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blueinkedfrostProject Gutenberg link (pub: 1912, or 67 years after the publication of the first autobiography of Frederick Douglass, obviously just a Creation Of Its Time.)
Warning: this is LJ-cut for triggering content about the murder of African-American people and extreme racism.
It's a reasonably long book, and it's as racist as you can expect--and then some; and a most fascinating experience of un-self-aware distortion. Here are two stories that it presents in its contortionistic ways.
A story about a clever African-American gentleman who fought strategically to protect his beloved son even after white men assembled a small army to try to attack him and his friends:
Two young men belonging in the hills of Tuscaloosa county, were journeying in a wagon, bound homeward from a trading trip to Northport (across the river from Tuscaloosa). Passing a negro lad, they jestingly pretended that they would kidnap him. In alarm, the boy fled to his home and informed his father that he had been mistreated; and the man armed himself with a gun and pursued the unconscious young men. Overtaking them, he leveled his gun menacingly and cursed the unarmed and defenseless white men.
That night they, with some friends, repaired to the negro’s house to chastise him. He had assembled a number of armed friends in anticipation of an attack. He had loosened some of the flooring, and through the opening thus provided crawled to the edge of the house, and, emerging from this position, crept unperceived to the near-by bushes. While the whites were parleying with the inmates of the house, he discharged both barrels of his gun, and young Finley fell dead. Shots from the house succeeded. Attacked front and rear, the whites withdrew in disorder. News of the occurrence quickly spread far and wide.
Next day one of the negroes implicated was caught and killed. Later, another, who had been captured and incarcerated in jail at Tuscaloosa, was taken therefrom by a band of men and executed. The ringleader escaped temporarily. Twice in pursuit of him steamboats were stopped and searched. The fugitive had been on one of them, but debarked at one of the landings. About twelve months after the unsuccessful chase, the fugitive was traced to a plantation in Hale county, where the habit of wearing a heavy revolver even while at field work rendered him an object of suspicion, and caused an investigation which revealed his identity. His dead body, weapon in hand, was found one day on the roadside, and his taking off was associated in the minds of the people with the brief visit to that neighborhood of two white men, who departed in the direction of Tuscaloosa county. Consequences of this affair were a change in the office of sheriff, recall of troops, and other tragedies, but the ultimate effect was a better understanding between the races.
Two grown men harass a boy; his father defends him, and in recompense for this they gather a gang to cowardly invade the child's house by night. Fortunately the father had invited some friends in return, and he fought back. However, this family was retaliated against in return. They were murdered, lynched, and ganged up on by thugs, and the end result was that the local African-American people learned to understand that quite a few local white men were evil murdering bastards.
And a story about an African-American leader who was lynched, but fought bravely.
...the retributive death of the negro leader, Zeke High, who boasted that his shot killed Collins. On his own boastful confession High was arrested and lodged in the Sumter county jail at Livingston. September 29 a party of mounted and disguised men from the direction of Marengo forced the sheriff to surrender the jail keys, entered the prison and took High from his cell, conveyed him a short distance away and hung and shot him to death. This High was a desperate and dangerous character, and even when seized by his executioners fought ferociously. When the leader entered the dark cell in which High and three other prisoners were incarcerated, he was assaulted and struck in the face with a heavy piece of furniture, the blow dislodging several front teeth.
I was curious about more of this story given the data of a name, and on GoogleBooks I found the information about Zeke High that Collins had broken into his home in 1870, and in his general career High was a political observer who had already been in jail for almost a year when he was murdered. This gives a transcript of some official interrogations on him. Collins was claimed by some to be a Ku Klux Klan member, an unemployed and "wild" manual labourer who invaded High's home. And what was done to Zeke High in return is given in some level of detail: he was shot repeatedly, and the corpse was unrecognisable.
A sample interrogation on the process of justice for white versus African-American, on a different case in the same document:
Question. Was not this man Prater, who shot the negro, and who was released, drunk at the time he killed the negro?
Answer. He was, I understood, beastly drunk; I understand, sir, that he was when he killed the negro.
Question. Was his offense supposed to be any less in degree because he was drunk when he killed the negro?
Answer. Drunkenness, in this county, don't excuse a man from being hung, if it murder. He would have been hung, certainly, if they had left him to the court.
Question. That is your opinion?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Have your ever heard or known of a white man being hung for killing a negro?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. When and where?
Answer. Long years ago.
Question. Before the war?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Since the war, have yon beard of a white man being hung or punished for killing or whipping a negro?
Answer. Let me study a while. There is none on my tongue's end. I know that for lesser offenses they are punished, but those that killed the negroes generally got up and [indecipherable word expressed in the plain text as "(lasted"].
Question. A negro was of considerable pecuniary value, before the war, was he not?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. It was an offense against the owner to kill him?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. The planter then brought the man to justice for the loss of his slave?
Answer. Yes, sir. The negro had no voice in court then.
Warning: this is LJ-cut for triggering content about the murder of African-American people and extreme racism.
It's a reasonably long book, and it's as racist as you can expect--and then some; and a most fascinating experience of un-self-aware distortion. Here are two stories that it presents in its contortionistic ways.
A story about a clever African-American gentleman who fought strategically to protect his beloved son even after white men assembled a small army to try to attack him and his friends:
Two young men belonging in the hills of Tuscaloosa county, were journeying in a wagon, bound homeward from a trading trip to Northport (across the river from Tuscaloosa). Passing a negro lad, they jestingly pretended that they would kidnap him. In alarm, the boy fled to his home and informed his father that he had been mistreated; and the man armed himself with a gun and pursued the unconscious young men. Overtaking them, he leveled his gun menacingly and cursed the unarmed and defenseless white men.
That night they, with some friends, repaired to the negro’s house to chastise him. He had assembled a number of armed friends in anticipation of an attack. He had loosened some of the flooring, and through the opening thus provided crawled to the edge of the house, and, emerging from this position, crept unperceived to the near-by bushes. While the whites were parleying with the inmates of the house, he discharged both barrels of his gun, and young Finley fell dead. Shots from the house succeeded. Attacked front and rear, the whites withdrew in disorder. News of the occurrence quickly spread far and wide.
Next day one of the negroes implicated was caught and killed. Later, another, who had been captured and incarcerated in jail at Tuscaloosa, was taken therefrom by a band of men and executed. The ringleader escaped temporarily. Twice in pursuit of him steamboats were stopped and searched. The fugitive had been on one of them, but debarked at one of the landings. About twelve months after the unsuccessful chase, the fugitive was traced to a plantation in Hale county, where the habit of wearing a heavy revolver even while at field work rendered him an object of suspicion, and caused an investigation which revealed his identity. His dead body, weapon in hand, was found one day on the roadside, and his taking off was associated in the minds of the people with the brief visit to that neighborhood of two white men, who departed in the direction of Tuscaloosa county. Consequences of this affair were a change in the office of sheriff, recall of troops, and other tragedies, but the ultimate effect was a better understanding between the races.
Two grown men harass a boy; his father defends him, and in recompense for this they gather a gang to cowardly invade the child's house by night. Fortunately the father had invited some friends in return, and he fought back. However, this family was retaliated against in return. They were murdered, lynched, and ganged up on by thugs, and the end result was that the local African-American people learned to understand that quite a few local white men were evil murdering bastards.
And a story about an African-American leader who was lynched, but fought bravely.
...the retributive death of the negro leader, Zeke High, who boasted that his shot killed Collins. On his own boastful confession High was arrested and lodged in the Sumter county jail at Livingston. September 29 a party of mounted and disguised men from the direction of Marengo forced the sheriff to surrender the jail keys, entered the prison and took High from his cell, conveyed him a short distance away and hung and shot him to death. This High was a desperate and dangerous character, and even when seized by his executioners fought ferociously. When the leader entered the dark cell in which High and three other prisoners were incarcerated, he was assaulted and struck in the face with a heavy piece of furniture, the blow dislodging several front teeth.
I was curious about more of this story given the data of a name, and on GoogleBooks I found the information about Zeke High that Collins had broken into his home in 1870, and in his general career High was a political observer who had already been in jail for almost a year when he was murdered. This gives a transcript of some official interrogations on him. Collins was claimed by some to be a Ku Klux Klan member, an unemployed and "wild" manual labourer who invaded High's home. And what was done to Zeke High in return is given in some level of detail: he was shot repeatedly, and the corpse was unrecognisable.
A sample interrogation on the process of justice for white versus African-American, on a different case in the same document:
Question. Was not this man Prater, who shot the negro, and who was released, drunk at the time he killed the negro?
Answer. He was, I understood, beastly drunk; I understand, sir, that he was when he killed the negro.
Question. Was his offense supposed to be any less in degree because he was drunk when he killed the negro?
Answer. Drunkenness, in this county, don't excuse a man from being hung, if it murder. He would have been hung, certainly, if they had left him to the court.
Question. That is your opinion?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Have your ever heard or known of a white man being hung for killing a negro?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. When and where?
Answer. Long years ago.
Question. Before the war?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. Since the war, have yon beard of a white man being hung or punished for killing or whipping a negro?
Answer. Let me study a while. There is none on my tongue's end. I know that for lesser offenses they are punished, but those that killed the negroes generally got up and [indecipherable word expressed in the plain text as "(lasted"].
Question. A negro was of considerable pecuniary value, before the war, was he not?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. It was an offense against the owner to kill him?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. The planter then brought the man to justice for the loss of his slave?
Answer. Yes, sir. The negro had no voice in court then.
