Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1884 — THE TRAGEDIES AT YAZOO. [ARTICLE]

THE TRAGEDIES AT YAZOO.

Little Doubt that the Trouble Was v Purposely Caused by Whites. The Assassination of Dickson by Barksdale —Tree Speech an Obsolete Privilegs , r -An Inve- igatioa Demanded. [Yazoo Letter in Chicago Tribune.) The rocenft bloody deed® here have struck with horror the whole country. That a state of things exists here bordering upon savagery is apparent to every one. Colored men, like bleeding stags, have turned on their oppressors and rended them. White men, turned to fiendish brutes, have glutted themselves with deeds that loake the blood run oold. The accounts which have so far been permitted to reach the public are evidently so garbled and untruthful that no credence whatever is to be placed in them- When a community places a restriction upon all news and suffers no dispatches to go forth, only such as are supervised bya “ committee of citizens,*’ it is time for the public to Withhold its judgment until impartial facts can be known. _ , Christmas eve, at abouto o’clock, a terrible affray took place, resulting in tho killing of three white men and the wounding of two others, and tho killing was done by oolorod men, who have since been shot or hanged by the infuriated mob in the most cold-blooded and fiendish manner. To persons who are unfamiliar with-the state of affairs that has existed in Yazoo City since July, 1875, it might appear that these colored men were murderers and have suffered a jnst retribution, but it strikes one quite differently who is conversant with Yazoo City history for eight years past. It is evident that the Poseys and their friends were the aggressors, and that they brought about their own destruction. It would seem that some faneied offense was given by John James, colored, to one of the Poseys. Some of the accounts say that a fire-cracker was thrown down in front of Posey by James, whereupon Posey got into an altercation with James, which was tho commencement of the trouble. Another account says that two colored men were fighting in a saloon and that Posey undertook to have them arrested, and this started tho difficulty; but all accounts agree that no shooting occurred until some time later. John Posey then went off, assembled his friends, and returned armed to the scene of the difficulty. That the white men who were killed, and probably many others who were not killed, sought the difficulty with the negroes is shown by tho fact that the Poseys and their friends returned to tho butcher-shop. This shows clearly enough who provoked the difficulty, and what party was acting strictly on tho defensive. The negroes evidently apprehended attack and prepared for it. Negroes in Yazoo City do not carry guns, and do not use them except when driven to the wall. Since the bloody scenes of 1875 every white man has been armed against the colored man. For a colored man to shoot a white man, or even to insult one, was to court certain and speedy death, and every black man has well Known it. The men who fired on the PdseyS and their associates Christmas Eve knew as well that their own lives would pay the penalty as we know it now. Why, then did they thus offer up their lives, regardless of consequences? It • can be accounted for on no other ground than dernier resort. The colored people of Yazoo City and, Yazoo county have suffered such a long list of atrocities and oppressions that they at last turned on their oppressors and resisted. A few leaders t among the people saw that there was intended to be a repetition of 187& and 1879, and determined to defend themselves. They knew that their people was singled out for some outrageous attack that very night. It is quite likely that the Poseys and their gang went back to the butcher-shop to take John James out to hang him. Hangings of this sort have been common in Yazoo county for the last eight years. Many a colored man has been hanged or whipped there because he has happened to displease a white man and for no offense whatever. Hanging and whipping have been the short cuts to “law and order” in Yazoo for many years. Where negroes were concerned these things have been every-day occurrences, and they have been frequent enough to keep up a wholesome state of white supremacy and negro subjugation. A LEAP FROM HISTORY. In August, 1875, a Republican meeting was held In Yazoo City for the purpose of opening the canvass of that year lor legislative officers and Congressmen. .For some years the county had been under Republican control, and bad been, as no one could deny, well and honestly governed. There was no particular occasion for riot and bloodshed, and peace and prosperity should have been permitted to reign. But race hatred and Democratic malice opened here the shotgun policy. A gang of armed ruffians Intruded themselves into the peaceable and unsuspecting Republican meeting. At a given signal pistols were drawn by these ruffians, who commenced firing indiscriminately into the assemblage. Several unoffending and unarmed persons were ruthlessly shot down, The meeting was afterward broken up, and universal dismay ensued. As if by magic several hundred white men in Yazoo City were under arms. The city was in the hands of a mob which drove out all the lawfully constituted officials and assumed complete control. During that campaign a gang of banditti took possession of the county, and rode night and day, with ropes adjusted to their saddles, significant of their purposes. They not only committed murder, but robbery and pother crimg. took >l, from to send to his mother and sister in Ohio, but which was appropriated as a Democratic campaign fund. From those days to tho present the oolored people of Yazoo county have groaned under the heel of intolerable oppression. Their rights, political and personal, as human beings and American cflizens, bare been ruthlessly denied them. The white man has dominated Yazoo, and the glorious Democratic flag, as the Yazoo Herald telegraphed the day Dixon was assassinated, has floated triumphantly. Yazoo has been dubbed the banner Democratic county of Mississippi. Whenever a Congressional district needed to be assured to the Democracy Yazoo county has been tacked on to it. Yazoo is good for 1,000,2,000 or 3,000 majority, jnst in proportion to the necessity of the case. In an emergency they could count It 8,000 majority, for they were only limited by the total voting population, and even this was no great drawback. For one brief period only did a little light gleam in upon the unhappy colored people of Yazoo, and that went out into utter darkness and deeper gloom. In 1879 Henry Dixon, who, in 1875, had been the chief oppressor of the negroes, and who was called the “bravest of the brave” for his bloody services, became disgusted with the miserable tyranny which be had been the chief instrument in setting up. He told the colored men that he had been guilty of great wrongs against them, but he was sorry for it, and he was tired of seeing them oppressed. He announced himself an independent candidate for Sheriff, and appealed to the oolored people and independent white voters to support him. Strange to say, the oolored men of Yazoo saw even in Dixon a liberator, and rallied to his support as one man. This fact even more than any other ought to convince mankind of the intolerable oppression under which they were groaning. Here was a man who had committed numberless outrages against them, who had hanged, and shot, and slaughtered them, who had been a very fiend incarnate in bis persecution and cruelties—all committed in the service of the Democratic party and for ncrcause but Democratic ascendency. And yet they accepted this man's leadership In order to escape from under the yoke. They looked upon him as a St. Paul who had persecuted the Christians, bnt who had become converted and would lead them into enjoyment of their rights. What must have been the Condition of free men when they would rallytotoe support of their most relentless enemy for salvation? But this gleam of hope was short-lived. The Democracy resolved that Dixon most be “re-

movwj., l hoy $t iio44flf?<i him sn*i aor inf wuiw nen to Kseovnoif; id Yazoo City fully armed. From Benton and Satartis, ami all the Democratic strongholds of the county, armed men poured into the otty, A meeting was held, and a committee appointed to wait upon Dixon to exact a written pledge ftetftjiim that he would not run for Sheriff. This committee was backed up by 80J armed men who were prepared to hang Dixon in case he refused to come down. Dixon was a brave man and gave them some plain talk, but the end was that Dixon signed a paper that he would sot run for Sheriff, and the mob dispersed. But Dixon had no idea of being thus bulldozed, and the next day he issued a card that he hod signed the abdication to keep from being hanged, but that he would continue bis canvass for Sheriff the same as ever. Dixon’s assasination was then resolved upon, as the Chicago Times correspondent, after full in vcstigation.reported, by the Democratic county committee, and one Barksdale, who was the Democratic nominee for Chancery clerk, selected to do the Job of murder. The removal of Dixon was not long delayed. He was filled fall of buckshot by Barksdale as he was passing along on the opposite side of the street, and had gotten far enough beyond Barksdale to be a perfectly safe target in the back from a convenient distance. ~ •7 \ ran speech suppressed. -- * The assassination of Dixon ended the only attempt which has been made here for eight years against Democratic domination. Even free speech is a forgotten privilege. If a Republican vote is cast it is in solemn mockery of the rights of the Republican majority. Occasionally a negro is taken out in derision and whipped and made to vote either • Republican or Democratic ticket to amuse his persecutors. The Republican major.ty of about is regularly counted for the Democracy whenever needed in a Congressional or Legislative contest. The denial of political freedom extends as well to white men as colored when It threatens Democratic ascendency. The Grcenbackers are bulldozed, and cheated, and refused the right to canvass just as absolutely as the Republicans. When ,the Hon. Mr. Yellowly, of Madison county, visited Yazoo, two yearsHigo, to address the people, he was booted from too rostrum and not permitted to go on with bis speech, owing to the turbulence of the mob, which, by preconcert, filled the house. Mr. Yellowly's offense was that be was a Greenback candidate for tho Legislature or Congress In that district. Mr. Yellowly, personally, is one of tho Representative young men of Mississippi, a man of large wealth highest family connection, and at one time a very popular and influential Democrat. Free discussion is not tolerated hero on the part of anybody, and political debate is among the lost arts. Republicans speak of politics with bated breath, and whisper their sentiments as if assassination hung on every accent. The people have become so Inured to deeds of blood and outrage that they look upon murder for opinion’s sake with indifference, if not delight. The man who assassinated Dixon was elected Chancery Clerk for two terms, and is now a member of the Legislature. He was never arrested nor indicted. His crime is his leading passport for political preferment. While Dixon was hanging and murdering innocent and defenseless Republicans he was the hero of the hour, and the ladies of Yazoo wore Dixon badges in hU bonor. Nor was this sentiment the outgrowth of any wrong on the part 6t Republicans. No political corruption or embezzlement was ever traced home to the skirts of Republican officials. When the Republicans turned over the affairs of the county to the Democrats, the Republican County Treasurer, an boncst and capable black man, turned over to his successor over $30,000 In money and securities. Every dime was faithfully a©counted for aud honestly paid over, and the county was out of debt. These funds bad not been in the hands of the Democratic Treasurer twenty-four hours when toe treasury was robbed and the whole amount stolen. It is said to be well known in Yazoo where this money went, and what parties committed toe robbery. The money went to Democratic bulldozers. The robbery was committed In toe interest of tho Democratic party. Democratic villainy had to be paid for with publie funds. Such is a plain, nnvarnished statement of tho condition of things In Yazoo county, only it is but a half-told tale—Democratic supremacy secured and maintained by blood and outrage, and resulting in an absolute denial of all the rights of American eftfawn. ship. The recent killing of the Peeeys must be taken ih connection with toe state of affairs that I have portrayed. No sane man can believe that Foote and his fellow colored men would have lifted a hand against those white men except in self-defense. It was at the peril of their lives even for them to defend themselves. Bat there is a point when bravo men will die sooner than submit to accumulated outrage. There is a point when colored men must strike back, even though their lives pay the forfeit, and this point was reached Christmas eve. It is the duty of the Northern press to investigate these occurrences and Five the world tho facta. When a Chicago Journal scut its own correspondent here to investigate the Dixon tragedy it conferred a boon on mankind. Tho lying dispatches sent out to the world are not worthy of a moment’s credence. They are in the Interest of the murderers and assassins, and penned by them or their aiders and abettors. The men who commit these deeds never hesitated yet to perjure themselves to cover them up. The only way to get at the truth Is to send truthful meo here to ferret otit the facts, and even these must be very guarded or they will be deceived as to the facts. The colored people are so intimidated that they dare not speak. Even the few white Republicans find it to their interest to be retkent. The months of Foote and Swaze, and ail toe other accused trial can vindicate ihe truth with swore* Itestimony. But, nevertheless, enough can be ascertained to satisfy the whole world, except Bourbon Democracy, whether them victims of Democratic wrath and malice really died as martyrs in seif-defense aud defense of their rights, or whether they were the murderers that the white people of Yazoo would have us believe. w. H. Foote has always been a start of pet with the white men of Yazoo, and at times has not been folly trusted by bis own color. It is only a state of outrage too grievous to be borne that has forced Foote in recent years into full harmony with Us own race. He served in the Confederate army. He was a very brave man, well educated, and prided himself on having the best Southern white blood in his veins. His tragic fate will endear his memory to the colored people, and he will take his place among the army of martyrs whose graves dot the pathway of roconsu action. -