The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-30
SLAVERY IN ALABAMA
FEDERAL OFFICIALS ACTIVE IN
 ITS SUPPRESSION.
Negroes Illegally Detained in Con- vict Camps for Years-Evidence Secured Against Many Wrong Doers by Secret Service
 Officers,

The following article, headlines in-
 cluded appeared in The New York Even
 ing Post of Wednesday as a special from
 Washington:
 Word has been received by Chief of the
 United States Secret Service Wikie of
 the arrest of Robert N. Franklin of
 Goodwater, Ala, who has been indicted Tor being a party to system of slavery imposed upon unfortunate negroes in that State. Franklin according to the evi- dence brought against him, was in the habit of picking up negroes here and there and sending them to convict farms | and seems to have made very good busi- ness of it.
 The peonage system, under the guise of
 conviction and punishment of petty of fences, has grown to be so gross an abuse in that part of the South that United States Attorney Reese at Mont
 gomery recently called the attention of
 the Department of Justice to it. and re- General to proceed against the offenders wherever discovered, The indictments | are found under Secti )n 5,526 of the Re-
 vised Statutes, which provides that lev | cry person who holds, arrests, returns or causes to be held, arrested or returned | or in any manner aids in the arrest or | return of any persons to the condition
 or peonage, shall be punished by a fine | 5000, or by imprisonment of not less
 tran one year, nor more than five years, | or both.'
 | The inefficiency of the service procura- l ble in the neighborhood where the of | fences are committed for ferreting out | Wfongdoers and marshalling the evil | dence necessary for their conviction led
 the Attorney-General to appeal to the | Secretary of the Treasury for the use
 of the Secret Service. and MT. Wilkie has had his detectives securing the State of Alabama. They have secured evidence and Indictments against large number nf Nfh -N.Vg-.
 | rants are out for the arrest of the ac- cused. Franklin was taken to Montgom- | cry and held in 1000 ball. but, being un- | able to obtain bond, is now in Jail to await trial.
 t By way of showing how these creatures
 work. typical instance may be recited: In 1901 young negro named J. p was working for cotton buyer at Good water, Ala. and had agreed to work for certain length of time. One day he got 1 dollar. which was due him, and went into the country about two miles, on the
 understanding that he was to be back in three days. Before that period had ex- | pired and while returning to town, he was arrested for breaking his contract | carried to Goodwater, arraigned before a | justice of the peace, and fined, with costs, | five dollars and fifty cents. As he was unable to pay or to give security, the | justice proceeded to try him again, and | sentenced him to ninety days to the | county or to pay the original fine which,
  | creased to nine dollars and fifty cents The negro was then put into a lookup until next morning. when he was trans l ported to an adjoining county and sold 1 to a contractor for convict labor. He
 was required to sign an instrument in writing, which proved to have been a contract to work for year. but as the negro can neither read nor write and the | instrument was not read to him, he had no idea of the plight into which he was | putting himself.
 He is a good farm hand. and. having served his year and month or two over he discovered that his employer had no
 right to hold him, and attempted to es- cape He left the farm, seized a skin IT oored on the baaks of the Coosa River
 made his way across. and took to the woods He had got several hours start
 before he was missed, and kept going till late at night, when he lay down and
 waited for the light of morning. In
 some way the hounds that had been put on his track IOst the trail but by making
 a circle of some ten miles struck it again,
 and after a chase of two and a half
 days caught the runaway. The negro
 heard the dogs good many times. knew
 they would catch him in the end. but he
 kept on moving till he could stagger no
 further. and when the pursuing party
 reached him they took him back to the convict farm. There he received a se
 we're whipping.
 The form of trial was next given him
 at the house of the contractor, and he
 was sentenced to one years labor for breaking the contract and six months
 more for stealing a skin. He was then
 compelled to sign a new contract with
 his employer. agreeing to work till Au- gust. 1904. This last contract and the person of the negro are now in the pos session of the United States Marshall
 and the evidence to prove the whole story
 is in process of collation.. The negro
 who Is an lnoffensive fellow and said to I I, 70 T rgA mud ell | aged. will testify that he was whipped eight times while at the farm. The | names of the parties in the story just told are withEed till the warrant now
 out for the slave driver can be served l upon him
 The casa is only typical of hundreds of | others, indicating that 9 friendless negro
 has m no chance for hls liberty in that part i feature of the campaign about Montgonn- cry is the fact that the operative assign