Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1916-08-17
Green Coleman, Once a Figure in the
Reign of Terror and Negro Rule
With South Carolina Carpetbaggers
Describes His Experiences.
LIQUOR AND GRAFT
RAN RAMPANT THEN
Famous "Red Shirts" and klu kluX
Clan, With Gen. Wade Hampton
Redeemed Palmetto State With
Unmistakable Forces.
From Charlotte O5stlNer.

How Wade Hampton redeemed the
State and carpetbagging days in Soutl
Carolina formed the t'pic Of rare
interview with Green Coleman OF
Charlotte yesterday, When the aged
negro, once a State Senator, wearing
q high beaver hat and Prince Albert
coat, was in the seventh zenith OF
negro heaven in the halls of the old
South Carolina Statehouse at Colum-
bia.
Them was days when de Niger
was in his glory 70 shure," remarked
Coleman, as he related with a relish
recollections of 1875 and '76 when the
carpetbaggers and the niggers held
the State of South Carolina at IN III
mercy; when the corridors of the State
House at Columbia reeked with drunk
en- statesmen, when thousands of dol
lars worth of liquors and cordials and
choice cigars were kept constantly on
' tap at the Statehouse for the hun
dred or more nigger Senators and
statesmen" and their carpetbagging
friends, who conducted reign of ter
ror second only to the days of the
Roman 'uphsaval.
The skies were overcast with dark
ominous clouds of social and political
unrest back there in rs and '76 when
Wade Hampton stepped in and. re-
! deemed the fair name of the Palmet-
.to state, with the cooperation of ma
tive whites and the ce-fa4 =
red sniitsp whose Loyalty and
..tiqn 10 tbels iptaeHil
born courage Within rceif' 11Uou
shirts turned out every negro frd
a statesman's berth, stopped the looS-5
ing Of the State Treasury, bridlea
graft and bribes and again made Sonlh
Carolina righteous and unashamed.
And Green Coleman, then a resi-
dent of Chester, s. c., and a typical
negro of his day and time in intelli-
gence and moral L-s---eina, was elected
to office by his nenchmen and niger
votes to represent Chester in the State
Legislature. The old negro tells about
it with rare frankness.
He described in his own inimitable
way how the niggers and carpetbag-
gers ran rampant with the peoples
money and with their voting power,
appropriations for anything under the
sun being as readily obtained as a
match with which to light a twenty
cent cigar purchased at the expense vi
the Commonwealth. There were may
be, he says, $50 niggers in the halls
of the State Legislature back there IN
rs and '76, and every one of them
felt that it was a wonderful time for
the black race. And they made ev-
cry minute of it count because deep
in their hearts they knew a day OF
reckoning would come, and when it
did-they realized the negro would
be no more in the exalted places so
rudely usurped by the power of men
who stripped the State of all it held
dear and sold themselves to the high
est bidders.
Votes were sold openly and without
shame ten twent, thirty at time
some for as high as hundred dollars
and others as low as five and ten DOL
lars, according to the amount OF graft
the niggers had been told were avail
able. Green Coleman admitted with
out touch of shame or remorse, that
the highest price he ever obtained fol
his vote in the South Carolina State
House was $1OO in United States cur
rency, and it was a heap sight OF
money to a niger brought up on a
plantation in those days.
Then the former Chester negro
told of the silent, mysterious, awe-in-
spring activities of the Klu Klux Clan
and the terrible way in which one al
ter another negro Senators and law
makers of the day before disappeared
as if the earth had opened and swal-
lowed them, until the fear of the
wrath of God or some unseen, un-
known force turned craven the mig
ger heart and his little stock of cOur-
age oozed through his skin until il
left him weak, hollow eyed and shiv-
ering on the threshold of frantic de
spair.
1--WE took our meals with the white
carpetbaggers at the hotel near tho
Statehouse in Columbia and SLEPT
there, too, when We got any sleep
because there was gambling going on
all night and games of chance fol
money and such things, but we mixed
with the white folks all the time and
at night we had carriages and spans
Of horses to draw us about town OIL
~~e----