Things in Tennessee

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1868

Things in Tennessee.

It is often charged that letter writers magnify the troubles in the South. The following from a Nashville paper is probably reliable, and what is taking place in Tennessee, is also in Georgia, and other States. “Is it peace?”

Tennessee Ku-Klux Klan.—The Outrages in Marshall County.—The Negro Whippers and Schoolmasters Hunters on the Rampage.—Lawlessness of the Ku-Klux.

From the Nashville Press and Times, June 20.

We refrained from making any lengthy statement of the barbarous doings of the resurrected rebels in Marshall County, until we could ascertain the indisputable and well attested facts of the case. We got them from several fugitive colored men who were compelled to fly into Nashville for protection and safety.

It appears that a person named Armstead Garrett left Nashville for Chapel Hill in Marshall County, for the purpose of setting up a school to teach the young ones of his color in that neighborhood. “The best friends” of the colored man, as the chivalry call themselves, being possessed of the old conviction that a nigger ought to be brought up ignorantly and wretchedly as more suited to his nature, and better calculated to produce earthly happiness in him, could not bear this invasion of their fortified prejudices, and resolved to resist it with the lash. They had been in the habit of “licking” colored men in a small way for months previous, giving some half dozen cuts with a cowhide to each, every now and then, for the double purpose of keeping their hands in practice and preserving a proper feeling of subjection in the minds of their victims; so they felt in good trim for punishing the audacity of Garrett. About twenty of them started out on Monday evening last from Chapel Hill—young lawyers, students, beaux, counter-jumpers and ragamuffins of all sorts,—for the house where Garrett was stopping. They had openly expressed their intention of giving him a d—d good thrashing, and the colored men of the neighborhood were aware of it. Some few of the latter resolved to prevent the fulfillment of the threat, and gathered together, armed with guns and shot. Garrett could not be found. The chivalry hunted the neighborhood for him, but it was no use. There was a colored man living on the plantation of David Chrisman, remarkable for his independent spirit, as well as his industry and general probity of character. He could not be deterred from openly and boldly voting as he wished, and the chivalry hated him for it. They went to his cabin that night and took the poor man out of his bed—from the enjoyment of a sound and healthy sleep, and decided to give him five licks apiece, which would amount to one hundred lashes, on the bare back.

A city contemporary is astonished that these gallant youths should be disturbed in their little innocent amusement of whipping a negro to death.

The above-mentioned force of colored men observed these proceedings on the part of the resurrected rebels with anxious interest. The night was dark. They crawled along under cover of an adjacent wood, and came dangerously near the house, and just as the third man of the Ku-Klux party was coming down hot and heavy with his third lash on the bleeding back of the poor victim, the concealed negroes fired. This put an end to the game at once. The valiant K. K. K.'s made off in hot haste, leaving the most of their horses behind, and also three masks, which were picked up on the ground the following morning.

The eight colored men (that was the number) dispersed to their several homes and went to sleep. Everything would have remained quiet after that, had the Klan been satisfied; but no, the Klan was out in force again the next morning, hunting up the “d—d niggers.” It became necessary for the men to band themselves together again to prevent a universal scourging and massacre, perhaps; and Garrett banded them together. Both parties remained on the fence all day, till messengers arrived from Squire Williams, the selectman of Chapel Hill, telling the colored men that if they would come into the village and give up their arms, an understanding would be come to, and peace and harmony restored, and proper guarantees given that no more disturbances should occur. This proposition was accepted gladly. They immediately marched in the direction of the village, and had hopes that everything would be all right; but when within two or three miles of the place, sixteen cavaliers dashed out of the woods in their rear, and fired into them, hitting one in the thigh, and slightly wounding a couple of others. About this time the colored band numbered twenty-seven, all armed, and, if they were so minded, could have inflicted serious damage on the cowards who attacked them. Eight of them had routed twenty the night previous, and if their design had been a disturbance, or fight, twenty-seven could easily have defeated sixteen; but they were fully bent on having peace and quiet, and were not contemplating an attack, nor dreamed of being attacked. They went into the woods. They were hunted all day Wednesday by bands of desperadoes, and driven away from their homes, so that they had to attempt to reach Nashville as the only means of saving themselves from destruction.

Coming toward Murfreesboro, an alarm spread before them that they were coming to take the town! They encamped outside it on Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning the Mayor of Murfreesboro went out to have a parley with them; told them that five hundred men were in arms, ready to blow them off the face of the earth if they attempted to pass into the town with weapons in their hands, and demanded of them to surrender their arms, which they did on the assurance that they would be allowed to pursue their journey unmolested. They were, however, afraid to pass through Murfreesboro, so they made a detour, having dispersed themselves in several squads first, to prevent any alarm, and to allay any suspicions of evil designs. Even in this inoffensive manner, they would not be left unmolested. The assurances of the Mayor were like the idle wind. The chivalry did not regard the stipulation, for the colored chattel has no rights they were bound to respect. They scoured the country on their swift steeds, and succeeded in capturing four of the fugitives. It is known they captured four—they may have taken more than that, but it is not certain. What they did with these four, or where they brought them to, no one save the gallant members of the Klan engaged in the noble hunt can tell.

Nine of the fugitives arrived in the city yesterday, and applied to the chief of the Freedman's Bureau for protection. We understand General Carlin will send an officer with a detachment of soldiers to Chapel Hill, for the purpose of restoring, and, for a while, preserving, peace and order.

Most of those colored men, so persecuted and injured, and outraged, by reckless bravadoes, are the most useful class of citizens in the county, all being engaged in raising crops of cotton, corn and wheat, on shares or on monthly pay. Their employers have the greatest respect for them, understanding their laborious and docile disposition, and their earnest wishes to live on friendly terms with every one, and to make themselves useful and creditable citizens, proud and independent enough to resent wrong and injustice when wrong and injustice become too heavy to bear.

This is the short, matter-of-fact history of the troubles in Marshall County, as furnished by the men who know how they were from beginning to end, and who suffered most by them. They are a disgrace to a community that pretends to be Christian and civilized.