Viewing page 24 of 289

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

7 [[strikethrough]] 9 [[/strikethrough]]
Specification. Aiding and abetting and consenting and assisting in the formation of a military company for the purpose of murdering the white population and seizing their lands. This in Bunkum (!) and Dark Corner (!!) Districts of Clarke County, Ga., eight to fifteen miles distant from Athens, on or about November 30, 1867!!
(Signed) George E Griffith

There had been so many complaints made to me of apprehended negro insurrections, so many appeals to send troops here and there to keep down the expected riot, that I determined to give the matter the fullest and most thorough examination. I separated the witnesses, removing from the Courtroom all except the one testifying, and subjected each in turn to as searching a cross-examination as I was able. A dozen of the prominent men of Watkinsville were present, and some of these assisted, at my invitation, in endeavoring to elicit the truth by questioning the witnesses. These were three in number. Their statements were substantially as follows:

They (the witnesses) were taken from their homes on Saturday at night Dec 2d, were tied together, led out half a mile or so to the bank of a deep stream, made to kneel on the brink, blindfolded, and in this posture made to kiss the bible and swear a solemn oath to tell all they knew about the rising, firearms were discharged over their heads, and many threats were used to extort information. The first witness testified that he was so alarmed that he thought the only chance of saving his life was to say what the white men evidently wanted him to say, and so he said "yes" to their questions because they would not take "no" for an answer; that he found it was of no use to tell them the truth, and so he made a lie up "out of whole cloth", to use his own expression, without a word of truth