Affidavit of Jackson O'Brien: Dougherty County, Georgia, 1868 Sept. 23
author: Howard, O. H.
date: September 23, 1868
extent: 1p
summary: This affidavit of Jackson O'Brien, twenty-two-year-old cottonfield worker, taken in Dougherty County, Georgia on September 23, 1868 by Freedman's Bureau subassistant commissioner O.H. Howard details O'Brien's experience of seeing the bodies of five freedmen in the woods outside of Camilla following the violence that occurred in the town when freedmen along with Republicans came to hold a political rally at the Mitchell County Courthouse on September 19, 1868 and met with the opposition of the townspeople.
subjects:
- United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
- African Americans--Georgia--History--1863-1867
- 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
- O'Brien, Jackson
- Camilla (Ga.)
- Mitchell County (Ga.)
- Affidavits
repository: DeSoto Trail Regional Library (Camilla, Ga.)
collection: Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868
Page: [1] [jpg image | djvu image]
State of Ga.
Dougherty Co. [added text: }]
Jackson O'Brien, freed, [added text: [] swears [added text: [] that he saw five dead bodies of freedmen, [added text: 3 1/2X] in a skirt of woods near Dr. Dashers House, near Camilla, three of them lying near together, a fourth about 100 yards farther from the town, and a fifth about two hundred yards from him. That he turned the first three bodies over. That while lying concealed afterwards, he saw a covered wagon, drawn by two mules, and escorted by about fifteen white men mounted and armed, driving through the woods and stopping at different points, he thinks they were gathering up the dead and wounded. That after dark [deleted text: ing] making a circuit to escape, he came into Camilla, that he heard in a closed store there sounds which he recognized as that of a person being whipped, heard the cries and the blows.
Jackson [added text: his] X [added text: mark] O'Brien
Sworn to and subscribed
before me, at Albany Ga.
this
23d day of Sept. 1868 .
[Signed] O. H. Howard
2nd Lieut [Lieutenant] 5th Art [Artillery] Bt Maj [Brevet Major] & S. A. C [Sub Assistant Commissioner]
Return to Civil Unrest in Camilla, Georgia, 1868 Table of Contents
