priation was made, the levees on our river should be
built and this road would run on the levees. At that time
the whole of the local government in Chicot County was in
the hands of men who did not own any property in the county,
and had just come down there and been elected by the
negroes, who have a very large majority in that county. This
tax was a very great imposition upon us. At that time there
was a negro attorney at Lake Village, who was one of the
prime movers in this thing. The planters knew that this was
only intended as a speculation upon the county, for the vote
was afterwards taken, the appropriation was made, and not
one foot of levee was put up, and not one foot of that
railroad was built in Chicot County. Still we are mandamused
now for the interest on that debt that was put on us by that
kind of influence. One of our planters was remonstrating
with this negro attorney about this debt and told him it was
an imposition on the property owners, and that the thing
ought not to be done, when the man became violent and
insolent, and it resulted in a difficulty between this
planter and the negro. The planter had a little pen-knife in
his pocket, the blade not longer than my little finger; he
struck the negro with it and it happened accidentally to hit
him on a vital point and killed him. The sheriff of the
county was a negro. The planter, with two innocent parties
in whose house this occurrence took place at the
county-seat, in Lake Village, was arrested and lodged in
jail. A few days afterwards--probably not more than two or
three--nearly every negro in the county was summoned to
Lake Village, and they rose like so many locusts, coming in
from every direction, took those three men out of jail shot
them to pieces, murdered them. It was such an outrage that
the people from Memphis and Vicksburg and from the hill
countries, commenced to come in there with companies,
started down with companies. On investigation we found out
that the sheriff of the county had exercised his authority
to send out to the ignorant negroes of the county and summon
them to the village, and these fellows went because they
were afraid not to obey the mandate of the sheriff. At that
time feeling was running very high, and these people were
anxio