Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-01
Testimony Reveals Most Inhu-
man and Barbarous Treat
ment of Helpless Blacks
SEVERAL MORE ARRESTS MADE
Deputy Sheriff of coosa, Ala, One of
Them-Five indictments for Conspi-
racy to Injure and Cypress Against
j. Wilbur Harrison-Lons Servitude
for Triflins Debts.

Montgomery, Ala. July 1.-Several
more arrests have been made since Sat
urday in the peonage and conspiracy
cases. Among them were those of l.. A.
Grogan, deputy sheriff of Coosa,
charged with assisting in carrying
Emma Pearson to a condition of peon
age" which means that he used his
badge and his office to delude this and
other negroes into thinking they had
really been arrested for something, and
of j. Wilbur Harrison, against whom
there are five indictments for conspir-
acy TO injure and Cypress.
Harrison is to be tried for being one
of the affidavit men, whose particular
part was to fake and trump up ac-
cusations against friendless negroes
who it was desired to place or. continue
in bondage.
Some of the grave abuses committed
by quarry owners, landlords, constabies'
magistrates and guards involved IN
"depriving citizens OF African descent
OF their liberty, and which the federal
courts are undertaking to end can be
had from the sworn testimony OF
blacks. often corroborated by whites
testimony on which the grand jury
unanimously found ninety-nine indict-
ments and wanted to find more. III
any man entertains doubts as to the
cruelties practiced, he has but to read
the following story of a negro woman
tortured to death. A negress i'll good
health was beaten so much and subject
ed to such awful fortunes from 8
o'clock until o'clock that she died an
hour later o'clock. After being beat
en- until her back was blistered ana
bloody, she was strung up by her wrists,
her feet being tied together. She was
hoisted till her toes barely touched
ground. In this position she was Kept
from 10 o'clock in the morning till the
dinner bell rang at II. when she was
ordered cut down. She was still alive
and went behind a log, on the brow
OF hill, to lie down.
She couldn't Eat.
A pone of bread made of corn meal
was ordered thrown to her by the
guard She either could not or would
not eat. The guard thereupon ordered
the bread thrown to the dogs. When
the dinner hour was over the guard
went up to where she lay and ordered
her back to work. He mistook her
inability to work for stubhornness; he
struck her on the head With his pistol
Then "he jumped upon her stomach.
The guard then returned to the place
where the other poems We're at Work,
and sent word back after While by one
of the poems ordering her to come on
down TO work" 1t was then about
o'clock The peon said: Boss, she
can't come TO work. She's dead.
Killed with Spade.
Some forty negroes and negresses
have been found whose grievances as to
whippings have not been outlawed by
the statute of limitation. The details
are distressing and do not vary much.
There is testimony that one negro was
killed with a spade by the son OF
the proprietor: that Il negress who ran
away was chased by dogs, torn about
the stomach" whipped when she got
back and kept three months more in
seryitude. Another negress :s men,
toned whose uncle says she was killed
by the son of the proprietor acting as
overseer.
one of three negroes who was
bought for $50" was whipped abGat
every other day for four months. lyiizS
face downward, one man on his hes
and one man sitting on his legs. AM
other was whipped with hickory stick
with empty cartridges on the end. An
other, was whipped twice: once his
hands were tied under his knees, and
the guard told him to count the licks"
he was giving him on the bare back
After counting to fifteen the negro
could not count any more. Another,
working out debt of s6.16 with seven
labor was whipped every day
with plow lines and cut on the nose
cnce with a hoe.
The guards on one mars place had
strap. 1.-THE leather ABOUT eighteen
inches long. the handle about the same
the strap is about as broad as three
fingers" With this Joe Patterson, who
worked a year for dollar debt, was
whipped. A boy of Is was whipped two
or three times day. Ore tells of be-
ing licked with stick as big as a
broom handle; negress shows sears
on her head from a buggy trace; 10
year old girl was whipped once in her
twelve months service; they placed her
over bench, pulled up her clothes and
struck her Fifteen or twenty times with
a strap that was doubled four times
and that was fastened at the end with
tacks."
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