RADICAL FIGHT IN LOUISIANA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7376, 30 January 1902, Page 4

RADICAL FIGHT IN LOUISIANA.

FEARFUL CARNAGE. San Francisco papers contain >articulars of the racial fight in jouisiana in October. It is stated hat at a negro camp meeting at 3alltown, on October 27th, one vhite man was killed, and two >thers so badly wounded that their •ecovery was not expected. Nine legroes were killed in the affray — ive men, three women, and one ;hild. A dozen or more escaped into the woods and swamps with ivounds. No one was able to estimate the number of wounded negroes that escaped the carnage behind the church. They scattered to the four winds. Some are known to have been shot, but their bodies have not been found. A fierce conflict raged Eor half an hour. j The negroes had come into the camp meeting from 200 miles all up and down the valley. A few days before the camp meeting a negro named Bill Morris had been burnt at the stake near Balltown for an assault on Mrs J. J. Ball. Public feeling was still at a high pitch. There was trouble over the license, and Crear Lott's tent became the centre of contention. On Sunday afternoon Constable Boon and a posse of police went up to Lott's tent with a warrant. Lott came out, and, it is said, shouted with an oath, •• One negro has been burnt, but a white man will be next " Wade Walker, one of the constables, was struck on the head with a rifle, and then the slaughter began. The blacks fled from the frail wooden church, for it was no shelter from the rain of bullets. Lott retired into his tent shooting. A eliower of lead was sent into the tent and the church as the negroes fled. A preacher named Connelly was shot while standing in the yard, and his daughter fell just inside the house. The negross round Lott's house kept up a steady rain of bullets. The shrieks of the wounded and djing could b i heard on every s'de. Lott's old mother-in-law, his two daughters, and little boy fell in a heap inside the shelter. Sophie Lott saved her life by concealing herself behind a stove. Crear Lott was barricaded in the house, and the next move was to fire the place. When the fire forced him from under cover, the negro appeared in the doorway, and twenty bullets went through him. Parker and Beverely, both blacks, fell with him. Doatph Seal, Charles Elliott, and Edward Thompson, tho wounded white 3, were carried away about three miles through the piae woods. Seal died next day. For 24 hours it lookel like a general uprising to wipe out the black raca. In Washington parish the news of the fight spread like wildfire, and the next day 1000 armed men had reached the scene of the battle. They oame from mi.'es and miles. The nine negroes, who were left where they died, were piled into three unmarked graves near the charred remaiaa of Lott's tenthouse. There wa3 no ceremony.

At the same time prominent citizens held a conference, and a message was sent to the negroes, " Do you want any more ?" was the query ; "No" came the reply. The negroes left the country.