Viewing page 93 of 264

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

murdered without provocation a poor black woman, this with the circumstances of their visiting & calling for the man last night alarmed & terrified them so, that they fled from the place this morning. They were advised to do so by the white lady of the house where they were hired. These are the facts as narrated by the man himself, he came to me for advice & protection. A number of circumstances induce me to suspect that the man to whom they were hired (their former owner) had a hand in this affair & that the design of the parties last night was not to murder but to frighten them off. It seems they had a verbal agreement with this man to cultivate his farm for one third of the crop & paid themselves - They cultivated the crop, laid it by, & think it will yield about 20 bags of cotton, this will give them 6⅔ bales for their share & will probably net them $600 - Now it may have been an artifice of the Employer to get possession of their cotton, all sorts of tricks & chicanery have been resorted to throughout this section to defraud the poor Negroes out of the fruits of their toil - It was a touching & mournful sight to see these poor creatures trudging along footsore & weary. With little bundles of clothes in their hands, their Earthly all fleeing as for life. They have no money, no provisions, no shelter but are either driven by a murderous crew or frightened away by a dishonest villain to starve. The policy of the people in many places, is to free the Negroes in a starving condition that they may cry out "See what freedom has done" Many after the crops were cultivated, drove the Negroes off without any pay for the services performed by them - The Bureau is in the hands of old pro-slavery secessionists, who look after the interests of the White man, not those of the freedmen. It is so I mean in some places & this is one of them - Will President Johnson's policy succeed? If so: I fear it may ruin this whole country.