The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-23
THE NEW SLAVERY.
An Alabama Man States Some Facts
Concerning 1t.

Joseph G. Manning. In New York Post
There is now. and has been for years,
system Of practical peonage In the black
belt counties of Alabama, but it has been
only in recent years that the hearts OF men
in the mountain counties OF Alabama have
come to be hardened TO depriving men OF
liberty and justice through the forms of
law.
A Montgomery correspondent TO a Mem
phis newspaper recently told OF the case
Of Joe Patterson, coored, who became the
prey of the authorities at Goodwater, Coosa
county Alabama, an adjoining county to
the one in which lives the writer of this
article. The Montgomery correspondent
says:
Patterson borrowed 81 on Saturday.
promising to pay it the following Tuesday
morning. Patterson did not get to town at
the appointed time. when. it is said he was
arrested and carried before justice OF the
peace who found him guilty OF obtaining
money under false pretenses without giving
the negro an opportunity or getting Wit
nesses or a lawyer. A small fine was as
sessed. The negro had no money, nor was
he given opportunity to get any with
which TO pay the fine and costs. He was at
once sold TO man named Hardy for SO,
who worked the negro for about one year.
when Hardy sold the negro to Pace for $4o
it is claimed.
L
in trying TO escape cut a boat loose from
it's moorings. Upon his recapture he was
tried and given six months more for this
offense. The negro then entered into a
contract for an additional year to pay a
doctors bill. In short, for the 81 originally
borrowed the negro would not have got out
| until the year 1906. The negro was orig
inally arrested in Coosa county and kid
mapped into Tallapoosa county, where he was
sold, according TO the report"
The above recital by a Democratic cor
no clap trap" 1t is not political bum
| combe." There are few men of the North
| and there are good men in Alabama who
| do not know the depravity to which this
bourbon regime, the progeny of the slave
| holding Democracy, has come. 1t is to-
| day under the law in Alabama crime for
iaT He msU he TO- qny ms S
half fed, he may be beaten with buggy
trace, but II he fails to keep his con-
tract" then he is criminal There are
| black belt planters who do starve mis-
| treat, abuse. and beat men. and force them
| to break their contract in order to get
them arraigned before some demon in
white skin. but with heart as black as
| hell itself; and another year of servitude
| is attached by a chain more CALLING than
that OF chattel slavery to the ankle of the
| black man. The case of Patterson Is only
| one In thousand; yes, in ten thousand.
| 1t has come to light as one of the several
| outrages recently sprung in Goodwater
| only because Coosa county has not yet
| black belt. The practice of peonage is
only thing Of recent years in Coosa
county.
The writer of this article is familiar
| with the ruling spirit, the mayor of the
| town Of Goodwater, and this mayor would
| be complimented in his own estimation no
| higher than to have II written that any
| negro is no more worthy of human SYM
| pathy or political consideration than is
any mule and of less kind treatment than
| a good dog The brother of this mayor is
| a registrar and party leader in the ad-
joining county of Clay and his sentiments
as to right and justice may be summed UP
| by his assertion that were Booker L.
| Washington a resident of Clay county he
| could not register vote.
| Here is given a snapshot at the stand
ard of political morals in this State to
which Northern "doughfaces' would com
NIT the destinies and liberties of men,
Here is the truth about the South that
some men of the North would "let alone >
| Here is the South that should be permit
| ted to adopt it's own course In settling the
| race problem! God forbid that men shall
| so far forget God and humanity in these
| United States, in this land of liberty, as
to descend to acquiescence in such a course
| of infamy and shame.