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of the negroes) broke into the outhouses of a man named Wm Harmon who resides in Floyd Co, in the night and stole several articles, the white man getting the benefit of most of them; 

The negroes were shortly afterwards arrested and confined in the jail; a short time after their examination before the County Court, one of them while the jailor was doing something in his cell struck the jailor on the head with a piece of iron fracturing his skull and then walked out of the jail and has not since been heard of. The other negro (whose name is David Helms) instead of making his escape remained and assisted the jailors family in attending to his wound;

Helms afterwards had another opportunity to escape while they were making repairs upon the jail but he did not take it; he was in jail nearly six months and behaved quite well while there;

The evidence against Helms consisted only of a confession that he had been with the party, and as he had been in jail some time and was evidently drawn into the affair by the white man and had always borne a good character, it was supposed that he would not be sentenced to over three months in the county jail. The jury however, sentenced him  

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-04-26 14:45:31