Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1899 — NINE NEGROES SHOT. [ARTICLE]

NINE NEGROES SHOT.

Bloody Work of a Masked Mob of Whites at Palmetto, Ga. Early Thursday morning a mob of masked men stormed a little house used as a jail at Palmetto, Ga., and shot nine negroes. Four were killed outright and the other five were badly wounded. There was great excitement and Gov. Chandler was called on for troops, the militia from Atlanta arriving about 11 o’clock. Two fires of incendiary origin have lately occurred. Fourteen business houses in all were destroyed. Nine negroes were arrested on suspicion and taken to Johnson’s warehouse to await preliminary trial. The mob rode into the town about. 1 o’clock. The little house was near the center of the town. The guard was called upon to turn over the nine negroes held there for trial on the charge of arson. Upon his refusal he and his assistant* were quickly overpowered. The negroes begged for mercy to the leaders, but the appeals were passed over, and drawing guns those of the mob who managed to get inside the building quickly shot the prisoners down.