- Collection:
- Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 : Reconstruction, Republicanism, and Race
- Title:
- Affidavit of Lochran Hunter: Randolph County, Georgia, 1868 Sept. 28
- Date of Original:
- 1868-09-28
- Subject:
- African Americans--Georgia--History--19th century
African Americans--Georgia--Social conditions--To 1964
Freedmen--Georgia--Political activity
Freedmen--Georgia--Violence against
Freedmen--Georgia--Personal narratives
Reconstruction--Georgia
Political violence--Georgia--Camilla
Mitchell County (Ga.)--Race relations
Mitchell County (Ga.)--Politics and government
United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
Hunter, Lochran - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Mitchell County, Camilla, 31.23129, -84.21046
- Medium:
- affidavits
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- image/jpeg
text/html - Description:
- Lochran Hunter, a twenty-three-year-old who works in Mitchell County, gives this affidavit in Randolph County, Georgia on September 28, 1868. Hunter states that as early as Thursday, September 17, 1868, his employer, Robert Bacon, had warned him not to go into Camilla on the coming Saturday, September 19, 1868, because Bacon anticipated there would be violence there. In what came to be known as the Camilla Massacre or the Camilla Riot, Republicans and freedmen who gathered for a politcal rally and the townspeople who opposed them clashed in front of the Mitchell County courthouse that day. Though Hunter carried a pistol, he had been instructed by Republican leaders John Murphy and William P. Pierce to "shoot no guns," and he, like most of the freedmen who were, in any case unprepared to shoot back, followed those instructions when the townspeople began firing at the crowd. After the firing began Hunter escaped into the nearby woods, and though he was pursued for a short distance, he made it home safely by around midnight Saturday night.
Digital image and transcription created by the Digital Library of Georgia in 2001 of a photocopy held by DeSoto Trail Regional Library of an original record held by the National Archives. - Local Identifier:
- cam034
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/zlcu/id:cam034
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:dlg_zlcu_cam034
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlcu_cam034/presentation/manifest.json
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [title of item], United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records. National Archives and Records Administration, presented in the Digital Library of Georgia
- Extent:
- 3 pages/leaves
- Holding Institution:
- De Soto Trail Regional Library System
- Rights:
-
Page: [1]
[added text: 6X] Affidavit of Lochran Hunter, (colored,)
Georgia
Randolph County [added text: }]
Personally came before me Lochran Hunter cold [colored], who being duly sworn deposes and [added text: [] says that [deleted text: [illegible text]] he is 28 years old and in the employment of Robert Bacon of Mitchel [Mitchell] County, that Robert Bacon went to Camilla on last [deleted text: S] Thursday and sent word to him by Eppa Lawson cold [colored] not to go to Camilla on Saturday to the speaking as there would be trouble and difficulty there, in store for them and that he told [deleted text: [illegible text]] a good many of his hands the same thing, to keep them at home . . Deponent further swears that he did not receive this information in time and that he went to Camilla armed with a pistol but did not receive any instructions or order from anybody to take arms along, that he did not apprehend any difficulty there although he had heard it rumored amongst the colored people, that it had been said in Camilla that the colored people and Murphy and Pearce
Page: [2]
should not come there to hold a meeting, swears further that the waggon [wagon] was stopped by James Johns who told them that he was commander of that town that they must stop the music and that he was going to shoot if they hit that drum an other [another] time and as he said it he fired at the waggon [wagon] [deleted text: lifting] [added text: elevating] the muzzle of which [deleted text: was] [added text: had been] pointed towards the ground in the direction of the waggon [wagon] . After Johns firing one white man about five yards in front of the music waggon [wagon] fired immediately after him before any one else fired and with his fire a regular fire comenced [commenced] from both sides . Deponent run off, got into the woods made his way home, was followed about 300 yards then got off in the woods and was not [deleted text: [illegible text]] pursued any further, got home Saturday night about midnight. Deponent further states that Mr Pierce and Murphy told them before going into Camilla to behave well, be quiet, make no noise, go in orderly & shoot no guns
Page: [3]
Sworn to & subscribed before me .
this 28 day of September 1868 .
Lochran [added text: his] X [added text: mark] Hunter