Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken.

1 740 CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.
Question. Do they have this feeling because of these murders and whippings that
have been so common here?
Answer. Yes, sir; and we are looking for worse to come.
Question. Where colored people vote the democratic ticket, and pull with the democrats, do they have peace after that?
Answer. No more than we do that vote with the radicals; if they have, I don't see
it.
Question. You think it does not make any difference which way they vote?
Answer. No, sir; I don't see any difference. They have to pay just as I do.
By Mr. RICE:
Question. Are they safer in person than those who vote the radical ticket?
lAswer. I don't know that they are; I never could see it; they may be.
By the CHAIRMAN:
Question. How much better off are your people than they were in slavery?
Answer. They are not as good off.
Question. Why not?
Answer. I haven't got anybody to protect me. When I was in slavery I had somebody to protect me.
Question. Your master would look after you, and see that you were not whipped?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. You never heard of this Ku-Kluxing while you were slaves?
Answer. No, sir.'Question. Would your people rather be slaves again than to live in this insecure condition they are in now?
Answer. I don't know, sir; that is a pretty tight question; that is a pretty tight one.
We don't care about going back, but then we would like to have peace. I couldn't tell
whether they would rather go back or not.
Question. They would like to vote freely, but they think it rather too dangerous business to vote the radical ticket?
Answer. Yes, sir; it is dangerous in Sumter County; there is no use in talking about
that.
By Mr. BUCKLEY:
Question. Don't the laws protect you here?
Answer. I couldn't say, sir, that they did; it looks to me like a one-sided thing. Now,
gentlemen, there is two side, to everything, and if both sides is held up it will offend
no man, but when it is not, one side always goes down.
Question. Do yolr people feel that they do not get justice, and that their rights are
not as well protected as other people?
Answer. Of course they do. I lay that a good deal to the ignorance of my race, not
knowing how to execute law in a heap of places. There is only a very few of our
race that knows how to execute the law to his own advantage, even if he had a case
to J)nt in that lookedr fnir nnar anll haejm-s ) i #-b rs - z?+ He h ogsJ ) ziz a c- se2, aCC-'
if he don't put it in right it will not go right. That is the cause of a heap of it.
Question. They don't feel like going to law?
Answer. No; and they don't know how to go into it; ourignorance is the cause of a great
deal of it. Again, you know yourself, if you go to do anything for your own advantage you work for your own advantage. If I go to law against you, you would work
for your own advantage and not for mine. So it is a one-sided thing. A darkey don't
know how to execute the law to his own advantage. He has never been educated or
elevated; he don't know the law. Again, we have no men here but the opposite party
to execute the law. How would we expect to get justice, or how would you expect
for us to get justice?
By the CHAIRMAN:
Question. You used to have some friends who instructed you in your rights; what
has become of them?
Answier. They are all gone South, or North, or somewhere. There is nobody to instruct us now.
Question. What made them leave?
Answer. They were compelled to leave, like a heap of the rest of us.
Question. Now, you have told the committee of a good many cases where colored
people have been killed; and you have said that a great many have been whipped
from time to time; have you ever known or heard of any white people being punished for these offenses committed upon your race?
Answer. Well, I heard of one this year. There was a neighbor of mine-at least, he
used to be an acquaintance of mine-got whipped, and I heard that the man they said
did it was whipped by whites back again shortly. A man named Leverett got whipped
mighty bad, they say.