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Statement of George S. Rew J.P.
"...On the 29th and 30th of June last several freedman made complaint before me that a large number of white persons five of whose names were given, had, being themselves armed, broken into the homes of the complainants and taken away their arms and ammunition. That knives had been held by the whites at the throats of the complainants until they told them where their arms were secreted, accompanied with threats to kill them- One of the complainants George Phillips was also beaten- I refused to give them the warrant applied for because my neighbors were armed and excited. I was intimidated by my neighbors from the discharge of my duty. I told the negroes that if I gave them the warrant it would be the worse for them for they might be shot in the dark and in all probability all their houses would be torn down and it might be as bad for me. This was the second time they came to me. about the middle of the next week after they first came. 
I understood that Justice Dix did issue a warrant and that a hearing was to take place at Woodstock on July the 14th. I did not go. In that afternoon a colored man named Jesse Strand came running to my home for protection also another colored man Henry Mason. I thought Jesse was dying. He fell down fainting from exhaustion in his flight and I had him carried in my home. Those men were pursued by a large number of white men, about thirty. The woods were full of them. I saw a number of them, they were pursuing the negroes to shoot them. The men remained in my house until the soldiers came. They would have been murdered but for my protection-

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-05 07:00:48