Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-02-13
AN ARKANSAS TRAGEDY.

ardly murder was perpetrdtcd on the vile OF
Shadrdch Nichols and their daughter, aged
eight years, and a son four years old on Ilick-
DRY Ridge, a short distance from Helena,
Ark. while Mr.. Nichols was on "A hunting en-
petition, Suspicion fell on Nelson, a yell
low boy, belonging to Mr.. Bowman. who is
a near neighbor to Mr.. Nichols. The boy
was brought to town and lodged in Jail, where
he confessed his guilt. We let the Helena
Journal tell the rest of this dreadful tale:
The boy stated that he first went to the
house of Mr.. Nichols a week ago list Mon
day, looked through the window and saw that
VI s. Nichols hal not retired but was sitting
up engaged in sewing. He then returned
home, and after waiting sono time, so that
she could be asleep, he went again and MUIR
dered her; breaking her skull with a board,
and then killed the two children because they
awoke! There were still two children in the
house, one about eight years old, a daughter
Of ]. Sebastian, Esq. and niece to the lady
murdered, and the other a little son Of Mr..
Nichols. The fend then passed his hand
over the faces Of these two TO see if they were
awake.
The boy was still asleep, and as he sup
posed the little girl was also, as she novel
not; but in this he was mistaken, as the little
tie child had courage and presence Of
mind enough TO lie perfectly still, watch her
| opportunity and slip from the bed and escape
10 her fathers house, which was not very far
and give the alarm. Before any one could
reach the house, however, the assassin had
fed.
But the most hellish part remains yet to be
told. This incarnaie heli-hcuEd r~avisErd the
lady after breaking her skull! Hard as this is
to believe, 1t is 10 fiction. no phantom OF m
agin1tion; would to God it was. The dead
body was examined by Indies, and the above
is the verdict rendered to the Coroner.
The people of Hickory Ridge, on hearing
all the facts, became furious. The cry of
'hurn the murderer ran from one to the other.
They suddenly became calm, determined and
r~esolnte as to their purposes, which must
have been still more aw ful to the mutderous
wretch, could he have observed it. They
armed themselves with gun and knife, came
TO town last Saturday, coolly and deliberate
~ broke open the Ill door, knocked of the
chains OF the prisoner, and with a rope round
his neck compelled him to run alongside their
horses to the scene Of the murder distance
Of about 20 miles.
Tney then formed a Court, called a Jury,
went through 4 trial, and found the murderer
guilty. He WAS 10 be burned! Thu next
day Sunday they chained him to tree, had
the wood around him 81 as 10 ToIst him by de-
grees, aud had kinlled the fire. But this was
too terrible 4 death for the spcctIturS 10 wit
ness even on that bloody Gend. The cry a.
rose to hang him; and he too joined the cry.
They did hang him on the gatepost-they
hung him covered with the sam ebloohy shirt
in which he committed the awful deed
COMMENTS.
The horrible incidents related above have
suggested a few thoughts in relation to. the
probable motives which led to the perpetal-
ton Of the act, the character of the crime, and
the amount Of guilt incurred by the actor.
The act was committed by "a yellow boy
bshnging to Mr.. Bowman" 1t seems then
by the plantation phraseology here used that
the murderer was a slave; that although Del
ty had enstamped its glorious impress upon
his soul, he was held and regarded by those
among whom he lived as an article of mer-
chandize. That although created with up
warl tendencies, with keen susceptibility
of pain and pleasure, of Joy and sorrow; with
feelings, which if rightly directed would
make earth a paradise to him, if perverted, a
hell; having in short all the attributes with
which he is invested upon whom rests the
mantle of humanity; those aspirations were
repressed, those feelings blunted, those glo-
rious attributes crushed and fettered; and his
deIredltion not only justified by the laws of
the land in which he lived, but sanctifed by
the churcI, Of that land. He had doubtless
felt the bitterness Of his lot, had felt the iron
OF slavery eater his soul; and if oppression
IN likes even a wise man mad, would it not
light up the lurrid fires Of vengeance in the
bosom Of one who had been dejlrel from
knowledge that he miyht be more readily en-
slavedl-If the impotcnt worm turns upon
the heel that crashes it, will not the unregcn-
crate heart Of the down-troddcn man turn up
on the opprossor! If we could but raise the
curtain which shuts out his sorrows from the
glze OF tho world, ii we could but look int o
the depths of that anguiSh-riyen heart and see
the emotions which filled it almost to burst
Ing, we should then be able to appreciate in
'Dn) m3Islis the mltiysi when prompt
81 the acts of which he was guilty. We
should perchance learn that his wife had been
torn from his embrace and forced to pander
to the lusts of a brutal tyrant; or that his
Laughter had been dragged from his lowly
nut to be- the paramour of her master, or som
other masters friendsi that his son had been