CHAPTER X.
CRIME BREEDS CRIMINALS.
After the withdrawal of troops from the South, crime of every sort went regularly on much as usual, though not on nearly so large a scale as before. Negro men and women, as well as those of the whites who had sympathized with the radical regime, were whipped and even murdered on the flimsiest and slightest pretext and in the most wanton manner. Robbery was of such frequent occurrence as to occasion surprise only when it did not happen. Negroes became good Democrats or submitted to unmerciful whippings. This soon reduced the number of objectionable voters to such a negligent quantity as they all got lost in a well-hidden minority. Everybody who was not a Democrat was worse than an infidel. A Republican stood no more chance of success in a contest for political preference than a snow ball in the infernal regions. Social ostracism was handed out to him to the extent of ignoring him altogether, visiting his home in case of the direst necessity and then long enough only to attend to the matter in hand in the shortest time possible. His little children were not infrequently whipped by other children on account of their father being a Republican.
This was the spirit existing between a South Carolina Democrat and Republican only a few years ago, but today the two meet on terms of perfect equality, provided, of course, that each are white; and discuss the politics of the country without a quarrel or even exciting much attention. The Democrat is perfectly willing to let the Republican run the government at Washington as long as the Republican remains indifferent to the rule of the Democrat in the government of the State. The one bribes the other and each cheats the Negro. The latter’s vote, under the disfranchisement laws enacted by the Democrats, is so negligible as to draw the contempt of the majority party and obtain a few false promises only from the party of the minority.
But in spite of the handicap of continued injustice and persecution, in the face of opposition when the race was weaker and not so capable of bearing its burdens as now, the Negro race through the assimilation of knowledge is evolving at a rapid rate. Miss Schofield’s work is bearing fruit, enriched by the multiplication of schools all over the South. The habit of whipping and murdering Negroes is growing less and less frequent and becoming in most of the Southern States, quite a serious offense. Recent acts of some of the legislatures of States make a county in which a person is lynched responsible to the family sustaining the loss, and suit to recover the sum of $2,000.00 as an indemnity is authorized. Improvement in the moral standard of the whites is making for improvement in the moral standard of the Negro. As the condition of one race improves the other improves. The two will continue to go up or down together.
The lesson that crime breeds criminals, taught by the brutalities of the “Red Shirts,” will never be forgotten by the white people of the South. When these people tired of robbing and assassinating Negroes, many of them turned on their own kind and not a few but suffered much. A man named Taylor for no other grievance than that he accepted the office of Sheriff under Chamberlain, a Republican governor, was shot down in his own home under the very eyes and nose of his wife. Conviction of the criminal was, of course, impossible as there were numbers and numbers of men bound together by oaths and other ties of secret invention ready at call to perjure themselves in any event affecting a member of their clan, while at that time a wife could testify neither for nor against her husband. The criminality of the times had made criminals of men formerly of gentlemanly traits, and splendid character, while those of an immoral nature from inheritance were rendered desperately and hopelessly criminal.
Than “Uncle” Alex Bettis, there was never a better Negro in all the world. It is said of him that he could really do no wrong wilfully, that all his errors were to be charged to the ignorance of his poor brain rather than to any sinister motive of his pure heart; yet notwithstanding his reputation as a faithful friend to the white man, to all men of all races, the type of criminal produced by the criminality of the times was so depraved that it sought the life of Bettis, justifying their actions by asserting that his work as a minister and an advocate of education for the colored race was inimical to the best interests of the people, white and black alike.
Although almost illiterate, “Uncle Alex” was truly a power behind the throne of grace on earth, for them behind that throne, when he directed the machinery connected with it, all imaginary blessings on earth and in Heaven flowed, even to over-flowing in the hearts of the Negroes. It is admitted now, and should have been acknowledged at the time of his great ministry that Mr. Bettis’ assurances of salvation to the Negro for a righteous life and eternal damnation for a wicked life well served to cause thousands of his followers to abandon their ways of sin and lead lives of self-sacrifice and Christian effort, as Jesus would have all peoples to live and act.
Perhaps his preaching was not considered objectionable and had he confined himself solely to that alone, would not have been disturbed; but he had become imbued with the redeeming influence of education through contact with the Schofield school at Aiken and early in his work began the agitation for a Negro school, where, along with elementary literary courses, should be taught the industrial arts as Miss Schofield was doing. This aroused the highly criminal element of the whites, who wanted some pretext to further persecute the Negroes, and so it was ordered at one of their meetings that Bettis should be put to death. The day, date and place for his execution had been fixed, but on account of an accident or some illness to his horse, a large iron-gray, known to the whole country-side, the minister passed the band of murderers bent on his assassination, astride another horse, in disguise. The leader of the mob inquired of the rider if he knew of the whereabouts of Bettis. He replied that “preacher Bettis wus jes’ a little way up de road at Simon Kenny’s ho’se, and wus ’er comin’ er long terrectly.”
The mob waited all the afternoon and throughout the night for Bettis but he never came. So early the next morning they called in person at the Bettis’ home. He received them with great kindness, and although he knew the object of their visit, showed no excitement whatever.
When informed that his death had been decided on, and that he had but little time in which to live, Bettis displayed a calmness and self-control that would have stripped Zeno of his honors at the shrine of stoicism.
“Well, ef dat be de way der gud Lawd hab fer me ter go” said Bettis, “I’s re’dy, but yo’ genermen luk lak yer is pow’rful hungry, an’ befo’ yer tends ter de bisness at han’ pleas let mer ole lady fix yer a bit’ ter ete.”
As something to eat in those days was very welcome and there was unusual hunger among the party, the consent of the mob to have Mrs. Bettis prepare the meal was readily obtained. During the interval between its preparation and consumption Bettis entertained his guests with talks relating to his crops, the condition of crops generally throughout his circuit of churches and kept repeating at the end of each subject: “But laws er mercy, youn’ marsters, its a heap wusser fer de po’ nigger dan it wus befo’ de wah. Now, he’s got nuttin but freedum, whiles fo’ freedum he hab all he wants ter ete an’ mo’ ter boot, an’ hab close to ware and ebbryting ter kep hissef wa’m.”
If these bad men were not wholly disarmed by the simple, rustic beauty of the Negro’s unaffected discourse in the presence of death, during the whole of which not once did he evince any sign that a single thought of his sad fate had ever passed through his troubled brain, they were certainly deeply affected by it, as well as by that act of his in desiring to feed them, they who had come, not to feed him but to make food of him for the worms of old graves in the silent woods of sighing forest trees!
When the hungry had been fed and all had returned to the sitting room of the humble Negro home, Mr. Bettis said, “Well, youn’ marsters, I g’ess yo’ is ’er wantin’ ter go, and so I’se not er goin’ ter dela’ yo’ lon’, but I do wants ter pra’, ef yo’ pleas’es suhs.”
