The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1871-09-21
RADICALiSM IN NORTH CAROLINA.
Forcing the Negroes to Vote the Grant
Ticket.
Rocky Mount, y. C. aug. 3O) Correspondence of
.ba SuD

Rocky Mount, y. c. aug. 30) Correspondence of
the New York Sun.
To show up the Ku.Klux bill in its true
colors as powerful political engine to be
welded by the President for private pur-
poses, let us see what class of citizens are
coerced il exercising their rights of citi-
zenship. That sword is said TO be dan
gerous one which cuts both ways A
large majority of the negroes in North
Carolina are copyrighted in the eastern
counties, where the soil is more fertile,
cotton is grown, and wages are higher.
The whites preponderate in the western
counties, yet United States troops are al-
WAYS sent to Alamance and other western
counties, to keep straight men who have
always been accustomed to the bullet,
while in the east the negro neophytes
need no protection.
Does it not occur to the most superficial
thinker that ignorant, poor, thriftless
blacks, recently enfranchised, would need
more protection at the ballot-bOx than the
whites? Then why are the troops dis
posed as they are? The conclusion is in
evitable The negroes are swayed by the
otficehOlders, who in turn bend the preg
nant hinges of the knee" to Gen. Grant.
that thrift may follow fawning." If in
timidation at the ballot-box prevails any
where in North Carolina, and the pro.
tecting presence Of the soldiers is required,
then eastern or negro Carolina is the place ;
for if a negro should dare vote the con-
sentative ticket in the negro counties, he
would do so at the peril Of his life. Many
instances of scourging are known. Two
only will be mentioned, as they found
publicity through the courts, and the
trials were held in the presence of the
writer.
One occurred near Stantonsburg in
Wilson county. A negro with large
family, whom his individual exertions
were inadequate to support, and who was
generously assisted by his employer, had
the temerity, notwithstanding the threats
made against him by his colored brethren,
instigated by the white office seekers, to
vote with his employer, a Mr.. Barnes.
The next night he was visited by twenty.
five stalwart blacks, grotesquely painted
ard bearing eaol bundle of rods.
After terrifying the victims family,
cursing, abusing, and threatening to kill
them, they stripped him Of his shirt and
| drawers, and then dragged HIM to the
woods. Here they tied him, and then pro-
ceeded to administer the most unmerciful
castigation on his poor back.
The duty of tlogging was too onerous for
one man, SO one would whip until he was
tired, and then fresh man would take the
place Of the exhausted one, and so On until
all had played proportionate part. More
dead than alive, this almost inanimate
mass of human gore gasped promise
that he would henceforth vote with then
| and then these Ienominating agents de
| sisted.
Near Battleboro, in Edgecombe county
colored man was surrounded in his corn
field by select committee of Unior
| Leaguers. Without stating the why's and
wherefores, he was rudely torn from hi:
work, and carried under arrest to Battles
boro. He besought his captors to allow
MIN to see his family and tell them where
he was going, so a. to save them all anx
iety. Ee was told to I" shut up his mouth
or he'd get busted" He was hauled VI
before the political inquisition until ht
was at length inundated into promise
to support the Grant ticket, and released
These instances are now matters o
record, and can be seen in the clerks offices
Of Nash and Wilson counties, and slsc
IN Edgecoube county, where the parties
were tried.
Just before the late election coloret