Black Rage Confronts the Law. Paul Harris

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      When sixteen-year-old Bill arrived at the prison he began to weep. Every person has a little place in his or her soul where hope is kept alive. Even though Bill had lived under an unjust system, some small part of him believed in justice. He was aware that new evidence had been found proving he was nowhere near the stable of the stolen horse, so Bill waited to be set free, but no relief came. The eyes of justice were indeed, in the words of the poet Langston Hughes, “two festering sores.”² How long can a man—or a sixteen-year-old boy—be in a prison cell wondering why he has been locked away for a crime he did not commit, without terrible changes taking place in his psyche?

      Bill had been sentenced to hard labor. The prison had many shops where convicts worked under the supervision of private contractors. For two years Bill worked, mainly filing iron for plating. As time went on Bill became less intimidated and more angry. He resolved to struggle for the justice he felt he deserved. He told his bosses he should not have to work because he had done nothing to deserve being locked up in prison. The response he received was threats of punishment. So Bill worked less and less, which created hostility among his bosses, who viewed him as ignorant and incorrigible.

      The keeper of the shop where Bill worked most of the time was a man named James Tyler. Tyler did not like Bill’s attitude and felt he was not doing enough work. He repeatedly threatened Bill with punishment. One day Tyler told Bill he didn’t want to hear any more excuses about being imprisoned. He said he was done trying to talk to him and was going to flog him. He ordered Bill to take off his clothes, and then turned around to get a cat-o’-nine-tails. Tyler later claimed that at this point Bill attacked him, and that during the fight Bill got hold of a knife. This was never confirmed by any other witnesses. But one thing was clear: Tyler hit Bill on the left side of his head with a large board that broke into pieces from the force of the blow. Tyler denied that the blow could have hurt Bill. Years later, however, a medical examination confirmed that the force of the board on Bill’s left ear had broken the ear drum and permanently damaged his left temporal bone.

      Bill was now deaf in his left ear. His spirit seemed broken. He worked carrying yarn to and from the dye shop. He became sullen, morose, and easily provoked. He had two fights with other convicts over minor disputes, and both times Bill was flogged. The second time, the whipping was so bad that he could put his fingers into the hole that had been cut between his ribs.

      His mental condition deteriorated. Prison rules did not allow conversation between inmates, and prisoners were supposed to talk to their bosses and guards only when it was necessary in performing their duties. With such disciplinary rules, no one recognized Bill’s worsening condition. They stereotyped him as a stupid, childlike Negro with a bad attitude. His brother-in-law, John Depuy, came to the prison five times to visit Bill. He was shocked at Bill’s state. He came home to tell Bill’s mother that her son had become deranged. The mother was so pained by what had happened to her son that she was unable to bring herself to go to the prison and face Bill.

      After five years of prison, the day of Bill’s release arrived. The prison chaplain offered him a Bible, but Bill couldn’t read. Then the clerk told him to sign a voucher to receive two dollars. Bill looked at the voucher and said, “I have been in prison five years unjustly, and ain’t going to settle so.” The prison officers and the chaplain laughed.

      John Depuy took him from the cold, foreboding halls of Auburn State Prison. Bill hardly recognized his brother-in-law. As they traveled home, Bill said he had accidently broken a dinner knife while eating and the guards had threatened to give him five more years in prison. He was afraid and asked John if they could do that to him. Over and over he said he needed to find the people who had caused him to be imprisoned and to make them pay him for the injustice he had suffered.

      For months he lived with John. The people who had known him, both black and white, were stunned by the changes in him. He rarely talked, and when he did he often made little sense. People had described him as “a lad of good understanding and of kind and gentle disposition.” Now he seemed stupid, angry, and prone to break out in loud laughter for no reason.

      One day, Bill walked the five miles to Mrs. Godfrey’s house and told her that he was innocent of stealing her horse and that he wanted her to pay him a settlement. She felt sorry for him and gave him some cakes. He left quietly.

      Bill then went to a lawyer and asked for a warrant for the man whose testimony had put him in prison, saying that he wanted to get damages. The lawyer’s clerk told him to go to the justice of the peace’s office. A few days later he went to see a lawyer named Lyman Paine, who was a justice of the peace. Bill said he wanted “a warrant for the man who put me to State Prison.” Paine told him that the only warrant he could make out would be for perjury, and that he would need detailed facts to issue such a warrant. But Bill could not understand and just kept repeating himself. Finally, Bill threw a quarter on the table and said, “Sir, I demand a warrant.” He soon left the office but returned in the afternoon and gave Paine the names of Mr. Doty and Mrs. Godfrey. Paine would not issue a warrant and sent him away again. Refused a warrant, but unwilling to give up, Bill went to another justice two days later. Again he was denied a warrant and was informed that there was no legal remedy for his problem.

      During the same period of time, Bill went to the John Van Nest farm, on Owasco Lake, four miles from Auburn. The Van Nests were a very wealthy and well-respected family. They had no previous relationship with Bill and had never seen him before. He asked for a job, was politely refused, and left the farm.

      After being refused a warrant and visiting the Van Nest farm, Bill became more and more agitated. He bought two knives and, while showing them to John Depuy, started to threaten him. After John calmed him down, Bill said that he had found the folks that had put him in prison—“they were Mr. Van Nest”—and that he was going to kill them.

      On the night of March 12, 1846, twenty-two-year-old William Freeman left the settlement at New Guinea with his knives, drank a pint of liquor, and walked to the Van Nest farm. He walked back and forth outside the yard, until after a long wait he saw Mrs. Van Nest open the back door and step outside. He ran toward her and began stabbing her. Her husband, John Van Nest, heard her screams and opened the door. Bill jumped on him and quickly killed him. He then ran upstairs and into a room where George, their two-year-old son, was sleeping, stabbing the boy so hard the knife pierced the bed. One of the men in the house, Cornelius Van Arsdale, confronted Bill and was also stabbed, but he managed to hit Bill with a candlestick and knock him down the stairs. As Bill left the house he ran into Mrs. Wyckoff, the mother-in-law, who attacked him with a carving knife and severed the tendons in his wrist. In the struggle, he stabbed her in the stomach. She too would die, two days later. Bill ran to the stable, took an old horse, and fled.

      After some miles the horse gave out and fell. Bill killed the horse and stole another from a nearby barn. By the next day he was forty miles away in another village. When he tried to sell the horse, people became suspicious and called the authorities. A Mr. Alonzo Taylor found Bill in Gregg’s Tavern and arrested him. He accused Bill of the murder. When Bill denied, Taylor said, “You black rascal, you do know about it,” and raised his cane to hit him. He was stopped from striking Bill, but he then allowed two men to take Bill into another room “to get something out of him.” The two men beat Bill. He was then taken back to the Van Nest farm, where he was identified by Van Arsdale. He was continually interrogated and gave many different responses, from denials to statements that he wanted to get paid for being in prison, to sentences that just made no sense. One sentence, however, did make sense. Bill said: “You know there is no law for me.”

      As word of the murders spread, people from all over the countryside gathered at the Van Nest farm. When Bill was brought there to be identified the crowd screamed for his death. They called out that he should be put on a rack, or burned at the stake. Some people had brought ropes and called for a lynching. However, the officers “by a diversion СКАЧАТЬ