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قراءة كتاب A Letter to Hon. Charles Sumner, with 'Statements' of Outrages upon Freedmen in Georgia

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A Letter to Hon. Charles Sumner, with 'Statements' of Outrages upon Freedmen in Georgia

A Letter to Hon. Charles Sumner, with 'Statements' of Outrages upon Freedmen in Georgia

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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keep off his blow. I went backwards to the door and to the edge of the porch, and he followed me. As I turned to go down the steps—there are four steps—he struck me a powerful blow on the back of my head, and I fell from the porch to the ground. I was not entirely senseless, but I was stiff and could not move hand or foot. I lay a long time—I do not know how long—but he did not touch me. Jolly Low was at work upon the house, and he came down where I was, and Mr. Hodges told him he might lift me up if he was a mind to. He lifted me up and set me on the steps. Mr. Hodges then sent about three miles for Dr. Westbrook, and he came and bled me in both arms; but I was so cold my left arm would not bleed at all, and my right arm bled but a very little. The Doctor then told me to go to my friend's house and let him take care of me. Two colored men—Anthony Dukes and Edward Corrillus—took me under each arm and carried me to Burrell Corrillus' house, about one hundred and fifty yards. I could not bear my weight upon my feet or stand at all. The Doctor rode by and told Mrs. Corrillus to take good care of me and keep me there a couple of days. I staid there until Sunday afternoon, when two men lifted me into a buggy and Mr. Corrillus carried me to my wife near Americus. My hands, arms, back, and legs are almost useless. I have not been able to lift a bit of food to my mouth. I have to be fed like a baby. I have not gone before any of the courts. I have no money to pay a lawyer, and I know it would do no good. Mr. Hodges has not paid me for my cotton, and says he will not settle with me, but will settle with any man I will send him. While I lay before his door he told me that if I died he would pay my wife $50. I hope there will be some law sometime for us poor oppressed people. If we could only get land and have homes we could get along; but they won't sell us any land."

Andersonville, Ga., Feb. 7, 1869.

 

Mr. Cook is about fifty years old, has a large frame, has been an industrious, hard-working man, but is now almost entirely paralized and helpless. He is the most shattered, complete, and pitiable wreck from human violence I have ever seen. Mr. Hodges, I am told, owns about six thousand acres of land, and is one of the most prominent and respected citizens of Sumter County. He is a Methodist preacher, and Mr. Reese informs me, as I write, that he has heard him preach a great many times in the last twenty years to both white and colored people at camp-meetings and different meeting-houses in this region. He refuses to sell any of his land to the colored people, and will not allow them to build a school-house on it.

 

STATEMENT OF FLOYD SNELSON.

Floyd Snelson, foreman of the hands employed by the Government in the National Cemetery, Andersonville, Georgia, says:

"That in July, 1868, after the work was suspended in the cemetery, and the Lieutenant in charge had gone to Marietta, Georgia, and the schools for the freedmen were closed, and the teachers had left for the North, Mr. B. B. Dikes notified all the colored people who occupied buildings on the land now claimed by him, formerly occupied by the Confederate Government, in connection with the Andersonville prison, that they must get out of their buildings within four days, or he would have them put out by the Sheriff, and they would have the cost to pay. Nearly all of these men had been in the employ of the Government, at work in the National Cemetery, many of them from the commencement of this work after the surrender. They all occupied these buildings by permission of the officer in charge of the cemetery, by whom they were employed. Many of them had built these houses at their own expense, and cleared, fenced, and cultivated gardens of from one to four acres, which were covered with corn, potatoes, and other vegetables, which, with their houses, they were required to leave without any compensation. Including these laborers and their families, about two hundred persons occupied these buildings. On account of the great difficulty of getting homes for so many on such short notice, most of these colored people applied to Mr. Dikes for the priviledge of occupying their houses and paying rent, either in money or a part of the crops that they were growing. But he refused, and said they could not stay on any terms. On the day appointed by Mr. Dikes, (Wednesday, July 29th, 1868,) the most of the white people in from six to ten miles around, appeared in Andersonville, with their arms, and Mr. Souber, the magistrate of the district, and Mr. Raiford, the Sheriff of the county, accompanied by a party of some twenty-six or thirty armed white men, went to the houses of all these people, (except a very few who had vacated their premises,) and threw all their furniture, and provisions of every kind, out of doors. They then nailed up the doors of all their cabins, on the inside, and punched off a part of the roofs, and got out in this way. By about two P. M., all these people, with their furniture, bedding, provisions, and everything that they possessed, were turned out of doors.

"About four o'clock, the most violent rain storm, accompanied with the most terrific thunder and lightning ever known here, commenced and continued the most of the night. Every mill-dam and many of the mills in a circle of ten miles were washed away and so completely destroyed that but one of them has been repaired so as to be used. The women—some of them about to be confined—children and invalids were exposed to this storm during the night. Their beds, clothing, provisions, and themselves were as completely drenched as if they had been thrown into a brook. Some of these people got homes by working for their board. Some able-bodied men got twenty-five cents a day. Some of them, (Deacon Turner Hall, of the Congregational Church, Andersonville, among the number,) walked from ten to twenty miles a day, and could get neither homes nor work at any price at all. Many women and children lay out of doors guarding their things, and exposed to the weather nearly a week, before they could get any shelter at all—their husbands and fathers roaming over the country to find some kind of a home. The Rev. F. Haley, of the American Missionary Association, arrived the next day, to look after the property of the mission. His life was threatened, but the colored people rallied around him to protect him, and he left the next day unharmed. Large numbers of the white people, from the neighborhood, assembled at Andersonville every day until Saturday night, when they set fire to nine (9) of the buildings, that had been built by the colored people, and burnt them up, and tore down their fences and destroyed their crops. The colored people, supposing that they intended to burn the buildings occupied for the "Teacher's Home" and the "Freedmen's School," rallied and protected them. No one of the men engaged in these outrages, has ever been arrested or punished in any way, and no one of these freedmen has ever had any redress for his sufferings and losses. I will make oath to these statements."

Andersonville, Ga., Feb. 12, 1869.

 

STATEMENT OF GEORGE SMITH.

George Smith now resides five miles from Ellaville, in Schley County, Georgia. He says:

"Before the election of Grant, large bodies of men were riding about the country in the night for more than a month. They and their horses were covered with large white sheets, so that you could not tell them or their horses. They gave out word that they would whip every Radical in the country that intended to vote for Grant, and did whip all they could get hold

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