Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-02-25
En.Iavement Of the Freedmen.

1t is asserted that slavery has been prac-
tically re-established in Tennessee, through
the law which governs the disposition of
convict labor. As specimen of the way
the thing works, it is related that a negro
was arrested for having in his possession
knife of some prohibited sort, and impris-
oned three months and fined $500. lie was
then remitted to Butcher" Forest, as les
see, to work out his term and fine al 25
cents a day. 1t is stated that some so 9TH
ers for similar offences are also in slavery
under Forrest, and are fiogged every eve
ming if their daily task of picking d hun
dred pounds of cotton is incomplete. Own
ers of plantations in Tennessee are always
negroes are tried tor trifling offences, and
manage to secure a large amount of labor
by bidding in the offenders after convic-
tion. This system is in force in Texas, AL
ALBANIA, Arkansas aud Georgia, as well as
Tennessee. Here is an advertisement from
the Oxford, (Ala.) Transcript:
Twenty dollars reward / will pay the
above reward for colored boy named
McKinsay, who ran away from my place
last Saturday night, the 26th inst. Said
DON was SOlu dl duCllOu SlcdllDH SlU
from the Woodstock iron company's store
and was bound to me for five months, nine
days and a half hard labor to cover DANA
ges. TAYLOR DEAMAN.
The Crawford (Ga.) Echo, a rampant
Democratic paper, in an article on the la
Dor question, has the following:
1t is notorious fact that those farmers
who are the tightest on the negroes in their
employ never fail 10 get as many hands as
hax iGl L. ~ lapu
est planters who treat the negroes working
for them exactly as they did their slaves,
working them from daylight TO sundown,
allowing no idling, and ii darkey tres
passes any of the rules, he is tied up and
sound thrashing administered 10 him
then, il he leaves, the employer hunts him
up, brings him back and doubles the dose.
This generally makes an efectual cure,
and the offender resumes work, makes
good hand, and is anxious to hire to the
same man another year. The employer
has got value received out of his hands,
and is, consequently, able to pay full
wages. Govern your hands, and all sides
will be better satisfied. Let them govern
you, and the country will soon so to the
dogs.
In one OF Charles Nordhoff's letters from
Mississippi TO the New York Herald, dur
ing his tour at the South, last fall, the fol-
lowing statement was made-and Mr..
Nordhoif is far from being flsunter of the
"bloody shirt"
About four weeks ago a mualto girl,
aged 10, who had been living for some
time as a servant in the house of a farmer,
two and n half miles from Verona, in Lee
county, left her service aud went 10 Vero-
ma, where she became a house servant, in
order 10 attend an evening school. She
had been at her new place aEoat week,
1, IL "a.
ployer, accompanied by his father and
neighbor, all armed with shot-guns, APP
peared before the house. Two of The men
demanded the girl, saying she belonged 10
them. She refused to go with them, and
declared she was free, which was true, of
course. They knocked her down, took her
by the feet, dragged her thus through the
house, through the yard into the street,
her clothing torn and deranged in the
struggle, and she screaming for help, and
this was in open daylight and in the pres
ence of several men, besides women and
children-set her on horse and carried
her of. When they got her home two OF
them tied her to "A tree and logged her bare
back with green witnes until the blood
ran. Then they took her to the house and
chained her with trace chain and paddock
to a bedpost. The next day she was turn
ed to work, and chained up again at night.
After some days she made her escape, and
found refuge with a southern man, the
county superintendent of education, who,
afler proper notice, sent her TO the United
States District Attorney. From the Dis
trict Attorneys lips l received the account
of this outrage. Now, cruelty and violence
may and do happen in any State. The
part of the story which seems most horri-
BILE to me is this: 1t Is in evidence before
the District Attorney that the Mayor of
Verona, who is its justice Of the peace,
heard the girls cries and saw the struggle,
and when asked why he did not interfere
himself testified that he thought it was
none of his business, as he knew it was
only a negro girl. Several other men tes-
titled that they stood in their doors aud
saw the girl dragged by her feet out into
the road. 1t was none of their business,
either. Finally l related this tale to a
Democratic judge of the Supreme Court of
the State. He replied that brutality was
found everywhere, North as well as South
aud could not, with all my efforts, appar-
emily make him understand that what fill
ed me with indignation and hopeless dis
gust was not so much the act itself, but the
fact that an officer of the law and several
citizens could witness it unmoved-oe-
cause it was only negro girl. If it had
been a white girl, no doubt the Mayor
would have interiered, and the judge would
have been indignant. II the brutes who
should maltreat white girl so had been
negroes, the country would have risen TO
lynch them, and the papers all over Miss