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A Plea to the Military Governor of Arkansas and Mississippi, to Help a Freedman |
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“Tom Rainey jumped from his horse gathered a piece of fence Rail…and cowardly beat him…”
P. B. Conner. Autograph Letter Signed. Woodruff C[oun]ty [Arkansas], July 23, 1867. To General E[dward] O[tho] C[resap] Ord, 2 pp.
Inventory# 20534 $450
Transcript:
“...last Saturday and while their several of them drank too much. A faithful old Freeman that I have owned for many years was one of a number that started home in the evening got some two miles when they were overtaken by two men, Tom Rainey & Prim Mason they got into a fight... the boy told him that he was free and Mason gathered a piece of a fence Rail and struck two severe blows knocking the boy to his knees the boy recovered and got hold to Mason and all parties but that boy would have given Mason a good thrashing ... Tom Rainey jumped from his horse gathered a piece of fence Rail and fell on the boy and cowardly beat him so that he was not able to get home and I had to send after him and have brought him home next morning... Civil Law it is a farce with the exception of a few irresponsible men such as Rainey... the free men are doing very well...”
Edward Ord was a Federal corps commander during the Civil War, and was seriously wounded in action. When peace was restored, he was made Military Governor of Arkansas and Mississippi. This letter was written to him in the hope of realizing justice for the beaten freed man. Just two years after the war’s end, the failures of reconstruction were already beginning to emerge.
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