The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-02-26
TWO WHITE MEN HANGED
IN COLLETON COUNTY FOR MURDER
ING AN UNKN OWN SLAVE.

4 Famous Trial of Anre-Belum Days.
How the Murderers Of Negroes was Dealt
With in Those Days in South Carolina.
CHARLESTON. Feb. 20 The recent
lynching in Colleton county has pro,
voked the indignant comment of The
press Of the United States and almost
every newspaper in South Carolina.
1t will be remembered that Isham
kearse, negro OF bad reputation, his
wife and mother were dragged from
their home one night last December,
and beaten by party of white men,
one of whom was physician. kearse
was found dead the next morning in
the place where they had left him
his mother was found dead, from
fright or exposure, in small pool a
few yards farther on, and his wife
barely escaped with her life. The
crime was committed near Broxton' S
Bridge, section OF Colleton county
where negroes largely outnumber the
whites. and where robbery and arson
had been very common and the gull
ty persons had been unpanished for a
year Or D2&ee!-e kearse was suspected
of having been implicated in several
incendiarisms, but the ofenses for
which he was beaten to death were
attempt at rape and the alleged theft
OF a Bible from a Baptist church in
the neighborhood.
The eight lynchers, seven white
men and one negro man. are now in
Jail Governor Evans ordered State
Detective Newbold to work up the
case, and he has gathered a great deal
OF testimony going to prove "a horri-
BILE murder and has every assur-
auce of a conviction. The white men
charged with the crime are DR.. W. 3.
Ackerman, Frank Jenney, Frank
Brant, Wyman Kearse, Jake Folk,
Frank Stanley and Press HERS. They
have secured the services of Col. Rob
ert Aldrich Of Barnwell, and four
members of the Colleton bar to repre-
sent them. Solicitor Bellinger will
probably be assisted by Attorney Gen
eral Barber in the prosecution next
week.
The 'Broxton Bridge horror, as the
newspapers call it, recalls what was
perhaps the most celebrated murder
trial in the ante-bellum history of
South Carolina. Colleton county was
the scene of the crime, a negro was
the victim, and his TWO white murder
ers were hanged. The men were tried,
convicted and executed at a time
when, according to all our northern
friends, the negro was regarded as "a
chattel," though no less eminent an
authority than Jefferson Davis denied
that the use of that term was correct.
A brief story of the crime and its ex-
piation will be of interest.
THE MOTLEY-BLACKLEDG HORROR
On July 5, 1858, Thomas Motley
and William Blackledge, two white
men, caught and killed an unknown
runaway negro, a stranger who doubt
less obtained his living by petty thiev-
ing from the very men who convict
ed his murderers. The negro was
caught in a swamp with the assistance
of pack of bloodhouuds. He was
subjected for a night and part of the
succeeding day to torture of so terri
bic and shameful a nature that it can
not be put in print, and was eventual
ly throttled and killed by the ferocious
dogs set on by their masters. The
story of the crime leaked out and the
people of Colleton pushed the arrest
and prosecution of the murderers.
Motley, one of the accused, was the
son of a rich farmer, and money was
freely expended for his defense by the
ablest counsel; his companion, Black
ledge, was one of the poorest class of
backwoodsmen. They were tried,
found guilty and sentenced to be
hanged. The solicitor who prosecuted
the case was NJ L. Bonham, afterward
a brigadier general in the Confederate
army and one of the war governors Of
South Carolina. The foreman OF the
jury was Isaac Marion Dwight, a
grand nephew of Francis Marion and
a man of intrepid spirit and exalted
character. Mr.. Dwight and several
of the jurymen were representative
men and large shareholders. The
Supreme Court on appeal sustained
the verdict. Judge John Belton
O'Neall. before whom the case was
tried, charged the jury that they
might find that it was done in sudden
heat and passion, and thus mitigate
the otfense, but jury of Colleton
county found them guilty of murder,
nevertheless. Judge O'Neall, in pass.
ing sentence of death on the two men
said, inter ALA:
1T may be profitable to you to re-
call the horrid deeds which you, joint
ly and severally, committed al the
death Of the poor, begging, unofiend.
ing slave. I will not repeat the dis
gusting details of the outrages com
mitted the public are already <ully
informed and your own hearts, in
every pulsation repeat them to you,
I may be permitted, however, to say
to you, and to the people around you,
and to the world, that hitherto South
Carolina has never witnessed such
atrocities; indeed, they exceed all that
we are told of savage barbarity- For
the Indian, the moment his captive
ceases to be a true warrior. Gn the
sense in which he understands it, and
pleads for mercy, no longer extends
his sutfering-death, speedy death,
follows. But you. for a night and a
part Of the succeeding day, rioted in
the sutferings and terror Of the poor
negro, and at length your ferocious
dogs, set on by you, throttlec and
killed him as they would wild beast.
Cant you hear his awful death cry,
On, Lord II you cannot hear it the
Lord of Hosts heard and answered it.
He demanded then and now from you
the fearful account of blood!
you have met with the fearful
consequences of the Infamous business
in which you were engaged-huntlng
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