The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1857-08-05
NEGRO RIOTS IN EVANSVILLE,
- INDIANA

NEGRO RIOTS IN EVANSVILLE,
- INDIANA.
The Evansville Qnd .Journal~of the
9th ult., has an account of some serious
Negro riots which lately occurred in that
city. 1t says:
Our town and vicinity have been under
an intense excitement since Thursday last,
growing out of the negro violence commits
ted on the Edmunds family in the Bayou.
The admission of the negro to bail, and a
long series of ofenses which their neigh
bors have been treasuring up against the
colony of blacks, who live in the bottom,
some five or six miles below town, had
aroused the people of the neighborhood
to discrimination to get rid of the clan
of blacks, at all hazards; and on Friday
night preconcerted attack was made on
them and their dwellings by body of
white men gathered-no one knows
where-numbering fifty or seyenty-fye.
The negroes, it appears, were prepared for
them, and had armed themselves and loop
holed their cabins. Which party made
the first assault or fired the first gun is
not known. About twelve o'clock at
night brisk fusilade was opened and kept
up for some minutes, after which rush
was made at the house, and the door broken
in, when hand to hand struggle ensued,
in which Bowie-knives clubs and cleavers
were the weapons used. Many on both
sides were severely cut and beaten. A
man by the name of Alexander Maddux
received shree cuts in the head, the shoul-
der and arm. Another man, by the name
of Joseph Glass, received ball in the
head. Glass is reported dead, and Mad
dux is in q very critical situation. A
German was shot in the thigh, and had
one of his fingers shot off. Many others
were slightly wounded.
Both parties were seriously beaten in
the engagement, but we have not heard of
any fatal wounds except those mentioned.
An old black woman, the mother of the
family, received severe blow upon the
head from gun-stock, and black boy
was knocked down with pistol barrel
One white man was severely cut on the
head from blow with cleaver, which
left a large lock of his hair and pool of
blood on the floor. Lyle's house is half a
mile from the main road, in secluded
spot in the woods. At the time of the
attack the blacks say there were bat FIVE
or six black men in the house, the other
inmates were eight or ten women and chill
dren. The house exhibited the marks of
rife balls and charges of shot in four or
Eve different places. The door, which
was strongly fastened, was beaten in by a
fence-rail.. The negroes declare they did
not fire till after the door was forced open.
The other party say the persons shot re-
ceived their wounds outside the house and
before the door was forced in.
The excitement in Knoxville, on the
receipt of this news, was intense, and an
organization was Immediately formed to
drive off or exterminate the blacks, who
form a community Of one hundred and
fifty or two hundred in the bottom.
! Several judicial citizens addressed anote
to Sheriff Gavitt, who, aided by Sheriff
Hall and Sheriff Mcbride, repaired pri-
yately to the cabins of the blacks in anti
cipation of the movements of the whites,
and induced the offending negroes to place
themselves under their charge, and they
were brought to the city in the afternoon
and placed in secure quarters, and out
of harms way. The community by this
judicious movement, well executed, have
been spared painful and bloody tragedy.
These sad events will drive
the negroes from their old homes, as their
longer residence in the bottom will hardly
be tolerated by the people who have been
so terribly excited against them.