The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-08-29
CA1NHOY RECALLED.
Negroes on the War oPath at aeun

. CHARLESTON, August 2s.-To:day has
been one OF intense excitement in Char.
lesion. At11 a. M, q telephone message
was received from Mount Pleasant asking
for assistance. Mount Pleasant Ii SUI.
burb of the city, across the river, in
Berkeley County, and hear the ssene of
the Cainhoy massacre in 1876. The ne.
groes outnumber the whites il proportion
| of about thirty to one.
| The message came from the sheriff. 1t
| seems that about 6 q. m. negro woman
| named Mollie Holmes entered grocery
| store in the village and uede some pur.
| chases. The clerk, Fred schaefer, a boy
ofabout II years of age, had been cleaning
gun, which is invariably kept in such
stores. The woman passed in front
of it while the boy was handling it, and
the gun went off and :nortally wounded
her.
AS soon as the nnws got abroad, the
negro women, as is t:lelr custom, ataried
out on a crazy crusndr. They aroused
the men, and In moment the whols
population was in ftrment. The boy
ran to the sheriff and gave himself up
and was locked up.
The women surrounded the jail ard
demanded his blood. The men sent out
to the surrounding plantations for arms
and ammunition, and threatened to take
the prisoner, Sheriff and jailor and hang
sll of them unless the boy was given up.
The Sheriff had half dozen deputies
sworn in and stood the siege, in the
meantime sending to Charleston FOX
help.
By order of the Governor, two compa-
uies of white militia, the German Fusi-
liers and the Sumter Guards were dis
patched to the scene of the disturbance.
They left the city at / p. m., and forty
five minutes later we're at the Jail.
The woman died at about p. m.,
having made an date naorten, statement
to the effect that the shooting was acci.
dental. This. however, did not sppease
the infuriated negro men and women.
The prisoner was sent under guard
over to this city at Z p. M; but in the
meantime the reinforcements from Cain
hoy and the surrounding country had
come in and the crowd threatened to burn
the town.
The Charleston troops thereupon we're
ordered to encamp on the scene, and will
stay there all to night.
The negroes in This city are very much
excited, and the lower classes are talking
boldly of embarking in small boats for
Mount Pleasant to go to the aid OF the
rioters.
Seven of the riDgleeders in the demon.
stration were arrested about 5 p. No., and
.logded in jail.
1t was clearly a case of accidental
killing, and the bloodthirsty feeling of
the negroes is somewhat difficult to
understand Special to the Columbia Reg.
ister.
CHARLESTON, IS. c., August 24.-If
there be those who do not believe that
the people of this section of the State'are
living on the verge of volcano they
would speedily have realized it if they
had been on Mt. Pleasant yesterday or
even in Charleston. The burning, in.
tense hatred of the whites that animates
the negroes in the low country found vent
Yesterday. Il is true that on the part of
the men it was only indicated by sulky
looks and deep curses, but this was only
because of tbs show of the bayonet and
the loaded rifle. The Register correspon-
dent, when he arrived at the village, re.
cognized the symptoms he had seen there
in the days of rs at Edisto, at Cainhoy,
at Wadmalaw and in the streets of Char
| lesion, when they flowed with the blood
of white people. All that prevented
repetition of the Cainhoy massacre Was
the swift presence of the troops.
The outline Of the homicide that gave
rise to this storm were telegraphed to the
Register yesterday. If there was ever a
case Of purely accidental killing this vas
one. There was absolutely no possible
pretext or excuse for ths outrageous
conduct of the negroes. The white pop.
ulation of Mt Pleasant is composed large.
ly of Germans, most of them, of course,
being employed in the grocery business.
| They come frequently in contact with the
negroes and frequently befriend them.
In fact it is known. that the Ne.
groes generally vote in municipal
elections with the Germans. The boy
| whose gun did the shooting was clerk
in the store and had just served the NO.
man. Sam Lee, the colored lawyer, told
the Register correspondent that he heard
the woman's dying statement, and that
she said she knew the boy did not intend
to shoot her. There was absolutely no
imaginable motive for the shooting.
It is possible that there would have
been no excitement or trouble whatever
but for the black viragoes of the village,
who are little better than brutes, and who
at once armed themselves with hoes,
shoYels, axes and picks, and reused the
poor brutes of their race into frenzy, It
was under their violent exhortations that
the men made en- attempt on the jail. It
was only the prompt action of the Cover.
nor in ordering out the troops that pre-
vented another bloody massacre.
No man knows the intense hatred and
| violence of these black amszons of the
seacoast. Why, the bodies of the victims
of Cainhoy were literally hacked to pieces
The Register correspondent saw an old
white man who was massacred on that
occasion, and will never forget the sight.
The old man had been shot down by the
negro militia, and after he had fallen the
women had taken charge of the body.
With axes and hoes they had fairly chop
ped it to pieces, and the butchery was
Systematically done too. Both legs, from
the knee down, we're chopped with hoes,
the bones broken in three places, above
the knees the legs had been hacked up to
the thighs, and from the trunk huge
pieces of flesh were hacked out, evidently
with adzes. These are the creatures who
live ia this section of the State.
Even in the city the feeling Of intense
hatred of the whites cropped out. The
sight of the troops embarkiug attracted a
crowd of about l 900 negro men, women
and children, aud on MI sides could be
i heard curses, oaths, shrieks aud cries.
/ On the ferry wharf when the boat came
in att o'clock the ladies who came over
had to run gauntlet of curses and in.
suits fearful to hear and too filthy for
print. Of course it would not have been
permitted had it been anticipated, but
the crowd gathered 80 rapidly that before
one suspected anything the streets along
the East water front had poured forth