Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1898 — TEN NEGROES KILLED. [ARTICLE]

TEN NEGROES KILLED.

Town of Harporavillo, Mia*., Has a '•■'"f. Race War*. The town of Harpersville, situated in the interior of Scott County, Miss., Is in the throes of a race war, which has already resulted in the death of ten negroes, the killing of one white man, and the wounding of three others. The trouble started the other night, when Constable Thompson, at the head of a posse of fifteen men. went to the house of William Burke, a desperate negro, who residea a mile from Harpersville, with a warrant charging Burke' with an attempt to murder Charles Freeman, a white man. Burke had fortified himself In his log house, and l»ad summoned about fifty negroes to his assistance. The moment the officers arrived they wore met with a storm of bullets from the house, and a regular pitched battle ensued. Henry Sibley, one of the* officers, was shot dead at the first fire, and a second later three other members of the posse fell, with perhaps fatal wounds. The officers, finding themselves outnumbered, retired for re-enforcements. The attack was renewed in the morning. The negroes in the neighborhood ambushed themselves near Burke’s house, and from their place of vantage they poured a deadly fire into the besieging party. The whole country for miles around was soon ’ in an uproar, and scores of white men armed themselves and rushed to the scene of hostilities.