igrate, as there was a large exodus of
negroes from this city to the tobacco fields of Connecticut. Negroes
attempting to leave were arrested and held to see if by legal measures
they could be deterred from going North. The officers in charge of
this raid were armed with State warrants charging misdemeanors and
assisted by a formidable array of policemen and deputy sheriffs.
Negroes were roughly taken from the trains and crowded into the
prisons to await trial for these so-called misdemeanors. Although the
majority of them were set free after their trains had left the city,
the leaders in most cases suffered humiliation at the hands of the
officers of the law.[79]

At Thomasville, a white man and a negro were arrested, charged with
the usual crime of being labor agents. Much excitement followed.
Fearing serious results, the colored ministers of this city endeavored
to stop the exodus. A committee of their most prominent citizens met
with the mayor and discussed the matter freely. They arranged for
a large mass meeting of white and colored citizens who undertook to
cooperate in bringing the exodus to an end. The white citizens of
Waycross experienced the same trouble with labor agents, but had much
difficulty in finding out exactly who they were and how they contrived
to make such inroads on the population.[80]

The situation became more critical in Savannah, one of the largest
assembling points for migrants in the South. When the loss of labor
became so serious and ordinary efforts to check it failed, more
drastic measures were resorted to. On the thirteenth of August, for
example, when there spread through the city the rumor that two special
trains would leave for the North there followed great commotion among
the negroes, who, already much disturbed by the agitation for and
against the movement, were easily induced to start for the North.
When, at about five o'clock that morning, 2,000 negroes assembled
at the station for this purpose, the county police, augmented by a
detachment of city officers, appeared at the station and attempted to
clear the tracks; but the crowd being so large the officers finally
found their task impossible, for as they would clear one section of
the tracks the crowd would surge to another. The crowd was extremely
orderly and good natured and the two arrests that were made were for
minor offenses. As these trains failed to move according to orders,
over 300 of this group paid their own fares