The times., 1898-11-24
South Carolina Refugee Tells
of Phoenix Race Riots.
UNABLE TO EAT OR SLEEP
stiH Has Fears for safety of His
FamiIy-statement of Republican
Side of Election Difficulties and
Causes Leading Up to Them-Pre-
TRASH"

chairman of the Republican State Com
mittee of South Carolina and a son of
the collector of the port of Charleston.
One of his brothers was shot at the polls
in Phoenix and another was driven from
the State. r. r. Tolbert was candi-
date for Congress in the district, which
includes Greenwood County, where the
Tolbert plantation is situated. His story
of the rioting was written in Washington.
1t says. In part:
Twenty-Five years ago the State of
South Carolina achieved an unenviable
prominence for its race riots. the white
man being, as usual, the aggressor and
the black man the aggrieved. The only
whites who then shared the sufferings of
the negroes belonged to the carpetbagger
class of men, who had come into the
State as temporary sojourners. worked
their way into politics and organized, OF
tried to organize. the negro vote against
the Bourbon Democracy. Within three
weeks that reign CT terror has been re-
vived, with my kinsmen and myself as
its most conspicuous victims, although
my father was an officer in the Confed-
crate army and my grandfather and great
grandfather have lived on the same soil
where / have expected to rear my chill
dren. Our crime consists not in entering
the State as strangers and usurping its
political control, but in venturing to have
partisan ties of our own and to uphold
the right of all citizens. white or black.
under the Constitution to cast free vote
and to have 1t counted.
ION the morning of Tuesday, Novem-
ber / was a weil-;o-do cotton planter.
with 3 500 acres of land under cultivation,
happy home and, SO far as | was aware,
the respect and good will of most OF my
neighbors. on the night of Thursday,
November TO- l was Il refugee, fleeing
from my native State, fortunate iii escap-
ing even with my life and obliged TO leave
my wife and three little children to tine
merciful care of friends who are taking
great risks even In harborinS these inno-
cent persons.
The newspapers have given the coun
try some outline of the events which
brought this change about, but from the
necessity of the case the whole story has
not been told in print. To begin 1t prop
erly, 1t will be necessary to go back
/ little. As | am chairman OF the State Re-
publican Committee, I had accomplished
the reunion of all factions of the party
which rad been warrirG against each
| other for years, and Ii seemed to me that
| a fine opportunity for making that re-
union felt by bringing out the full Repub-
lican vote in every district and proving
| to the country that our party in South
Carolina was something more than /
nam"
The account goes on to relate the steps
taken to get out the Republican vote and
the adoption OF a system to show whore
fraud was committed This work aroused
,t5., ,, of ba of .pn
]. Wilton Gaines, chairman of the Demo-
| cratic Committee of Greenwood County.
warned r. L. Henderson. chairman II the
Republican County Committee. to keep
out of trouble as the Democratic man
ayers had decided that ii would be better
| to kill two or three white men now and
settle the thing than to let the negroes
vote and have to kill whole lot of p.o-
! pie later"
The trouble and subsequent riots which
arose at the polls and the flight of him
| self and friends are related in all their
detail. and ToIbert concludes his account
as follows:
AT the time of this writing / am s;ll
unable to eat or sleep normally. a.y fears
for the safety of my family are MT at
all relieved by the news which | get from
home. A daily negro hunt seems To be
going on there A negro suspected of hav-
7
ing of election day carries his life al his
hand. A number of negroes were killed
during the early rioting. seven more were
tied in bunch to log in front of Re
hoboth Church, the ground for which was
donated by my grandfather, and shot TO
| death. Two negro corpses were fouad a
! day or two ago in my brothers pasture,
! their murderers unknown. Every hight
/ parties of whites move about the ,orn-
fry ufh artiftp
whom tney have not quite the heart to
kill. Every negro tenant has been driven
away from my plantation. Resolutions
I have been passed at public meeting at
| Phoenix. declaring that no more negroes
| must be permitted in the Tolbert ten
antry.
| THE plan underlying all this agitation
| is to drive the negro out of our neighbor-
! hood and compel US to fall back on poor
whites for labor and tenants. Those ne
groes who are not compelled to leave are
| to be so terroriZed that they will either
| stay away from the polls altogether or
vote for Democratic candidates. Why am
! an outlaw in my own home? You may
send an intelligent committee on inquiry
| and they will report that they cannot find
n blot on my record as a citizen. / have
| scrupulouely paid my taxes and my pri-
| vate debts; l have harmed no man. white
or black: l am the owner of taxable prop
! erty worth $4,000 or 5000 and therefore
responsible. Ny whole offense consists in
/ belonging to an unpopular political party
! and my preference for negroes who work
hard and pay their way and try to do
| right over the shiftless white trash who
are the curse of Southern community.
! II this is a crime. / should like to be
| shown where it figures In the statute
! books of the State and of the nation.
| And | trust my case with the conscience
| and coed sense of the American people.
believing. as l told the President and the
Attorney General. that the flag which
floats proudly in Cuba and the Philippines
as an emblem of popular rights; civiiza-
ton and good government, ought not to
be furied in the presence of Carolina
political mob