Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-29
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Eight Negroes Taken Out of Jail and
Shot to Death.

Eight Negroes Taken Out of Jail and
Shot to Death.
CHARLESTON Is. CO., December 2Sth-A
mob of several hundred men raided the jail
at Barnwell Court house at . o'clock this
morning ard oyerpowered the jailer. They
took out eight negroes charged with MUIR
der These were Ripley johnson and
Mitchell Adams, charged with numbering
man named Heffernan, and six others
charged with the murder of young Martin
the prisoners were taken out of the town
and shot to death. The iailer was tied and
bound aud forced to accompany the lynch
ers. TIE whole thing was conducted in a
very skillful manner, the citizens of the
town not knowing anything about it. A
great many negroes are collected at the
scene of the lynching, and more trouble is
anticipated.
The following statement, signed ny Rob-
ert Aldrich, Mike Brown, Geo. H Dales
VIM. McHale and James A. Jenkins, some
of the most prominent and influential cit.
zens of Barnwell, has been sent 10 the
NeOS and Courier, in explanation of the
horrible butchery of the defenseless men
at that place last night:
On the Both of October last, John H.
Hefferman, prominent young merchant
and public. spirited citizen, was shot down
and killed in Barnwell, by negroes. Public
Indignation ran very high and threats OF
lynchipg freely made, but we're diverted
by cooler counsel.
At the last term of Court the Grand Jury
found true bills against the murderers and
accessories, but their cases we're continued.
The white people were disappointed and
the negroes, it is thought were emboldened
BY this disposition of the matter
n Il MI 81 n T..
a prominent leader and leading citizen of
Fishpond township, was shot to death on
his own premises by negroes, without the
slightest justification or excuse. The muir
derers had been arrested.
On the 18th of December while going
from the store at Martin Station to his
house mile away, Robert Martin, young
man of high standing, was following by d
negro and shot, in the hearing of negroes
whose houses were all around the spot
where he was killed, and who admit they
heard the shot and the cries of the murdered
man, none of whom when to his relief, and
none of them went to his body, although
it lay in the road all day, for several hours
after daylight, and in plain view of them
all.
twas this which satisfactorily established
the tact that his murder was the result of a
conspiracy 10 remove him, in order that
their license upon the plantation of his
father might be greater. The murderer,
that is the negro who fred the shot, and
his accessories, nine in number, after being
identified by the Coroner's Jury, were ar
rested and lodged in Jail.
These several brutal murders of promi-
nent white men by negroes, caused state
of indignation and resentment among the
people that can be better imagined than
described, but cannot be imagined by any
one not resident of our midst.
Last night body of armed men in dis
guise, at about A. NJ, called at the Jail,
overpowered the jsiler, took out the six
murderers of Martin and two OF the Heffer-
mnn murderers, took them to the limits of
the corporation and shot them to death.
This explanation of the causes which
led to the lynching does not, in the opinion
of law-abiding citizens, in any way justify
the murder of the eight defenseless human
beings. The greatest indignation is ex-
pressed OF its brutality. All is quiet in
Barnwell late this evening, although trouble
has been anticipated and may yet come.