The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-04-06
The North Carolina Bandits.
4 From Harper's Weekly.1

hlLeu III ihedsuFe oI wonder and re-
pulsionf for several years.
These bandits are at present six in
number, although they were formerly
associa1e 1ed with several lesser despera-
does, Ahose courage and resources
were not up TO Che notorious standard
of the csliefs. One of these inferior
robbers, Oxendine, has been hanged !:
another, die, has preferred the ennui
OF prison to the precarious life of the
swamp3and pursuit, and is ready to
turn Shte's evidence against the
Others two mGre, Calvin Oxendine
and "P6p" Oxehdine, remain yolun-
tarily il Jail aud one other, "Shoe-
Maker i eDhn," went to the penitentiary
gladly i anticipate higher charges.
The hfnd as il stands, recognized as
pests blythe Legislature and Cover
nor of the States and by county au-
thorities, by the almost unexampled
reward tf $4,000, dead or alive"
consists bf the following characters:
Henry Berry I.owery, the chief-a
light mt Iatto, dubiously said to be in
termixed with Tuscarora Indian blood.
the white ingredient being pure
Scotch CT Highland stock. He is of a
family inmemorially free in North
Carolina4 and his grandfather moved
at the b4ginning OF this century from
the counl ly of Halifax, near the Vir-
ginia ling, to a border county near
the South Carolila. line, and settled
there among the swamps and pitch
pine slasics of the Lumber River, a
branch Of the Little Pedee. The sur
roundingtwhites were almost to a man
Scotch yave-hoIders. The region
around tie Lowerys for several miles
was peonled by free negroes, who
numbered nearly $500 before the re-
bellion, an nd were almost uniformly of
light skirf, and with traces of some
novel int4 4rmixture which gave them
the look 4 { gypsies. 1t has been sug-
gested thit Spanish, Portuguese, or
?" Romany" blood flows in the veins of
these mulattoes Of .Seuffietown, such
being the Significant title Of their set.
The Id Nerys and their kin were
superior handidraft, personal bear
ing, and beauty tG their yellow neigh
bors, and were formerly prosperous
shareholders. In 1885 the'free blacks
of North Carolina were deprived of
the polit1 ,af and Judicial rights of
whites, AID the seeds of animosity
were sowrf among them. The loss of
these rights led ito depredations on
their property and the ultimate loss of
nearly the whole Of it. This induced
a sense of injury, which was to break
out in vio1snce in the next generation.
The fathe1 of thy Lowery outlaws,
Allan Low ery, brought up all his boys
to the tride of carpentry, and they
we're generally industrious, apt, and
1ocile up TO the beginning of the civil
war. Theeyhites, Thohad always dis
iisliked IL is free Iolored settlement,
md impostd upoi it, began to i'm
press the 5owerystto work among the
slaves on the breastMorks of Whining
5on. Theis proud natures revolted,
md Henry Berry I;owery, the younger
brother, ran off to- the swamps, and |
khere with several of his
Thia outcast life led to
oose habits i, and awnke the spirit of
In 1864 white man
named Barnes, who was neighbor of
he Lowerys, was assassinated by
hem in the course: of Il feud, and soon
lfter another, named Harris, for per-
ecuting their farhily. Federal sol
liery, escaped from the prison pen of
Florence, yere sail TO have been ac-
Il these crimes, and when
sherman 'ssarmy swept up to this re-
ZION the LDwery's gaveits "bummers"
i'd and comfort: After the army
on he white neighbors turned
bout AND slew fn cold blood the
ather and "a brother of Ell. B. Lowery.
The voV of vengeance made by the
-oung maA could not have been the
incentive to his worse
areer, fo1s he killed nobody for two
# three years, ana once gave himself
reely up, to the;Freedmen's Bureau
and went to jail. But the
whites we;ld not include him in the
ct of Obj svion fol crimes chargeable
o the wal 4; they arrested him at the
ide of this bride, prosecuted his
amily, and finally woke a demon
bier and bloodicr# than they could
ubdue. Collecting around him a
title band, never}greater than ten nor
ess than five, LoWery turned robber,
ccepted Siis outlawry as a prOclama-
ion of lar, and slew without re-
norse all who huhted him or had per-
ecuted his kin. The immense num-
'er of his.robberies and the terror of
lis prescience and prowess finally put
i'm out of the paae .of any ones sym
athy, and the Adjutant-General of
he State. with regulars, militia, and
took She field against him.
With the moral support of the people
Sc,fflaown, he defeated the whole
orce, adj led to tie terror of his name,
nd maze himself the Rob Roy
PGregof of his; race. This defense
-as accomplished, however, with the
of above dozen shocking
lurders, two or three of which are
scribedfo rapi4e. The band have