The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-07-03

Losowoop. SUMTER 8 G. luna 90

LoNGwooD, SUMTER, s. c., June 90
Messrs. Editors: An editorial in q lato number
OF THE NEWS contains just and accurate q
diagnosis of the condition Of the white population
OF this country, that have thought it not amiss
to furnish you with a few facts to illustrate and
corroborate what you have written. If we had
'ohHe population only, of course tho same laws
and courts, whether controlled by despotism or
regulated by justice, would be applied to all alike,
and however crushed and wronged our people
might feel, the peculiar difficulties under which
We now suffer would vanish. But thero is a
mtIed population, 30 intertwined in tho relations
Of capital and labor, of employer and employee,
that it is impossible to separate them. And from
the new condition Of freedom, to which some of
the freedmen in their ignorance attach undue and
unreasonable Importance, they sometimes pre-
sumo to act and speak in manner which neither
the law nor society would tolerate in ,ohite men.
Hence collisions occur-and what then2 We shall
see.
small farmer living eleven miles below the
town Of Sumter, and depending almost if not en-
trely on his own labor for the working of his
crop, had occasion not long since to reprove
negro woman in his employ; and receiving from
her great deal Of impertinence and abuse rush.
cd upon her and stabbed her in the neck with a
knife. Tho woman fed, and thus terminated the
scene. The farmer is a ve''y small man in bad
health, and the woman is muscular, strong and
well-developed. Whether in committing the as
sault he was prompted by fear or ungovernable
passion. know not: or whether there were any
circumstances to excuse, palliate, or Justify the
act. But he and the woman have since been ar
rested by military order from Columbia, and
conveyed to the capital under guard of cavalry
His crop is In such a condition that, even if unmo-
lested, it would have required his unremitting
efforts to keep down tho grass, and what will be
its appearance when, il ever, he returns may we'll
be imagined. In the meantime his unoffending
wife and children are left in On absolutely expos
ed and unprotected state diving as they do in the
woods, and at some distance from any public
road), with minds narrowed by the widest appre-
tensions as to the result OF his trial. at point 30
remote from his home and the scene of the oc-
currence. And as the country mails have not
been re-established, they must probably remain
under the torture OF ignorance until the final
award s made known.
Another case On plantation some miles east
OF the town which is smanaged by an overseer, and
the owner Of which is absent in Florida, where he
has an interest to which he gives his personal at
tention, negro woman working in the field was
reprimanded by the G4erseer for slighting her
work, whereupon she raised her hoe to strike
him. he drew his pistol and fred, the ball striking
the hoe, and glancng, cut the skin of the woman's
hand and arm, and during further scuf1e which
ensued, the pistol fred again, accidentally it
is said, but in neither inieting any injury of
consequence. The parties to this affray have also
beon arrested and taken to Columbia. What be-
comes Of the plantation and the crops in the
meantime2 The manager is gone-the woman
feldhand is gone-other hands may be required
| as witnesses-from the distance and the usual
delays, some time will elapse before they return
the grass is growing, and certainly it is fair to
presume that If the negroes were slighting their
work while the manager was present, now that
he is away, they will be more apt to indulge in
sleeping in the sunshine than working with the
hoe. Under such circumstances, and with such a
prospect, what would you give for the orop2 In
my opinion it would not be safe for you to bid
very high.
And yet another The superstitions peculiar
to the African race still exist among some of the
freedmen. On turpentine farm in this District,
negro woman dreamed that another negro wo-
man had killed her child. For the purpose of
averting the imaginary catastrophe by the &C.
we're punishment death of the latter, tho
dreamer informed the husband of the accused
that his wife was constantly guilty of infdelity
with number OF the freedmen on the place,
naming one in particular, as the most frequent
in his amatory visits. Instead Of the husband
beating, sending away, or killing his uife as
she had hoped, he obtained the assistance Of his
brother, and the two caught the alleged offender,
tied him up, and boat him almost to death. The
sufferer. in a very bloody condition, came to town
seeking redress; but the garrison had left, and
there was neither officer, guard, or Provost court
| to take the matter in hand. The cavalry, how
ever have since taken him and his castigators to
look at the ruins of our once beautiful capital,
and in the meantime the turpentine farm loses
three hands.
Gases like these might be multiplied; but such
as have been adduced are sufficient to show under
what wretched embsrrassments We live. Con-
slider what an interruption all this must be 70 the
(now more than every vitality important industrial
pursuits Of the countryl Labor and its manage
ment Withdrawn at the very time when most need
ed, and for period which must be indefinite and
uncertainl True, 1t is not quite as bad as an ukase
transferring the accused offender to Siberia, but
I have heard freedmen say that they would rather