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Some weeks ago a colored man was locked up in the jail at Fluvanna on a charge, as was supposed of being a fugitive from justice in Richmond. His case was brought to the notice of the court and on inquiry of the jailer what the man was charged with, it was ascertained that he had no mittimus had ever been returned but he stated to the court that the officer who brought the prisoner to the stated that Justice Clark had committed him.

Mr Justice Clark was sent for, who said he had issued a warrant, but the prisoner had never been before him & he knew nothing about it. 

Many of these things occur, I presume, in consequence of the ignorance and incapacity of officials, but such ignorance and carelessness is utterly inexcusable not to say criminal, leading as it does to the most reckless disregard of the rights and liberties of colored citizens.

The prisoner was discharged, and if these freedmen had the means and the intelligence necessary to prosecute actions for damages, and could find upright juries to assess them, many of them would soon be in the possession of a snug property. And yet the white citizens of Fluvanna County seeing these things coolly turn to the freedmen and undertake to convince them they are their best friends, and that their rights & liberties will be perfectly safe in the hands of their old masters, if they will only give to the whites exclusive civil and political power in the state.

A case was tried in the same court last week and resulted in conviction and a sentence of ten years imprisonment. The case was that of Willis Fowler a freedman, who was tried in this same court, last March for burning two barns, and convicted at that time & sentenced to three years for each barn. The case was before the judge of the Circuit Court in April, and a new trial was ordered. 

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Unsure words put in brackets {...} Edited, completed. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-05-12 17:28:32 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-05-12 20:51:23 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-05-13 10:50:17.