The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-06-14

Barherous Superstition in Louis
iana-Narrow Escape from Death.
[From the New Orleans Patriot.l

GFrom the New Orleans Patriot.l
We learn from the Houma Patrio
of Saturday last, that the colored PEG
pie of Terrebonne are very seriously
afflicted with a belief in Voudouism
and that on the previous Tuesday
Wash Morgan, who was suspected o.
having voudoued George Furbin, only
saved his life by breaking through q
crowd of forty or fifty men who had
assembled to assist and witness his ex'
ecution, and hiding himself in the
swamp in water up to his neck, for
twenty-four hours. From the account
given of the affair, it seems that Nor.
! gan, who is more intelligent than most
, OF his race and devotes his time to
/ his home and his family, instead OF
visiting around among his people, is
| considered somewhat singular.
On the 7th inst Morgan, with his
family, visited the plantation of Messrs.
Lapene d Buron, where, among 9TH
ers he met George Furbin. The sub
ject of writing coming up in the course
of conversation, Morgan remarked to
Furbin that his little son could write
better than he iFurbin) could ; and
to show with what facility the child
could write, he took a needle from his
vest, and, taking Furbin's hand, went
through the motion of writing across
it without pricking the skin. Tuesday
morning On rising, Furbin complained
that he could not use his arm. AT
ouce the hue and cry was raised by
young and old that he was voudoued
by Morgan.
The same day a party of eight or
ten men, armed with guns and pistols,
went after Morgan, who lives on Mr..
a. Leret's plantation. Two went out
to his house, the others being con-
cealed from view, and called for Nor
gan. His wife informed the two who
called for Morgan to "come out" that
her husband was in bed sick with fe-
yer, and invited them to take seats on
the gallery. This they declined,
and repeated their demand for Nor
gan TO come out. Hearing this he
came to the door, and asked their bu-
siness. He was told that they wanted
him to come out OH the road. At
this those concealed came in sight
Seeing so many men. all armed, Nor
gan retreated into his room, followed
By the crowd, who commenced an in
discriminate firing at him. He then
escaped from the house, and made for
the swamp, but vas pursued, captured,
placed in q cart and taken to the plan
tation where it was charged that he
had voudoued Furbin. On the way
he asked to be taken to Houna, where
he would be tried if he had done any.
thing wrong al the court was in ses-
sion. His captors cursed Houma, and
informed the prisoner that they had a
law OF their own
On arriving on the plantation he
was locked up, aRd left for a short
time, while a crowd was being assem-
bled to aid and abet in his execution.
On being brought out, and seeing that
the determination was to take his life,
Morgan broke from his captors and
succeeded in reaching the swamp,
where he remained, as before stated,
for twenty-four hours. On Thursday
morning he appeared before District
Attorney shelburne, and made his
statement Six of the parties impli-
Gated in this affair have been a%rraigned,
and are TO be tried on the charge of
assault with intent to commit muir
der.
An illustrative of this relic of Afri-
can barbarism, we give the following
letter to the New York Herald, dated
Vicksburg, Mississippi, May %, 1871:
Vouduism is lot to be found in the
dictionaries ; but it is to be found in
the South, and is near akin to the tet-
isbism of tho Vest Indies, Hayti, etc.
1t is the religion of a large number Of
the race lately elevated to rule its
former rulers. 1t has no churches, no
articles of religion, no liturgy-in fact,
not anything tangible. Its origin is
probably as unknown as that of the
Ku Klux, its beliefs as subtle as Hor
ace Greeley's philosophy, aud its
practices as absurd and whimsical and
as damnable and shocking az KIN igno-
rant, superstitious people can make it.
n!There is something rich and rare
going on mp here" said "one to the
manor born" to me a day or two since.
"What is it !"' "Fondouism." What
is that ?" "Come and see."
|. We passed up q narrow flight of
stairs, through a dark ball, and step
ped into the Office of
AJUSTICE OF THE PEACE.
This is the court 70 I'M of Justice
Parker, and he is trying the negro no
mau there upon a charge of poisoning
her husband. Justice Parker is as
black as the C of spades, with ratll-
NJ nm intnlIinont ookin face hut an