Viewing page 228 of 260

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

were stripped and flogged by the jailer, receiving 10 stripes each which was done in the presence of John Edwards and     Kellum - White -  The sentence (See Exhibit A.) was in addition to the imprisonment, twenty lashes each, "to be inflicted on them at some convenient time during their imprisonment."  

This was the only time they were flogged.  They were afterwards released from prison, on the 6th of January- that being 15 days after the mailing of the pardon and 13 days after it had been delivered to the store of Mr Capps who in all probability forwarded it to the Court House within two days.-

From my visit to the locality I am strongly impressed with the belief that the pardon was maliciously suppressed in order to give the freedmen as much punishment as possible.  The haste with which the punishments was inflicted immediately after the newspaper notice of pardon is a token of animus.

It is also probable that but for the interference of Mr. Jackson and the Asst. Supt. of the Bureau,  the illegal imprisonment would have been continued much longer.
 
The managing man of the county Mr. Woodhouse is represented as being extremely harsh and bitter toward freedmen and loyalists, and the few loyal people in the neighborhood consider him to be at the bottom of this matter.  Indeed the whole case of the Vaughans* seems to have been one of gross injustice and class tyranny from the first accusation through all the stages of trial down to the punishment after pardon.

It is quite probable that the pardon was wilfully suppressed and disregarded - but I can furnish no direct evidence                     

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-10-23 10:25:11