Testimony of William D. Simpson, Yorkville, South Carolina - 24 July 1871

[Simpson was a 45 year-old lawyer and resident of Laurensville]

“The contest was a hot one, and during the summer, perhaps in May, I do not remember precisely, but pretty early in the canvas, to the surprise of the white people it was ascertained that some four or five companies had been organized, ostensibly as military companies, probably sixty to one hundred in each.  They were composed entirely of blacks.” (1303). ...

“It was understood that they were organized under the direction of a man named Joseph Crews, who had identified himself with that population early after the war.  He was a citizen of that county for years before the war, and pretty soon after the war he had identified himself with that race and was elected by them to the State convention. ... these companies were organized and were composed generally of the most turbulent blacks in their respective neighborhoods, to some extent.  After these companies were organized, very soon it was ascertained that a large quantity of arms had been shipped to the county.  They came in boxes and were sent, as it was understood, to Joseph Crews.” (1303). ...

“After the guns and constabulary came the first thing the people knew meetings were called in behalf of that party at different points in the district, usually on Saturdays; public meetings composed entirely of one party.  Crews would start for one of his public meetings with one of these companies, sometimes two, armed and equipped, with bayonets on and cartridges around their bodies.” (1303-1304). ...

“Shortly after that the news ran over the village that a considerable number of negroes had gone up to Crews’ barn, where the guns were, and were arming to come down and attack the citizens. ... That was the day of the election. The next day - it was during court week and a considerable body of men were at the court house, in our county - in our State the whole population attends court -”

Q (Mr. Van Trump): Was that the first day of court?

A: No, sir, it was not; it was Wednesday; that is the great court day.

Q (Chairman): Which day was the election held on?

A: On Tuesday. ... On Wednesday there was a large collection of blacks and whites. ... I was in the courthouse myself, engaged then in a case - I was examining a witness on the stand in a riot case when this thing commenced.  A man named Johnson, who belonged to the white party, and a white man, one of the State constabulary, who belonged to the negro party - I do not know his name - got into a row. ...Johnson had heard that this constable had denounced him as a tallow-faced son-of-a-bitch, and he called upon him to know whether he had said so.  This fellow denied it, and acted pretty boldly for a man under his circumstances.  He asked who had told him so.  Johnson said somebody, and he said he was a damned liar - so I understood - and conducted himself with a good deal of manhood, surrounded as he supposed himself, because at that time there were a good many standing around.  Anyhow, while they were quarreling, a pistol went off. ...A volley was discharged from an upper window [of Crews’ armory] and they fired through the plank.  The house was weather-boarded but not ceiled inside. ...When that firing took place from the house the firing was upon the people of the square just in front of it, but nobody was hurt.  One ball hit the court-house, and one passed through the crowd but missed everybody ... it passed over their heads and hit Mr. Sullivan’s office across the public square, a lawyer’s office.  The people rushed upon that concern with their pistols and they ran in.  They broke the door down, and the negroes gave back and ran out of the back door. ... The negroes had gone from this building, and the firing was about over.  It was a very short thing.  Two negroes were killed right there, and I think one wounded. ... Judge Vernon ... ordered the sheriff to raise a posse of one hundred men and take charge of these public arms.  He did so and went up to Crews’ house and hauled down all the arms from that place and from the other place except those taken out by men who ran in, and he put them in the sheriff’s office.  It spread over the country worse than a prairie fire that the fight had commenced at the village between the whites and negroes; that the whites were in a minority and the negroes were getting the advantage; and they commenced coming in towards 5 o’clock in twos, threes, and tens on horseback.” (1306).

“I suppose by midnight there must have been twenty-five hundred men ... Next morning news came that Volney Powell [constabulary from Ohio] and Bill Riley [prominent black Republican] were found dead on the public highway. ... They were found lying with guns by them - a gun apiece. ... This fellow, Wade Perrin [black candidate for legislature] was found about fifteen miles below the village, on the public highway towards Newberry - found dead; and two other negroes in another part of the district, some six or seven miles from the village, were found dead next morning.  That was the extent of the killing that I know anything about.  There were two negroes wounded that day when these two negroes spoken of as first killed in the fight were killed.  One white man was wounded that I know of in the fight” (1307).

Q: Have those negroes been disarmed?

A: Entirely disarmed.  They were disarmed on that occasion; the whites disarmed them. ...

Q: I see by the adjutant general’s report that Joseph Crews received six hundred and twenty guns himself?

A: Yes sir.

Q: Also ten thousand rounds of fixed-ammunition?

A: They were most splendidly equipped with all the equipments - belts, cartridge boxes, and everything of the sort as nice as you ever saw (1308).

“The impression on the public mind there was that the whole thing was an electioneering scheme on the part of those leading that party in that county, and that these military companies were organized to consolidate the negroes.  The Union League operated finely during the canvass of 1866, but the Union League had been broken down to some extent before the election of 1870. ...” (1308). 

A: Those companies [negro] were organized , as far as the white people had any noise, in the night-time.  We never heard of their organization until they were out in the street in public occasions.

Q: Was there any attempt to organize the whites themselves?

A: Yes sir; when it was ascertained that these negro companies had been organized (1308).

From “Testimony taken by The Joint Select Committee to inquire into The Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States” (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1872), 1302-1325.