The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1918-02-21
VOL. %. NO. 10.
COIRT OF GENERAL SESSIONS
Negro Gets Life Sentence fer Killing
Man who "Conjuird.' Him

iAe spring term court Of general
sessions convened Monday morning
with Judge Frank B Gary Of Able
vile presiding. Solicitor Spears and
Stenographer kilgo were a. their
posts. The docket was yely light and
the session lasted only a few hours.
The grand jury organized by olecting
Mr. l.. I. Elliott foreman and all bills.
were III the hands of the solicitor by
noon.
Jas. Moore. colored, plead guilty to
stealing an automobile from Sheriff
Lane and also an automobile from III.
+. Parham and was given a sentence
OF 10 i0onth's for each offence
There was only one other case, but
OWNS to the peculiar circumstances
surrounding il, -. $50 attracted
more then ordinary interest. ~, the
criminal docket is written Hoard
Ford, murder, 90 years" the story of
which takes one back to the dark
days Of the jungle when mans pass
ions and prejudices We're controlled
by ignorance and superstition. Hoad
Ford is typical African of the Jun
-
thick-iipped. he is the recincarnatiGn
OF some ancestor of centuries ago who
lived on superstition and died by the
shield and the spear. Ford plead
guilty to the charge of murder and
asked the mercy of the court. but his
story as told to several attorneys
makes one marvel that such isnor-
ance and superstition should exist in
this day of culture and enlighten-
ment. Ford slew his victim, so he
says, because he .'conjured" him, or
TO use his own words, because he
took sand out of my traci;s." When
his enemy took sand out of his tracks
Ford claims that his mind became all
upset and he couldn't control him
self. He debated over the matter and
going to his enemy's house armed
armed with a shotgun he demanded
that he put the sand back His en-
emy only laughed and Ford shot him
to death. The negroes story was
simple enough. He told it with such
earnestness that one could not doubt
his sincerity. In the depth of his ig-
norance and superstition he believed
the troubles that had beset him for
many months and the only way to re-
lleve himself of those troubles was to
kill the man who kept the spell" on
him. But this idea OF superstition is
almost as ancient as Africa itself. 1t
was Livingston, the great explorer.
who wrote Interestingly of the terri
bic effects of superstition among the
Africans. In each tribe there was a
priest or superconjurer who worked
on the feelings and passions of the
natives. One form OF conjuring was
put sand in the tracks" OF an enemy.
This was followed by sickness and
death in the household, failure of
crops. loss of cattle or some other
calamity. The victim of these
spells" sought the advice of the
priest and for consideration the
priest put sand in the cnecy's
tracks" and then for a smaller con-
sideration hired some other native to
murder the native who was supposed
to be responsible for the origin of the
first spells. DR.. Livingston's re
citai of the fears and superstitions or
the Africans bears out the truth of
the hallicunation under which Hoad
Ford was laboring and accounts in
some measure for Ford's act in sum-
marily ridding himself of the man
who had cast spell" on him and
was responsible for his troubles.