The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1896-02-26

ferocious as the Spanish bloodhouods.
With ooe of you (Motley) there could
have been no excuse. Your father,
young man. is mao Of wealth, reaped
and gathered together by life of toll
and privation that the son Of such
man should be found more than a
hundred miles from home, following a
pack Of dogs, in the chase Of negro
slave. through the swamps Of the lower
country, under summers sun. shows
either love Of cruelty or Of money
which is not easily satisfied To the
other prisoner, Blackledge, it may be
that poverty and former devotion to this
sad business might have presented some
excuses
BOTH CONVICTED AND HANGED.
The trial excited the most intense
interest throughout the State, and
especially in CoIleton aud other great
holding counties on the coast. 1t
was not until 1921 that the death pen
atty bad been imposed in South Carolina
fer the murder Of negro by white
man. and never before this had two
white men been condemned for killing
one negro. The well-paid lawyers Of
Motley made every effort iu his behalf
known to the law, and petitions we're
sent to Governor j. L Mauoing pray.
Jog executive clemency. out all
to no avail. The Influence of Mot
ley's money and the disapproval by
many shareholders Of the execution Of
two whites for killing ooe black, made
the authorities fear an attempt at a
rescue of the prisooers. and battalion
of State militia. Including the Wash
ingtcn Light Infantry and Washington
Artillery Of Charleston. commanded by
Maj A. NJ. Manigault, guarded the
Jail and surouuded the scaffold when
the prisoners were executed. The story
of the case can be found 10 Seventh
Richardson, South Carolina Reports,
page 327. It is to be hoped that the
people of Colleton of today will be as
persistent in repressiDg lawlessness as
were their progenitors in 1858.
JUDGE w1LD's SENTENCE ON SLATER.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stoves key TO
"Uoce Toms Cabin" contains the SEN
!epce of Judge Samuel Wilds on a
white man, Slater, convicted Of murder
of his own slave 10 Charleston in 1907.
There is 90 sessions docket or jour
nal among the court records Of
Charleston extaut until 1888, and it is
owing to Mrs Stoves pertinacity and
assiduity that the very notable sentence
was upearthed and given to the public.
Perhaps the Grimke sisters, two very
violent anti slavery agitators 10 Charles
ton, furnished her With it. Slater was
not condemned to death. as the pun
ishment under the act of 1740. under
which be was convicted aud seuten ced.
was a fine Of 9700 currency. equal to
9lO0 sterling and incapacity to enjoy
or receive the profits Of any Office, place
or employment, civil or military, and
ifunable to pay this 6ue, then imprisou-
ment for seven years 1t was the act
of 1921. under which Motley and
Blackledge were hanged, which changed
this triaiug punishment to the death
penalty.
Judge Wild's sentence makes TO-
te,esting reading to the student of
negro slavery in South Carolina. 1t
reads. in part, as follows:
John Slater. you have been con-
victed by jury of your country Of the
wilful murder Of your own slave and
l am sorry to say the short, impressive,
uucontradicted testimony on which
that conviction vas founded leaves but
little room to doubt its propriety. The
annals Of human depravisy may be
safely challenged for parallel to this
uofeeling, bloody and diaboical trans
action.
You caused your uuofending, un-
resisting slave to be bound hand and
foot, aud by a refinement of cruelty
compelled his companion, perhaps the
friend of his heart, to chop his head
with an axe aud to cast his body, yet
convlusing with the agouies of death,
into the water. And this deed you
dared to perpetrate in the very harbor
of Charleston. within few yards of
the shore, unblushingly, in the face of
open day. Had your murderous arm
been raised against your equals whom
the laws Of self-defense and the more
effcacious laws of the land unite to pro-
tect, your crime would Bos
have been without precedent
and would have seemed less hor-
rid Yonr nersonal riak wonl6 ar least