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. 1905
people; he was working then with a carpenter and wagon-maker by profession in this
place.
Question. By whom was he killed?
Answer. It was supposed to be by another negro; at any rate the negro that sus
picion rested on absented himself.
Question. Do you know of any other murders?
Answer. That is all; because there is only two I can say really occurred, which were
those two that I report.
Question. Have you heard of any others?
Answer. None that I recollect.
Question. The number that you have mentioned includes all that occur to you?
Answer. Yes, sir.
Question. You say that the politics of Dud Woodward were democratic. How was
it with all the other negroes that were killed; were they democrats, or radicals?
Answer. I do not know their politics.
Question. What was your information as to their politics?
lAnswer. I had no acquaintance with their political predilections.
Question. What is your information?
Ansier. I have no information as to that.
Question. How does it happen that you know the politics of Dud Woodward and not
the others?
Answer. The circumstances that develop the cause of his death.
Question. It was because he was a democrat that it made an impression on you?
Answer. I state the rumor. The rumor is that; I heard what was rumored; as to
the politics of the other negroes I have never heard any politics at all in the question.
If a negro there was disposed to vote the radical ticket, as far as my knowledge
extended, he was not molested.
Question. You have told us about that. Just answer my questions. How does it
happen you remember the politics of this negro, and cannot remember the politics of
any other negroes who were killed?
Answer. I can't state any further than this: that the inquiry was made whewn this
negro was killed, because he was such a fine negro. He was in the town working with
a workman who lived in the town, within thirty yards of me; and in investigating
the causes that led to his death, it was stated that because he was a white man's
negro, a democratic negro, and voted the democratic ticket, the other negroes invaded
him. That is why it made the impression; I had not thought about it; I had no
information, and could not cherish what was told to me.
Question. Did you understand that he was killed because he was a democrat?
Answer. The supposition was, because he was a democratic negro.
Question. Did you hear that the supposition was, in the case of the other negroes
that were killed, that they were killed because they were radicals?
Answer. Not at all.
Question. You never heard that?
Answer. I never heard it, because the presumption is that the most of them vote the
radical ticket. and negroes are not molested, as far as my knowledge goes, about their
position or politics.
Question. Abe Lyon lived upon your place, did he not?
Answer. He lived on the place that I had control of.
Question. How far was his house from you?
Answer. Nearly a quarter.
Question. You heard the firing of guns that night?
Answver. I heard some firing.
Question. Was the firing of guns so common a circumstance that it did not attract
your attention?
Answer. No, sir; it attracted my attention.
Question. Did you go out that night to inquire the cause of it?
Alswer. I went out when I heard the guns. Prior to the firing of the guns, I had
heard one or two guns-separate guns. They seemed to be isolated, distinct; and the
dogs barked. It is a common thing in our country for the negroes to'possum-hunt
and coon-hunt, and to be roving about all through the night. I heard this in the
direction of where this circumstance occurred-hearing the dogs barking and one or
two guns fire prior to what was the cause of alarm.
Question. That is, the volley?
A.nswer. The volley. That led me to believe that the gun fired was not distinctwhether it was a gun fired or some other things.
Question. When you heard the volley, what did you do?
Answer. I don't think I did anything. There were several of us talking, like we are
now-not on the same subject.
Question. Was not that very unusual to hear a volley fired at night?
Answer. It was.
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