The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-12-19

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NEW FORK PAPER on |
ABBEVILLE AFFAIR
Independent Sent Roy Nash to Able. !,
vile sTo Investigate Real Estate
He Wanted to Locate-StOry Deals
With Crawford Lynching Which Oc-
Cured Several Weeks Ago.
The following from the Indepen-
dent of New York, is reproduced in
the Greenwood Index:
(By Roy Nash.)
How the author gathered the facts
OF this lynching may be guessed from
an item in the Abbeville "Press ana
Banner of November %: "Roy Nash
of New York City, spent several days
in Abbeville recently looking over
Abbeville county farm lands with &
view to making extensive investments.
So far no sales have been recorded,
but Mr.. Nash proves that he is inter
ested in Abbeville by suscribing to
The Press and Banner. THE Editor.
Cotton seed was selling at ninety
cents q bushel on Saturday morning,
October 21. A wealthy negro named
Anthony Crawford drove into Abbe
Vile county, South Carolina, with
two loads to be baled; and while
waiting his turn at the gin, went into
the store of w. D. Barksdale to sell
q load Of seed.
AS to just how the dispute started.
no one knows but Mr.. Barksdale. The
version current on the Abbeville curo
is that Barksdale offered eighty-fve
cents for his cotton seed Crawford
told him he had already received
better offer and Barksdale called him
a liar. Whereupon, (and from this
Point the evidence all tallies) CraW-
ford cursed the storekeeper and &C
cused him of trying to beat him out
of his money. Barksdale turned back
INTO the store and left Crawford CIV
ing free play to his temper outside
until a clerk came flying out with an
ak handle in his hand. Crawford
backed off toward the square and
was promptly arrested. BY the time
the policeman and the negro reached
the municipal building hundred
yards distant, the crowd was streak
ing across the plaza from every store
around the market place, intent on
giving the negro a whipping for dar-
Ing to curse white man. This crowd
dispersed without having laid hands
on Crawford, and when they had gone
Chief Of Police Johnson collected ff-
teen dollars bail and let the negro
out of a side door. Crawford started
to the gin a short hundred wards
straight back of the municipal builo-
ing, where his two loads Of cotton
were waiting.
There was second rush across
the square as some one spied him 60
ing toward the gin. He probably
would have gotten Off with good
beating if he had been humber sort,
but Anthony Crawford was a sue
cessful farmer worth over twenty
thousand dollars, far richer than
most of those who pursued him, and
proud. He once said to friend. "The
day a white man hits me is the day
i die" When he heard the hue and
cry behind him, Crawford made for
the boiler-yoom of the gin, down in
a partly covered pit, where he took
off his coat, picked up foug-pound
hammer, and waited. Mckinney
Cam, a rough chap who sells bug
gies and feed for ]. S. Clark, led the
rabble. AS they closed in on him,
Crawford smashed in Cams skull,
and would have killed him had not
some one grabbed his arm as he aim
ed the blow. Then a rock from
above caught the negro on the head
and he went down. To their credit
be it said, the superintendent of the
gin and two furniture dealers, w. A.
Calvert and his son, John, tried to
prevent what followed. These citizens
of Abbeville took Crawford into the
road where everybody could get al
him. Under their ministrations, the
negro regained consciousness, got on
his feet and fought his way for fifty
feet up the road before knife pluns-
ed into his back again. While he was
down and bleeding, two hundred
white men kicked him into uncon-
sciousness-we spare you the rest.
Enters the law
The police. as soon as they turned
Crawford out Of the municipal build
ing. had urgent business further up
the street; but Sheriff Burts ran to
the gin as soon as the fight started.
He begged the boys not to kill the
negro: he pleaded, he cajoled, he ell