The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-24
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The Crime of Outrage Before 1865.

The Crime of Outrage Before 1865. Editor The Advertiser:
 In your issue of Tuesday you repro duced from The Poughkeepsie CN. Y) Press the following:
 The negro was never lynched when he was a slave. The crimes he committed we're just as bad as the crimes he com STits now, but because nc was a piece of property, worth dollars in the market, he was only punished for his misdeeds in manncr"
 Your commentary attributing the state ment to dense ignorance of the condi- tions in the South before the war was timely and correct. Before the war. know of a noted case in Henry County. A negro man belonging to a MT. Lind say entered his masters house at night, murdered him and outraged Mrs. Lind say. The negro was taken from the sheriff and burned at the stake by mob As slave. Nose was worth $l.5U, but that was not considered. The time never was and never will be in this country when. If negro ravishes white woman that the mob will not lynch him if they can get hold of the perpetrator of sucn an outrage. If lynching could be con- fined to cases of this kind, m which the evidence of guilt was clear. it would not cause officials to so fully exert all le- gal mans of preventing them. But the evil of lynchings soon extends to mere attempts to ravish. murder, and other
 crimes. and sometimes the mob acts OH mere suspicion. It Is, therefore, wise and judicious to suppress them. and let the law reign supreme. The negro is na- turally more lecherous than white men, and. ot course. those fiendish creatures among them who commit such assaults are. as rule, of the lowest type of that race. Their reformation rests mainly with their parents and teachers, much more than with their preachers and church influence There is a law to secure and nrntpct and vent miscegenation and it does it so far wise
 I overheard the remark of an intelligent lady recently when she and another were discussing some of the recent assaults of negroes on white women, and the best means of preventing 1t, and she said: Tn the first place, the laws should be so en forced as to make the white men let the negro women alone. l think that would go far towards protecting the white wo- men" There was point in her remark. MT. Editor you stated that you knew of one assault committed by a negro slave upon white woman during the war. I never have heard of an instance before the one mentioned by you, and would like to know where that occurred. I have in public addresses stated as a fact that no instance occurred anywhere during the war. l do not question the | accuracy of your statement but desire to be more particularly informed.
 S. In reply to the question of General Oates, We will state that the incident oc- cured in Randolph County. in 1862 or 1863. as now remembered. During a ses- sion of the grand jury, one of the mem- bers, whI was one of the most substan- tial and law-abiding citizens of the com ty. arose and stated that he had been one of party to execute a negro for outraging a white woman. He said that he did not feel that the citizens had done wrong, but that, as citizen and mem- Der of the jury, he thought 1t his duty to make the statement as to his own part in the affair. A case was docketed against him. at the suggestion of the Solicitor, and the word Ignored" was written across 1t and that ended it. If we mistake not. the late Col John M Caldwell was Solicitor.
 This is the only case of the kind We now call to mind during the days of slavery.-Editor The Advertiserl