Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-08-04
Terrorism in South Carolina.
FIENDIsH ATROCITIES OF THE Ku'KLU

| Terrorism In South Carolina.
FIENpIsH ATROCITIES OF THE Ku.KLUx.
One Of the subcommittee on the Ku-
klux outrages who have been at work in
South Carolina, have unearthed some OF
the most fiendish Ku-klux atrocities in
the annals of crime They first visited
the capital, Columbia. More than a
hundred refugees, who had fed from vio-
lence in various counties, were there, but
after examining the witnesses for two
DAYS, the committee determined to APP
proach more closely to the scenes of al
legged violence, and went to Spartans-
burg. They expected to remain there
three or four days, but continued eleven.
When the news of their presence got
abroad through Spartansburg county the
white aud colored victims of violence
came in by scores every day and from all
directions. Murders and cruel whip
pings by Ku-klux bands had so terrified
them in many neighborhoods that nearly
every negro and republican white man
had slept at night in the woods for months
They showed scarified backs, gun-shut,
wounds, MANNED ears and other proofs of
cruelties which they had suffered In
Limestone Spring township 11S cases of
whipping were proved. The committee
awoke every morning to find in the yard
of the hotel a new crowd of victims of
the Ku-klux, some of them being white
men who had endured wrongs which can
not be described with decencY After
being whipped the victims, if well known
persons, were often ordered under penal
ty of death to publish a card renouncing
the republican party. In file of the
Spartan, South Carolina, Democratic
newspaper, AZ such cards were found re-
Gently published.
AT Unionsvile the committee remain
ed two days. Not an avowed white re-
publican was found in the place, though
members of the committee were privately
assured by few that they would &C
know ledge themselves such if protected.
The terror Of the negroes was universal.
The last election was carried by repub-
lican majority, but the republican coun-
ty officers received Xu-klux notices, and
all resigned or fed The movement there
has been more toward murder and less
toward whipping The killing of ten
negroes taken from Jail by several hun
bred Ku-klux, acting under military
organization, was investigated. A prom
inent lawyer of the place, Mr.. Shard, a
democrat, on cross-examination, startled
the committee ystating that he believed
almost every respectable unmarried man
in the community belonged to the Ku-
klux, and he believed that a thousand
Ku-klux were within days march of
that village.
A negro Methodist preacher named
Louis Thompson, who had an appoint
ment June i at Goshen Hill Church, in
Union county, received Ku-klux notice
in the usual form not to preach. He
preached, Notwithstanding, to very few
most of the congregation fleeing when
they saw the notice. In the evening a
crowd of twenty mounted Ku-klux came
and tied and whipped him, and led him
off several miles, dragging him part of
the way tied to horses, and whipped him
again until he died He was mutilated
in way that cannot with propriety be
described. They hung him and threw
his body into the Tiger river, leaving no.
tice forbidding any one to bury him.