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.

ALABAMA-SUB-COMMITTEE. 1811
Answer. Yes; that the Government would give them that; that they had been working for their owners all their lives, and they were entitled to their labor; that it was
as little as the Government could do to give them a mule, which would be worth $150,
and forty acres, worth five or six hundred dollars all together; forty acres at,QO'aa
acre, $450, or somewhere about there.
Question. Do you think the negroes actually believed it?
Answer. Yes, sir; I know one actually picked out the land; he had it staked; and
the negroes quarreled about the land; two negroes both wanted one forty-acre trac;
but no white person would believe that.
Question. What?
An4swer. No white person ever believed such a yarn as that.
Question. But the negroes did?
lAnswer. Yes, sir; no doubt they did.
Question. What motive had Price and Rolfe to make the negroes believe this thing?
Answer. I do not know; I just suppose it was to get into office and get elected.
Question. They wanted office themselves, and they cajoled the negroes with this
yarn?
Answer. That is all.
Question. Did you ever hear the negroes complain of the bad faith with which they
had acted with them?
Answer. I have had negroes tell me they were going to have the land and mules, and
afterward said they never had believed it.
Question. They did not believe it?
Answer. No, sir.
Question. What did those two say that quarreled over the matter?
Answuer. I never have seen them for some time; but any man that has known the
negro knows what he is. There is as much difference between a white man and a
negro as there is between a mule and a rat, just about, as far as that is concerned.
Question. The white people did not believe this story?
Answer. 0, Ino.
Question. But they believe that this kind of talk would put the negroes up to mischief?
Answer. They believed that was told them for the purpose of supporting that ticnet.
Question. Did the white people of the country believe that the negroes had been pat.
up to mischief by these same men?
Answer. Yes, sir; I recollect at one time in Gainesville a man there on a public rtad
going to his house at the League-I do not know it either; I anm telling what le said —
that he was stopped, and they had guards around and had arms, and they mnade him
walk out of the road and would not let him go along the road.
Question. WIhile they were holding the League?
Answer. Yes, sir; they had a guard to keep people from eavesdropping.
By the CIHAIinAN:
Question. Do you not think they had a right to do that?
A nswer. No, sir.
Question. Did they not have a right to picket the house and keep their secrets?
Answer. Certainly, about their door, but not forty or fifty yards from the house;
they had no right to drive a man off the public road. The negroes said they had the
charter from the Government at Washington, right direct, and they had the right to
guard, and they intended to do it.
By Mr. BLAIR:
Question. Did this conduct, their taking such extraordinary measures to guard tho
secrets of their League-did that inspire the people here with apprehension thiat
they were concocting mischief in the League?
Answer. Yes, that and other reports connected with it; it was reported in Gainesville that there was resolutions brought in there to assassinate certain white people in
Gainesville; that was the report now.
Question. These rumors and reports were believed at the time by some persons?
Answer. Yes, by some persons.
Question. That led to the supposed necessity of forming an organization for self-protection?
Answer. Yes, sir; the negroes acted here in my neighborhood just like an invading
armny would in your neighborhood after they had conquered everything and wero
going rough-shod over everything, and you can judge for yourself; they thoght they
were the big dogs of the ring.
Questiol. Did they think they had a right to take a man's cotton, corn, mules, and
pigs?
Answer. Some of them did, and some of them did not. A few, the sensible negrocs,
knew better.