Thursday, October 18, 2018

Different Levels of Government, Different Rules


Three Forks of Wolf, Tenn. (1868)
11/29/1868: “[A]n aged widow lady, by the name of Galloway” had the day before received $300 back pay for her husband, who had died in military service.  A robber “most foully and brutally” murdered her and her three daughters in pursuit of that windfall.
Category: residential
Suicide: no
Cause: robbery
Weapon: unknown[1]


[1] “A Whole Family Murdered in Fentress County,” [Memphis, Tenn.] Public Ledger, Dec. 10, 1868, 1.


The story explains these scum were turned over to the federal courts not state courts because blacks could testify against whites in federal courts; remember that after the Civil War, the antebellum rule that a black person could not testify against a white person persisted.

1 comment:

  1. That's interesting! I read a similar tale in Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the story of her husband in his youth. In there it mentioned how they never kept cash overnight and sent it right to the bank. A buyer came by the house but hemmed and hawed until late and then finally paid up. They were terrified that they would be robbed that night. In fact, another family who had done business with the horse buyer was robbed but they couldn't pin it on the purchaser.

    ReplyDelete