ALLEGED PEONAGE SYSTEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 30 March 1921, Page 5

ALLEGED PEONAGE SYSTEM

BODIES OF MURDERED NEGROES,

DISCOVERED

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Australian & N.Z. Cable Association)

NEW YORK, March 29. The Federal and State authorities of Atlanta, including the Governor, have taken up work investigating- the alleged peonage system. Eleven dead bodies of negroes have already been found, but it is expected the number killed will total forty. The manner of peonage operated is not yet made clear, but it appears that Williams, who is the owner of a plantation of 4000 acres of tillable land, would pay the lines of negroes who were gaoled for .small offences, and then take the men olf to work in the fields on his farm. He conducted these operations in many towns throughout the upper country. It is probable he overworked the negroes, and fearing that they: would report him to the authorities, j he had them killed.

The national press is shocked at the peonage charges, pointing out that the nation siipposed slavery was wiped out by the Civil War.

A former cable stated :—Agents of the Department' of Justice- at Atlanta, Georgia, are investigating an alleged peonage system in Jasper county, under which negroes are said to be virtually enslaved. They discovered nine bodies of murdered" negroes, chained and weighted with rocks at the bottom of several rivers, and also in shallow graves. John Williams, the owner of the plantation on which six bodies were discovered, lias been arrested and charged with murder. His three sons have also been apprehended. Clyde Manning, a negro employed by Williams, has confessed to complicity in the murders.