Huntsville gazette. [volume] (Huntsville, Ala.) 1879-1894, 1891-07-18
CONVICTS SEIZED
BY Free Miners at BriceyilIe.
Tennessee,
And Shipped Away on a Train
to Knoxville.

The Governor of Tennessee Receives q
Telegram Stating the Guards at the
Briceville Mine Had Been Overpow-
cred and the Convicts Taken from
Their Charge and Sent Away.
NASHVILLE, July 17.-Goyernor Buch-
anan and Warden Blevins left here for
Briceville, in Anderson county, in an
swer to kilograms from Superintendent
OF Prisons Wade, stating that the guards
had been overpowered, and they and
the convicts engaged in building a
stockade were forcibly shipped to Knox
vile by
An Armed Mob of 800 Men.
The governor will be Joined at Chat
tanooga by the Lookout Mountain
Guards and Moerlein Zouaves, and on a
special train, furnished by the East
Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia rail
road, they will proceed to Briceville,
picking up the Knoxville Rifles at Knox
vile. Commissioner Ford and Assist
ant Alleman left for Briceville on an
afternoon train, and an effort will be
made to settle the difficulty amicably.
Governor Buchanan will go among the
rioters personally and endeavor to have
them allow the convicts to resume
work. The gang of oonvicts have been
taken back to Briceville from Union
VILE The governor anticipates no
serious trouble. but the stockade will be
completed and the new prison estab-
lished at all hazards. Two thousand
rounds Of ammunition have been for
warded to the scene.
The COnvicts Shipped.
The Briceville mine is only about four
miles from Coal Creek, branch prison,
and has been worked by free labor here
tofore. The miners struck some time
back, and, showing no disposition to
come to terms, the Knoxville Iron COM
pany made contract with the sub
lessees of the male prison here to mine
coal for them at so much per ton. Forty
men were sent to Bricevif1e from Nash
vile July 9Th, and have been since en-
gagged in building the stockade for the
reception Of the 100 more men, until
Wednesday night, when an armed mob
Of 800 men placed the convicts aboard
train and sent them to Knoxville.
The state officials here will see that
nothing prevents the branch prison
from being established, and il back
down occurred now, the other branch
prisons would be broken up by the free
labor. Is there Is. and has always been,
great prejudice against convict labor,
especially where it supplants free labor
Beginning Of the Difficulty.
The trouble grows out Of difficulty
about a scale of wages. The Tennessee
Coal Mining company last spring had a
difficulty with its men about the wages
paid, the men claiming that the should
have weigher of their own, and that
they should be paid for all "odd"
weights. The system in vogue is to put
2,0OO pounds on mine car. If 1t weighs
1876 pounds the miner gets credit for
but 1900. If it weighs 2,9O5 pounds he
gets credit for but 1900; the object
being to facilitate the work Of weighing
by uniform weights.
There was also difference between
the operators and miners on the aues-
ton of grading and classifying the coal.
Every effort was made to settle the
trouble in the spring, and it was finally
fixed up and the men went to work; but
they were not allowed to continue long,
as labor agitators from this city and the
Kentucky mines kept interfering, it is
charged. and the men quit work. The
operators allowed the mine TO remain
idle for time, but rs the busy season
was coming on they determined to com
mence work, and as the free miners
would not go to work they contracted
with the state for 1875 convicts. The
first installment Of forty were sent to
the mines July 5.
During the night the free miners, $40
strong, armed with Winchester rifles.
shotguns and Colt pistols,
Surrounded the Convict Camp,
and notified the guards that they must
surrender the convicts to them. This
the prison superintendent refused to do.
The miners were determined, and finally
it was agreed that the convicts would be
surrendered to the men on condition
that they be returned to the custody Of
the proper officers at the East Tennessee
depot, four miles distant This was
done at o'clock in the morning. The
thirty. eight oonvicts were taken to
Knoxville and Governor Buchanan no
titled, two convicts having escaped
The convicts say the men tried to get
all of them to run off, but this the
miners deny. The governor ordered
the convicts held until further instruc-
tions.
The governor has ordered the Rifles,
of this city, under arms, ready to go to
the scene of trouble.