Freed persons; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877); Southern States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950
In the counties of this district above named there is no right of the
negro which the white man respects; all is anarchy and confusion; a reign
of terror exists, and the life of the freedmen is at the mercy of any
villain whose hatred or caprice incites to murder. Organized patrols with
negro hounds keep guard over the thoroughfares, bands of lawless robbers
traverse the country, and the unfortunate who attempts escape, or he who
returns for his wife or child, is waylaid or pursued with hounds, and shot
or hung. Laborers on the plantations are forced to remain and toil without
hope of remuneration. Others have made the crop and are now driven off to
reach Mobile or starve; scarcely any of them have rags enough to cover
them. Many who still labor are denied any meat, and whenever they are
treated with humanity it is an isolated exception. Ragged, maimed, and
diseased, these miserable outcasts seek their only refuge, the Freedmen's
Bureau, and their simple tale of suffering and woe calls loudly on the
mighty arm of our government for the protection promised them.
These people are industrious. They do not refuse to work; on the contrary,
they labor for the smallest pittance and plainest food, and are too often
driven off deprived of the small compensation they labored for.
The report of rations issued to destitute citizens on August 1, 1865, was
3,570 persons. Owing to the numerous impostures by those who had means of
support, I erased the names of a large number and the list now stands
1,742 persons who are recipients of government alms. Of this number, 95
per cent. are rebels who have participated in some manner in this
rebellion. Number of rations issued to destitute colored people is simply
six (6).
The report of the freedmen's colony of this district to this date is (12)
twelve men, (71) seventy-one women, and (88) eighty-eight children, and
sick in hospital (105) one hundred and five; total (276) two hundred and
seventy-six. Of this number many have been driven off of plantations as
helpless, while many of their grown children are forcibly retained to hard
labor for their masters.
I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
W.A. POILLON,
_Captain, Assistant Superintendent freedmen, refugees, abandoned
lands, &c._
General CARL SCHURZ.
Freedmen's Bureau, _July_ 29, 1865.
Sir: I have the honor to report some testimony I have received of the
murders and barbarities committed on the freedmen in Clark, Choctaw,
Washington and Marengo counties, also the Alabama and Bigbee rivers.
About the last of April, two freedmen were hung in Clark county.
On the night of the eleventh of May, a freedman named Alfred was taken
from his bed by his master and others and was hung, and his body still
hangs to the limb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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