p. 83 | Mississippi by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Aug 14, 1866

Mississippi.

By Editor

ASSAULT UPON REV. J. P. BRADWELL.

MURDER OF LIEUT. BLANDING.

The following slip is sent us from the office of our Dist. Sec. at Cincinnati.

"Rev. J. P. Bardwell, agent for the American Missionary Association in Mississippi, was lately enticed into a law office in Grenada, Miss., and set into by a ruffianly crowd that gathered in the street, in open day. This missionary to the freedmen could get no reason for the choking and beating which they proceeded to administer, except that he was working for the 'niggers.' The Bureau agent, Lieut. Blanding helped him wash the blood from his face and advised a complaint to the Mayor. On reaching the Mayor's office, Mr. Bardwell found that the man who had led the crowd, and beaten him, had already been before the Mayor, made complaint against himself, and paid the fine of ten dollars imposed by his Honor, and was ready for more work at the same price. Three days after, Lieut. Blanding, agent of the Bureau, was attacked on the street, shot three times, and died in twenty-four hours.

May 4th. Mr. Bardwell wrote from Jackson :

"I hoped the shooting of Lieut. Blanding would have a tendency to quiet the ruffians, for a time at least, but it seems otherwise. While Lieut. Blanding lay dying, a committee of citizens waited on Capt. May, Sub-Com. of Freedmen's Bureau, telling him that the teachers, must leave town. He told them that the teachers were not Government employees, and he had no control over them. With this committee came a Com. of condolence and also the information that if he did not leave he would be shot next. The man with whom the teachers boarded is threatened with prosecution for stealing cotton, cattle, &c., and of course, if he is prosecuted, they will convict him of any crime they choose."

The purpose evidently is to drive away every friend of the colored man, from the South, not only the missionaries and teachers, but every one who would lift up a voice for the poor and lowly. Whether this effort succeeds or not, depends, under God, upon the action of our General Government. If such scenes are permitted to pass unrebuked, the whole South will be overrun by violence worse than ever before, and no faithful friend of God or man will be able to abide there. At last dates, it seemed probable that our teachers would leave.—Am. Missionary.