Montgomery County in the
same state, from various quarters of Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas, from
New Orleans, and from Atlanta and Cassville, Georgia.[99] A typical episode
in the period was described by a schoolmaster from Michigan then sojourning
in Mississippi. One night about Christmas of 1858 when the plantation
homestead at which he was staying was filled with house guests, a courier
came in the dead of night bringing news that the blacks in the eastern part
of the county had risen in a furious band and were laying their murderous
course in this direction. The head of the house after scanning the
bulletin, calmly told his family and guests that they might get their guns
and prepare for defense, but if they would excuse him he would retire again
until the crisis came. The coolness of the host sent the guests back to bed
except for one who stood sentry. "The negroes never came."[100]

[Footnote 98: J.R. Brackett, _The Negro in Maryland_, p. 97.]

[Footnote 99: _Southern Watchman_ (Athens, Ga.), Dec. 18 and 25, 1856. Some
details of the Texas disturbance, which brought death to several negroes,
is given in documents printed in F.L. Olmsted, _Journey through Texas_, pp.
503. 504]

[Footnote 100: A. DePuy Van Buren, _Jottings of a Sojourn in the South_
(Battle Creek, Mich., 1859), pp. 121, 122]

The shiver which John Brown's raid sent over the South was diminished by
the failure of the blacks to join him, and it was largely overcome by the
wave of fierce resentment against the abolitionists who, it was said, had
at last shown their true colors. The final disturbance on the score of
conspiracy among the negroes themselves was in the summer of 1860 at
Dallas, Texas, where in the preceding year an abolitionist preacher had
been whipped and driven away. Ten or more fires which occurred in one day
and laid much of the town in ruins prompted the seizure of many blacks and
the raising of a committee of safety. This committee reported to a public
meeting on July 24 that three ringleaders in the plot were to be hanged
that afternoon. Thereupon Judge Buford of the district court addressed the
gathering. "He stated in the outset that in any ordinary case he would
be as far from counselling mob law as any other man, but in the present
instance the people had a clear right to take the law in their own hands.
He counselled moderation, and insisted that the committee should execute
the fewest number compatible with the public saf