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0639

OF THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU. 11

"There are several cases of robbery of colored persons by returned rebels in uniform, in Russellville, Kentucky. The town marshal takes all arms from returned colored soldiers, and is very prompt in shooting the blacks whenever an opportunity occurs."

"I have a case in hand to-day where a white man knocked down an old man eighty years of age, because he asked for and urged the necessity of his pay for cutting eight cords of wood."

"There has been a large number of cases of women and children being driven from home on account of their husbands enlisting."

"It is dangerous for colored people to go into Logan, Todd, Barren, and the north part of Warren counties, after their children."

"A freedmen's wife left her former master and came to live with him, (her husband.) She was followed and shot at."

"A furloughed soldier of the 12th United States colored artillery was murdered at Auburn, Kentucky, while sitting on his bed. The civil authorities do nothing in the case."

"An old freedmen in Allen county was shot and killed because he would not allow himself to be whipped by a young man."

"Major Lawrence, of the 17th Kentucky cavalry, reports that a negro was shot in one of the streets of Russellville last night. No cause whatever for it. Several negroes came to me to know what they should do, saying they had been robbed by a party of men wearing the Confederate States uniform. The judges and justices of the peace in almost every instance are rebels of very strong prejudices, who will not even take notice of the most hideous outrages, and if a case is turned over to them they will not administer justice. The action of the courts in southern Kentucky indicates that the day is far distant when a negro can secure justice at the hands of the civil law."

"In Grant county a band of outlaws, styling themselves 'moderators,' made an attack upon the colored citizens for the purpose of driving them from the State. They went late in the night to their homes, took them from their beds, stripped and whipped them until they were unable to walk."

Colonel William P. Thomasson, of Louisville, Kentucky, writes that "outrages and wrongs upon freedmen are numerous, especially upon returned colored soldiers. A few nights since a colored soldier just mustered out, with his money in his pocket and a new suit of clothes on his back, was waiting for the cars at Deposit station, a few miles from Louisville; four or five young rowdies of the place set upon him to rob him. He was a light-colored man, and one of the robbers said to his fellows, 'He is a white man; let him alone.' A dispute arose as to his color, and he was taken into a grocery, a lamp was lit, and the question of his color settled. He was then robbed of his money, arms, and clothing, was stripped to his shirt, and told to run. He did run, and was shot at while escaping, and the shot took effect in his hand."

I am in daily receipt of similar reports from our superintendents, judges, sheriffs, and military officers. Some of the writers dare not to be known as giving this information, fearing assassination as the consequence.

For narrating at a freedmen's commission anniversary meeting in Cincinnati, on the 18th ultimo, what I had myself seen of brutalities in the "Blue Grass," I have been denounced in the Kentucky legislature as a liar and slanderer. A committee has been appointed to investigate the matter. I have furnished them the names of witnesses, and requested that their powers be enlarged, and they authorized to investigate the condition of the freedmen throughout the State; but I have good reason for believing that the committee will simply make a report that General Fisk is a great liar, and should be removed. from office, &c. It is well to remember that a more select number of vindictive, pro-slavery, rebellious legislators cannot be found than the majority of the Kentucky legislature. The President of the United States was denounced in the senate as a