No liberty, or justice, in Liberty, Miss
Liberty, Miss. sits almost in the dead center of Amite County, which is one county east of the Mississippi River, making it a common pathway for Black men and women who were hoping to escape the terror of slavery out of the ports of New Orleans or Natchez, Miss.
Liberty is the county seat of Amite County, and it is where the first courthouse was built in Mississippi. The area was never highly populated and today has a population of just over 700.
The city and county have a long history of racial enmity and violence. In 1961, a white Mississippi state legislator E.H. Hurst murdered Herbert Lee a Black dairy farmer, who was also a member of the NAACP. Hurst was not charged when armed white men entered the courtroom to intimidate witnesses.
On Sept. 26, 1837, the Liberty Advocate newspaper printed a notice that three Black men were being held in the County Jail, suspected of having escaped slave holders.
VALENTINE, was described as about 38 years old, about 5-9 with a scar under his right ear caused by a burn and other scars on his forehead and under his lip. He said he escaped from slave holder Augustus Tireshill, who was one of five brothers in business together on Bayou Lafouche, La., about nine miles south of the town of Donaldsonville.
PETER, was described as about 5-11, about 20 years old and of “good appearance.” He said he escaped from the estate of Mary Ann Rayford, near Jackson, La. That town today has a population of about 4,000 people and is about 50 miles north of Baton Rouge.
SANDY, was described as about 5-6, about 35 years old, had a scar on his breast and had a dark complexion. He said he escaped from a slave holder named Z. Hall, leaving near Mount Washington in Copiah County, Miss.
On to this week’s stories.
SHERIFF SYRIAN DAVIS of Union County, Ill., arrested a Black man named William Greenwood on suspicion of being a runaway slave on July 30, 1857.
By that time, slavery was illegal in Illinois, but the federal Fugitive Slave Act
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to American Slave Stories to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.