Affidavits of Colored Men In report and testimony of the select committee to investigate the causes of the removal of the negroes from the southern states to the northern states, in three parts United States Congress and Senate Select Committee on Negro Exodus, 1880 No. 1. States of Louisiana: My name is Edmond Jones. I have a place in this parish, but was run off from it for about thirteen months. So I then left the parish with my family. Mr. Joe McMolloine told my son that if I did not move back on my place that he and other white men would run anybody else off of that place that goes on it by my order, and put any one on it they please and ask me no odds, simply because I had agreed to rent it to a friend of mine, as I seen I could not live on it myself. EDMOND JONES. Witness: Henry Adams. No. 2. My name is Anthony Witch. I live in De Soto Parish. I had to pay this year, 1874, twelve dollars tax, and I only had one horse and one cow and calf. Do not own any land, nor never owned any land, and a large number of us have been made to pay that much on three horse and cows; and if we do not pay the money right
away they take our stock, and then make us pay a great deal more as taxes. We have all been prosecuted about taxes again this year, but we don't know what the amount will be, as we have only a few horses & cows. ANTHONY WITCH. No. 3. Caddo Parish, My name is Mary Johnson, and I live in this parish by a white man named James Hill, at Flour Grove Plantation. I was accused of a crime I never dreamed of nor done. This was in 1872. MARY JOHNSON. Susanah Williams was badly beaten and whipped by a white man named Bill Allen, on his place, in the year 1868. MARY JOHNSON. No. 4. Shreveport, Caddo Parish, I, Caesar Robinson, make the following statement: I am a colored man. I settled a place on overflood land about three and a half miles west of Shreveport, at or near the lake; and I have about nine or ten acres improved and four house built on it; and I have lived on the place for the past five years; and in the year of 1875, in December, I went to Natchitoches to the United States land office, and I paid them fifteen dollars, and got my title to the land. The land agent told me to carry my papers to W. D. Willey and tell him to have them recorded for me in the court-house at Shreveport, and I did so, and Mr. Willey charged me nine dollars
to have them recoded, yet he did not have my land recorded, nor did he give me my money back, neither my papers, nor can I get them from him. At the land office at Natchitoches they told me there was thirty acres of land in that tract. In January, 1876, Mr. Jewell told me to leave that place, also Mr. Willey. Mr. Jewel told me he would send me to State prison if I did not leave that place and leave everything there that I had made and built on that place. Nor would he let me move anything. I am about eighty years of age; have a wife and one child. I had a good garden, but they have turned the stock in on it and destroyed it. I also had a very nice lot of fruit trees, such as apples, plums, peaches, &c., and he would not let me move any of them. This is the truth, so help me God. CAESAR ROBINSON. No. 5. City of East Baton Rouge, At or near the city of East Baton Rouge, I seen on board of the Col. A. P. Kouns a colored man and his wife and one child, I think about six or seven years of age, who had taken passage from New Orleans to West Baton Rouge. But the captain on the A. P. Kouns carried them about twenty or twenty-five miles above Baton Rouge landing, for we passed Baton Rouge about 2 o'clock p.m., and they were put off about half past 4 o'clock p.m., on the same day. The captain did not land at Baton Rouge, but put them off on a coal barge about the distance as stated above, and left them to get back the best way they could. It was rainy and very cold, and rained nearly all night on the poor people who were then on the coal barge on the Mississippi River, a long ways above the town. This was about the 15th of March, 1876. The colored man begged the captain to land and put them off, as he had paid his far for himself and family. But the captain would not land, but carried them up the river and placed them on the barge.
H. ADAMS. No. 6. Parish of Natchitoches, My name is Henry Albit. I went on board the steamer Col. A. P. Kouns, at Coushatta, and took passage in Red River Parish, and took passage to Grand Ecore, in Natchitoches Parish. But the captain would not land at the wharf for me to get off. I then asked the captain to put me off at the Grand Ecore wharf, and he told me he would do so (that was when I took passage and was paying my fare), but when he landed his boat for me to get off it was at Alexandria, and he then told me if I did not get off or pay more fare he would go for me, and he would not be long about it either. So I was put off there, and had to pay my fare back to Grand Ecore on another boat. This February 8th, 1876. Rev. HENRY ALBIT. No. 7. Caddo Parish, We, George Underwood and Bellun Harriss and Isaiah Fuller, make this statement: We live in the parish of Caddo, and worked, or contracted to work and make a crop on shares, on Mr. McCrowning's place, for one third we make or made, and McCrowning to furnish provisions or rations. But, in July, when we were working along in the field, Mr. Mack Morring and Mr. Mack Borrington came to us and said, "Well, boys, you all got to get away from here, for we have been going as far as we can, and you all must sign agreements, or you all must take what follows." They then went and got their sticks and guns and told us we must sign the papers, and we told them we would not sign it, because we did not want to give up our crops for nothing. They
told us we had better sign, or we would not get anything. They said they only wanted justice; so we told them we would get judges to judge the crops, and to say what it is worth. But they told us no judges should come to see the crops, and we did not want to sign the paper. But they beat me (Isaiah), and then we got afraid and we signed the paper. We had about thirty acres in cotton, and it was the best cotton crop in that part of the parish, and we had about twenty-nine acres in corn. The corn was ripe and the fodder was ready to pull, and our cotton laid by. They then run us from the place, and told us not to come back any more. We owed Mr. Mack Morring one hundred and eighty dollars altogether. They then told us if they ever heard from us again they would fix us. During the time we was working and living on the place they did not half feed us, and we had to pay for half of our rations, or whatever we eat. We worked just as hard as if we were slaves, and in return was treated like dogs. GEORGE UNDERWOOD BELLUN HARRISS ISAIAH FULLER No. 8. Parish of De Soto, My name is Albert Thomas; I work on Joe Williams's plantation, about two miles southeast of Keachie. On December 26, 1875, I was badly beaten by George Crow, a white man, on the abovenamed place. ALBERT THOMAS No. 9.
My name is Hiram Smith; I lived on Joe Williams's place, about two miles southeast of Keachie. I asked Mr. Williams to pay me what he owed me on my cotton; also seventy-five dollars he had taken away from me, what another man had paid me. He jumped on me and beat me so badly I fear I cannot live. He made me crawl on my knees and call them my God, my master, the God of all power. They then draw revolvers on me; all because I had asked for a settlement. This was done on the 16th of March, 1876. HIRAM SMITH. No. 10. My name is Primus Albert; I lived on Joe Williams's place. On the 5th of February, 1876, Mr. Joe Williams gave me a terrible beating with a buggy trace, striking me one hundred and two licks. I did nothing to merit it unless it was I worked for him too much like a slave. PRIMUS ALBERT. No. 11. Bossier Parish, My name is Simon Dickson; I worked for Miss Lizzie Dickson, on her place, about sixteen or seventeen miles from Shreveport, north, on the bank of Old River, in the year 1873. I was due her the sum of twenty dollars. I made six bales of cotton and each bale weighed about six hundred pounds. I was to give her one hundred pounds to the acre, but she took all I made that year for the amount I owed her, twenty dollars. In 1874 I made eight and a half bales of cotton, weighing on an average about five hundred
and twenty-five pounds to the bale. I was to give her one-half of what I made. But she again took all, and would not let me have any. I then owed her about forty dollars. She said I owed her about one hundred and fifteen dollars, so she taken all of my crop every year, for what she claimed I owed her, yet she would never tell me what anything cost. In 1875 I asked her to tell me what such and such things cost, but she refused to tell me. I asked her for the account sales of my cotton, but she would never give them to me, nor to any of us on her place, though she has about two hundred and fifty hands working on her place, and out of them all there are but three she will give anything like justice. She even takes our cotton seed. She furnishes us a mule to plant with. This place is near Benton, La., and belongs to Miss Lizzie Dickson. SIMON DICKSON. Adjourned to Monday, March 15, 1880. END OF TEXT Affidavits of Colored Men. Reprinted by permission of Kansas State Historical Society, kansasmemory.org. In the public domain.