July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
Autograph Letter Signed “R.H. Marr” 3pp. quarto, New Orleans, April 28, 1853, "I don’t know whether or not I informed you in my last letter of the result of the Negro suit in which twenty Negroes claim their freedom . Judge Larue. Has decided against the Negroes. Long, one of the owners is so delighted that he means to make me a present of one of them- a beautiful girl, about seven years old. She will make a nice maid for our daughter and will be of the right age to be serviceable to her. They have also employed me to go over to Mobile in December to argue the suit [New Orleans permitted slaves to sue for their freedom and for owners to gain the right to free their slaves] brought there in the United States Court against the man who made the affidavit against them upon which they were arrested and imprisoned by kidnappers....” Very good condition. The Colfax massacre occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the seat of Grant Parish, during Reconstruction, when white militia attacked freedmen at the Colfax courthouse. Three whites and 80-150 freedmen died in the confrontation. In the wake of a contested election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a white militia, armed with rifles and a small cannon, overpowered freedmen and state militia (also black) trying to control the parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana. White Republican officeholders were not attacked. Most of the freedmen were killed after they surrendered, and nearly 50 were killed later that night after being held as prisoners for several hours. Estimates of the number of dead varied. Two U.S. Marshals who visited the site on April 15, 1873, and buried dead reported 62 fatalities. A military report to Congress in 1875 identified 81 black men who had been killed by name, and also estimated that 15-20 bodies were thrown into the Red River and another 18 secretly buried — for a grand total of "at least 105." A state historical marker from 1950 noted fatalities as three whites and 150 blacks.
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