The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-21
Letters to the Editor.
Card from MT. Garrett.

Dadeville Ala, June W, ls0S. Editor The Advertiser:
 The people of this community have up to the present refrained from discussing the matters being investigated by the Fed eral grand jury at Montgomery relative to the treatment of negroes on convict farms in this county, but a communica- ton in The Columbus Evening Ledger of the 18th is such an outrage on truth and the writer should take notice of 1t and give the public to some extent the truth of the matters discussed in the commit nication. With this in view your corre- gentleman who was foreman of the grand jury at the time that the death Of Sarah Healy was investigated.
 There can be no question of the inves- tigation being full and complete. any one having doubts on the subject can easily learn that when MT. Miller Is foreman of the grand jury that the people in this county who are suspected of offenses are not in an easy frame of mind. The state ment in The Ledger that the witnesses were brought before the grand jury hand cuffed. is branded by the foreman of the grand jury as falsehood. neither were they brought from Turner's place to town handcuffed, neither did the grand jury rely solely on the evidence of convicts farm ,rss ay the grand jury who were present when the girl was said to have been so brutally whipped. all the witnesses. before the testified without duress. The whole amount of the proof was that this girl refused to work and the young man Fur, ner pulled a switch off of bush and struck her three or four licks over her clothing. She was neither stripped, held by any one nor brutally beaten, One witness who did not live at Turner's at the time of the investigation by the grand jury, but who was free laborer working for Turner at the time the girl died. was at the earnest solicitation of the girls brother brought before the grand jury. he insisting at the time that this witness could and would tell more nearly the truth as to what occurred than any other witness. This witness testified that young Turner only struck the girl two or three times with a small switch, and that no lick was struck sufficient to do her the least injury.
 As to the burial of this girl. Tom Cray the girls family, and who is a respon- sihle farmer and who has always had a home of his own and who lives in the community now and can be interviewed superintended the burial of the girl. She was buried at Eagle Creek Church in a part of the burial ground set apart for the negroes by the white people of the church. and she was buried about or o'clock in the afternoon the day follow ing her death.
 During the investigation before the grand jury several negroes testified that
 
 ereal disease and MT. Miller, as foreman of the grand jury. interviewed MT. Will liam Jinks. a reputable. white man of Dadeville. who had employed the woman up to a short time before her conviction. Mir. links said that he had discharged her from his employ because she was un- able to work for the reason of this same venereal trouble and that he did not think 1t safe to have her around and in charge of his children and that he was satisfied that she died from the disease. There are many other false statements in the com munication, in fact 1t seems to be en- tirely innocent of telling the truth about any of these matters, but 1t would take too much space to go into a detailed de- nial of all of 1t. The Turner farm is lo- cated on the public road within seven miles of Dadeville. a road travelled as much as any road leading into the county seat. and your correspondent has been unable to find any one who has ever seen a negro on Turner's place with either handcuffs or shackles on, but of the nu- merous people passing there all state that the hands were free and that they would see them working in sight of the road and around the quarters and not single one has ever seen a shackle or handcuff or a negro on his place.
 This article, being as 1t Is wholesale charge against the people of the county for permitting such a thing. against tht grand jury and officers of the county foI failing to punish such conduct, is such 2 islander that the people of the county are entitled to have 1t refuted, regardless oi Mir. Turner or any other farmer who works conYicts. H. O. Garrett.