their respective
+masters,--husbands from wives, and children from parents, never
+expecting to meet until the judgment of the great day. Then Christ
+shall say to the slaveholding professors of religion, "Inasmuch as ye
+did it unto one of the least of these little ones, my brethren, ye did
+it unto me."
+
+Having thus tried to show the best side of slavery that I can conceive
+of, the reader can exercise his own judgment in deciding whether a man
+can be a Bible Christian, and yet hold his Christian brethren as
+property, so that they may be sold at any time in market, as sheep or
+oxen, to pay his debts.
+
+During my life in slavery I have been sold by professors of religion
+several times. In 1836 "Bro." Albert G. Sibley, of Bedford, Kentucky,
+sold me for $850 to "Bro." John Sibley; and in the same year he sold
+me to "Bro." Wm. Gatewood of Bedford, for $850. In 1839 "Bro."
+Gatewood sold me to Madison Garrison, a slave trader, of Louisville,
+Kentucky, with my wife and child--at a depreciated price because I was
+a runaway. In the same year he sold me with my family to "Bro."
+Whitfield, in the city of New Orleans, for $1200. In 1841 "Bro."
+Whitfield sold me from my family to Thomas Wilson and Co., blacklegs.
+In the same year they sold me to a "Bro." in the Indian Territory. I
+think he was a member of the Presbyterian Church. F.E. Whitfield was a
+deacon in regular standing in the Baptist Church. A. Sibley was a
+Methodist exhorter of the M.E. Church in good standing. J. Sibley was
+a class-leader in the same church; and Wm. Gatewood was also an
+acceptable member of the same church.
+
+Is this Christianity? Is it honest or right? Is it doing as we would
+be done by? Is it in accordance with the principles of humanity or
+justice?
+
+I believe slaveholding to be a sin against God and man under all
+circumstances. I have no sympathy with the person or persons who
+tolerate and support the system willingly and knowingly, morally,
+religiously or politically.
+
+Prayerfully and earnestly relying on the power of truth, and the aid
+of the divine providence, I trust that this little volume will bear
+some humble part in lighting up the path of freedom and
+revolutionizing public opinion upon this great subject. And I here
+pledge myself, God being my helper, ever to contend for the natural
+equality of the human family, without regard to color, which is but
+fading _matter_, while _mind_ makes the man.
+
+NEW YORK CITY, _May 1, 1849_.
+
+                                        HENRY BIBB.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  Introduction.     1
+
+  Author's Preface.     12
+
+
+  Chap. I.--
+    Sketch of my Parentage, 15.
+    Early separation from my Mother, 15.
+    Hard Fare, 16.
+    First Experiments at running away, 16.
+    Earnest longing for Freedom, 17.
+    Abhorrent nature of Slavery, 18.
+
+
+  Chap. II.--
+    A fruitless effort for education, 19.
+    The Sabbath among Slaves, 19.
+    Degrading amusements, 19.
+    Why religion is rejected, 20.
+    Condition of poor white people, 20.
+    Superstition among slaves, 21.
+    Education forbidden, 25.
+
+
+  Chap. III.--
+    My Courtship and Marriage, 26.
+    Change of owner, 31.
+    My first born, 32.
+    Its sufferings, 32.
+    My wife abused, 33.
+    My own anguish, 33.
+
+
+  Chap. IV.--
+    My first adventure for liberty, 34.
+    Parting Scene, 34.
+    Journey up the river, 35.
+    Safe arrival in Cincinnati, 36.
+    Journey to Canada, 37.
+    Suffering from cold and hunger, 38.
+    Denied food and shelter by some, 38.
+    One noble exception, 38.
+    Subsequent success, 39.
+    Arrival at Perrysburgh, 39.
+    Obtain employment through the winter, 39.
+    My return to Kentucky to get my family, 40.
+
+
+  Chap. V--
+    My safe arrival at Kentucky, 41.
+    Surprise and delight to find my family, 41.
+    Plan for their escape, projected, 42.
+    Return to Cincinnati, 43.
+    My betrayal by traitors, 43.
+    Imprisonment in Covington, Kentucky, 45.
+    Return to slavery, 46.
+    Infamous proposal of the slave catchers, 47.
+    My reply, 47.
+
+
+  Chap. VI.--
+    Arrival at Louisville, Kentucky, 50.
+    Efforts to sell me, 50.
+    Fortunate escape from the man-stealers in the public street, 51.
+    I return to Bedford, Ky., 55.
+    The rescue of my family again attempted, 55.
+    I started alone expecting them to follow, 2.
+  After waiting some months I resolve to go back again to Kentucky, 57.
+
+
+  Chap. VII.--
+    My safe return to Kentucky, 58.
+    The perils I encountered there, 59.
+    Again betrayed, and taken by a mob, ironed and imprisoned, 60.
+    Narrow escape from death, 62.
+    Life in a slave prison, 63.
+
+
+  Chap. VIII.--
+    Character of my prison companions, 65.
+    Jail breaking contemplated, 66.
+    Defeat of our plan, 67.
+    My wife and child removed, 67.
+    Disgraceful proposal to her, and cruel punishment, 67.
+    Our departure in a coffle for New Orleans, 68.
+    Events of our journey, 69.
+
+
+  Chap. IX.--
+    Our arrival and examination at Vicksburg, 70.
+    An account of slave sales, 71.
+    Cruel punishment with the paddle, 71.
+    Attempts to sell myself by Garrison's direction, 72.
+    Amusing interview with a slave buyer, 73.
+    Deacon Whitfield's examination, 74.
+    He purchases the family, 75.
+    Character of the Deacon, 75.
+
+
+  Chap. X.--
+    Cruel treatment on Whitfield's farm, 77.
+    Exposure of the children, 77.
+    Mode of extorting extra labor, 78.
+    Neglect of the sick, 80.
+    Strange medicine used, 80.
+    Death of our second child, 81.
+
+
+  Chap. XI.--
+    I attend a prayer meeting, 82.
+    Punishment therefor threatened, 82.
+    I attempt to escape alone, 82.
+    My return to take my family, 84.
+    Our sufferings, 85.
+    Dreadful attack of wolves, 85.
+    Our recapture, 88.
+
+
+  Chap. XII.--
+    My sad condition before Whitfield, 89.
+    My terrible punishment, 89.
+    Incidents of a former attempt to escape, 91.
+    Jack at a farm house, 92.
+    Six pigs and a turkey, 93.
+    Our surprise and arrest, 94.
+
+
+  Chap. XIII.--
+    I am sold to gamblers, 96.
+    They try to purchase my family, 97.
+    Our parting scene, 98.
+    My good usage, 99.
+    I am sold to an Indian, 100.
+    His confidence in my integrity manifested, 100.
+
+
+  Chap. XIV--
+    Character of my Indian Master, 101.
+    Slavery among the Indians less cruel, 101.
+    Indian carousal, 102.
+    Enfeebled health of my Indian Master, 102.
+    His death, 102.
+    My escape, 103.
+    Adventure in a wigwam, 103.
+    Successful progress toward liberty, 104.
+
+
+  Chap. XV
+    Adventure on the Prairie, 106.
+    I borrow a horse without leave, 108.
+    Rapid traveling one whole night, 108.
+    Apology for using other men's horses, 109.
+    My manner of living on the road, 109.
+
+
+  Chap. XVI.
+    Stratagem to get on board the steamer, 111.
+    My Irish friends, 112.
+    My success in reaching the Ohio, 113.
+    Reflections on again seeing Kentucky, 113.
+    I get employment in a hotel, 113.
+    My fright at seeing the gambler who sold me, 114.
+    I leave Ohio with Mr. Smith, 115.
+    His letter, 115.
+    My education, 116.
+
+
+  Chap. XVII.
+    Letter from W.H. Gatewood, 117.
+    My reply, 118.
+    My efforts as a public lecturer, 119.
+    Singular incident in Steubenville, 119.
+    Meeting with a friend of Whitfield in Michigan, 121.
+    Outrage on a canal packet, 122.
+    Fruitless efforts to find my wife, 124.
+
+
+  Chap. XVIII.
+    My last effort to recover my family, 126.
+    Sad tidings of my wife, 126.
+    Her degradation, 126.
+    I am compelled to regard our relation as dissolved for ever, 127.
+
+
+  Chap. XIX.
+    Comments on S. Gatewood's letter about slaves stealing, 130.
+    Their conduct vindicated, 131.
+    Comments on W. Gatewood's letter, 132.
+
+
+  Chap. XX.
+    Review of my narrative, 134.
+    Licentiousness a prop of Slavery, 134.
+    A case of mild slavery given, 135.
+    Its revolting features, 135.
+    Times of my purchase and sale by professed Christians, 136.
+    Concluding remarks, 137.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative of the Life and Adventures
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