All God's Dangers (52 page)

That's the way it was cut out and that's the way it was done and I've lived amongst the very people it was done to, enough to tell it close. I've dug up the root and branch of it. And I can say they wanted to be free, have their rights as they was created by God above. God gived the colored man and gived the colored woman some knowledge and it was knowledge enough to know they wasn't free. I have lived in bondage myself, just like bondage, and I can say they wanted to be free.

I was able when I was just ten or twelve years old to understand how they was treatin the colored folks in this country. I used to say—I criticized it and had every thought as I could have against such as that when I was a boy. I used to say—but I come down off that and just keep my mouth shut. I used to say, “I won't stand to rest the way they treatin colored folks in this country, I won't stand it.” And I showed it to em, too, when I got grown, I showed it to em. I give em what they wanted when I was a boy, but somehow or other I got to where I couldn't keep that spirit in me, I had to do somethin.

I wasn't over ten or twelve years old until I begin to come into the knowledge of more different things wrong than I can really tell. They'd overpower you every way—meet colored folks in the road, young colored boys when I was a boy, beat em up, whip em up, make em get in the field and go to work. I knowed too darn well they weren't payin em nothin hardly. These people in this country, that was right down their alley. Done that—called it vagrancy. It was just like slavery, God knows it weren't a bit of difference. In place of ever changin and gettin better, it was gettin worser and worser as I come up in this world.

T
HE
way I caught it and the way I can explain it accordin to my best ideas, this here organization was workin to bring us out of bad places where we stood at that time and been standin since the
colored people has remembrance. They didn't say to us how this was goin to happen—we didn't have time to work up a plan; only I felt it, I could feel it was somethin good. It was goin to rise us out of these old slum conditions which that we had been undergoin since slavery times, bring a clearer life to live, push the white man back.

I heard this spoke by the officials, the people that was advertisin this union: they was tired of the rich man gettin richer and the poor man gettin poorer. They seed it was a freeze-out. Tired, tired of that way of life. That's the way I looked into it, and the rest of em, some of em looked at it that way too. And we put these thoughts in our literatures. I didn't never put out none myself; if I'd a done put em out I couldn't a read em. But we had some in our home when I was arrested—they never was sharp enough to get em, but they got so many others. And it's all got lost today. My people was treated in such a way that they done good to save their lives by the help that helped em. Couldn't save no literatures.

The first teacher attracted the attention of several of us by his talkin bout the future comin. He told us, and we agreed, the future days follows the present. And if we didn't do somethin for ourselves today, tomorrow wouldn't be no different. But you know, people is people in this world. You can show em a thing that means a benefit to em and they'll run off; can't see where today might end and tomorrow begin. They held the meetins all right, but they was shy like rats. And what was they lookin for? They was keepin their eyes open for stool pigeons and giveaways; that throwed a check in the business. It showed that they—we—didn't have no confidence in each other.

Well, we was taught at our meetins that when trouble comes, stand up for one another. Whatever we was goin to do, whatever that was, we was goin to do it together. And by colored people in this country havin any kind of sense that was profitable at all, they joined this organization. I was eager for it, eager.

I paid a small dues when I joined, nothin to hurt me, not more than a few cents. Somebody had to take care of the teacher. He was helpin us, that was his job, and we had to look out for him. I don't know whether he had a wife and children or where they was if he did have, but
he
had to live. He was comin regular and holdin meetins—he had more knowledge and authority than we had and from his words I went out and talked it over with folks. I went to
several places, even out the other side of Apafalya, and informed some people I knew about the organization. Some of em went in, too, by my descriptions. I told em it was a good thing in favor of the colored race and it was so far a over-average help—as far as I was taught I told em what the organization was goin to do. The organization would back you up and fight your battles with you, do this and do that and do the other, as far as I was taught by the travelin man.

I recommended it thoroughly to particular ones I knowed—some of em was too scared to join and some of em was too scared not to join; they didn't want to be left alone when push come to shove. I recommended it to my brother Peter, but he never did join it. He was livin on Mr. Watson's individual place at that time, about a mile and a half from me on the Crane's Ford road toward Apafalya. He got along with Mr. Watson by givin him what he made—Mr. Watson got it all, that's the truth to it. My brother Peter was easy and hush-mouthed and he just settled down to that. He made up his mind that he weren't goin to have anything, and after that, why, nothin could hurt him. He's my own dear brother—he said he was discouraged of this organization but I knowed he was afraid.

Here's the rule of our colored people in this country, that I growed up in the knowledge of: they'll dote on a thing, they'll like it, still a heap stays shy of it. They knowed that their heads was liable to be cracked, if nothin else, about belongin to somethin that the white man didn't allow em to belong to. All of em was willin to it in their minds, but they was shy in their acts. It's just like the old man and the bear. When the bear was comin in the house, he warned his wife about it—we colored people, some of us is like that today—the old man jumped up and run up in the loft where the bear couldn't get him. The old woman, when the bear walked in, she grabbed the fire iron and she labored with the bear until she killed him. And when she killed him, then the old man come down from the loft, sayin, “Old lady, aint
we
brave, aint
we
brave. We killed that bear. We killed that bear.” And hadn't done nothin but killed hisself runnin. He'll talk a whole lot but he's too scared to take a hold.

I
N
a few weeks' time it come off, it come off. Mr. Watson sent the deputy sheriff to Virgil Jones' to attach his stock and bring it away from there. Virgil had got word of the plot and he come to warn me
and several other men of the organization. I knowed I was goin to be next because my name was ringin in it as loud as Virgil Jones' was. Virgil come and told me about it on a Saturday evenin. That next Monday mornin I fixed myself up and walked over there, bout a mile from where I was livin. My wife's baby sister was livin on a little plantation right near there, her and her husband. I went over by their house that mornin and went on out across the road to Virgil Jones'. Got there and good God I run into a crowd, and Virgil Logan, deputy sheriff, was there fixin to attach up everything. I just walked up like somebody walkin about, that's the way I played it.

Several of us met there too, but we had no plan strictly about what we was goin to do. Leroy Roberts and two or three more of em come there early and left before I got there. Well, the devil started his work that mornin. I asked Mr. Logan, the deputy sheriff, I knowed him; he lived right over here at Pottstown at that time and he was a Tukabahchee deputy for the state of Alabama—I asked Mr. Logan kindly, talkin to all of em, “What's the matter here? What's this all about?”

The deputy said, “I'm goin to take all old Virgil Jones got this mornin.”

Well, I knowed doggone well accordin to the quotation I was goin to be next. He just startin on Virgil Jones first. I stretched my eyes and said, “Mr. Logan, please sir, don't take what he got. He's got a wife and children and if you take all his stuff you'll leave his folks hungry. He aint got a dime left to support em if you take what he's got.”

I begged him not to do it, begged him. “You'll dispossess him of bein able to feed his family.”

Our teacher, the man that put out this organization in this part of the country, he told us to act humble, be straight; his teachin, to not go at a thing too rapid and forcible. Be quiet, whatever we do, let it work in a way of virtue. They got a song to this effect, did have years ago: “Low is the way to the bright new world, let the heaven light shine on me.” Low is the way, humble and low is the way for me. That's what I tried to give Logan, too. I tried to go by the union's orders.

“Please, sir, don't take it. Go to the ones that authorized you to take his stuff, if you please, sir, and tell em to give him a chance. He'll work to pay what he owes em.”

I knowed it was Watson gived him orders what to do, or Beall, the High Sheriff Kurt Beall, he was backin it up.

The deputy said, “I got orders to take it and I'll be damned—”

I asked him humble and begged him not to do it. “Go back to the ones that gived you orders to do this and tell em the circumstances. He aint able to support his family. Aint got a dime to support his family.”

He said, “I got orders to take it and I'll be damned if I aint goin to take it.”

Well, that brought up a whole lot of hard words then. I just politely told him he weren't goin to do it, he weren't goin to do it. “Well, if you take it, I'll be damned if you don't take it over my dead body. Go ahead and take it.”

He got hot. After a while I seed Cecil Pickett go in the lot with bridles in his hands to catch Virgil Jones' mules. That was a colored fellow had no sense; white folks could get him to do anything they wanted him to do. He come over there that mornin on the deputy sheriff's car. He was one of Logan's superintendin Negroes and he didn't know no better than to come over with Logan and help take what Virgil Jones had—that was the white folks' rule: when they got ready to do anything, didn't matter what it was, they'd carry a nigger with em. O, they could get some nigger to follow em to hell and back. I feel angry over that today—

I told Cece Pickett that mornin, goin to the gate with bridles in his hands—I don't know where he got them bridles but he had em, goin in that lot to catch them mules. Lookin right at him. He walked up to the lot gate, unlatched it and walked in. I didn't see the mules but I reckoned they was in the stable. I said, “What are you goin in there for?”

Mr. Logan said, “He's goin in there to catch them mules. That's what he's goin for.”

I said, “You just as well to come out. Catch no mules there this mornin, till a further investigation.”

Kept a walkin—I said, “Well, you can go ahead and catch em but you won't get em out of that lot; go catch em, go on.”

When I told Cece Pickett that he stopped. Looked at me and he looked at Logan, looked at me and looked at Logan.

I said, “Go ahead and catch em, if you that game. I'll be damned if you won't ever bring em out of that gate.”

Somebody got to stand up. If we don't we niggers in this
country are easy prey. Nigger had anything a white man wanted, the white man took it; made no difference how the cut might have come, he took it.

Mr. Logan seed I meant it—I was crowin so strong and I was fixin to start a shootin frolic then.

“Come out, Cece,” Logan said, “Come on back, Cece. Let em alone. Come out.”

Then the deputy walked up to me and said, “You done said enough already for me to be done killed you.”

I said, “Well, if you want to kill me, I'm right before you. Kill me, kill me. Aint nothin between us but the air. Kill me.”

I didn't change my disposition at all; if my orders hadn't a been listened to, the devil woulda took place sooner than it did.

A nigger by the name of Eph Todd seed me lowerin the scrape on Logan and he runned up on me from behind and grabbed a hold of me. Good God, I throwed a fit because it popped in my mind that quick—I heard many a time in my life that a man will meddle you when another man is fixin to kill you; he'll come up and grab you, maybe hold you for the other to kill you. I looked around and cussed him out and he left there. The deputy sheriff looked at me—I kept my eyes on him—and he walked away, just saunterin along.

One come and found the water was hot—Virgil Logan. He told the crowd that mornin, shyin away from em, “I'll just go and get Kurt Beall; he'll come down there and kill the last damn one of you. You know how he is”—well, all the niggers knowed that Mr. Kurt Beall was a bad fellow—“When he comes in he comes in shootin.”

I told him, “Go ahead and get him—” every man there heard it—“Go ahead and get Mr. Beall, I'll be here when he comes.”

He left then. Drove away in his automobile and took Cece Pickett with him. Went to Beaufort and delivered the message to the High Sheriff, Kurt Beall.

After he left, I went in Virgil Jones' house one time to see who was in there, and there was four, five, or six settin in there and they was so quiet. Virgil Jones was there, but his wife and children was long gone, I don't know where they was. Sam MacFarland was there. Boss Hatch was there—they never did catch Boss Hatch neither. And there was some more of em. I stood there and looked at em and I could see they was scared. I went right back out the
door where I could keep my eyes open, just keep a watchin for them officers to drive in. After a while, about twelve thirty or one o'clock—I know it was early after dinner—I looked down the road and I seed that car comin. Well, I knowed that was the same car that left there that mornin. And I called the boys, “Hey, fellas, come on out, come on out”—I know they heard me—“Yonder they come, yonder come the officers.”