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Title
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The "Nation's Wards" Murdering Each Other
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Source Type
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newspaper
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Publisher
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Selma Morning Times
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Publication Place
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Selma, AL
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Publication Date
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7/26/1870
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Transcript
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"A freedman named Harvey McCann, working on the Perry place, four and a half miles from Greensboro, on the Marion road, had a difficulty one day last week with another negro, named Tom Hill, which resulted in McCann's shooting and killing Hill. The cause of the difficulty, as related to us, was this: Two boys, sons of McCann and Hill, got into a fight, when Hill interfered, inflicting severe blows upon McCann's son, seeing which, McCann got his gun, walked near Hill and shot his brains out. McCann had an examination on Monday before a Justice of the Peace, and was bound over in a bond of $300. On Monday night a band of disguised negroes, armed, went to his house and took him out, carried him some distance, and then shot him several times and beat him severely with clubs. They then left him, supposing, we presume, that he was dead. He was still living on Wednesday morning, though his case was considered by the attending physician as hopeless. He has been out of his head since the occurrence, except for a short period on Tuesday, when he gave the names of those who had made the murderous assault upon him. Prompt steps should of course be taken for their arrest. Though we have heard conflicting reports as to the provocation, under which McCann perpetrated the murder of Hill, the impression made upon us by all that we have heard on the subject, is, that the act was not only not justifiable, but a most atrocious crime, for which he should have been punished, but not by an infuriated mob.. He should have been tried in the courts of the land, and his acquittal or conviction been left to a jury as the law requires. We learn that the negroes on the place where these crimes were committed, are in a most demoralized and disorderly condition --- liable at any moment to perpetrate murder, or any other crime. Later. ---We learn that the deputy Sheriff of Perry, with a posse of five men, arrived at the scene of the murders on Wednesday evening and remained there all night, guarding McCann. Sheriff Childress, Mr. Jas. E. Griggs and Judge Blackford were there when the party from Perry arrived. McCann was still alive when Sheriff Childress, Mr. Griggs and Judge Blackford left there, but as he had been shot through the head, it was deemed impossible for him to recover. We learn that negroes went on the plantation on Tuesday for the avowed purpose of "finishing" him, if not already dead, but were prevented from doing so by an assurance from negroes on the place that he would certainly die soon. Such shocking lawlesness is fearful to contemplate, and it behooves every good citizen to aid in having all concerned, or in any way implicated in this affair, arrested and dealt with as the law directs."
