From Library Journal
Fifty-six years after the end of the Civil War, John Williams, a Georgian plantation owner facing a federal investigation of his use of "peons" (poor blacks bailed out of local jails), decided to kill 11 black men to prevent them from testifying against him. With the help of Clyde Manning, his black overseer, he embarked on a series of cold-blooded murders that resulted in two major trials. Based on extensive newspaper coverage, reports from a federal investigation, and trial testimony, this moving narrative account is arguably the most complete history of this event available. Freeman, a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, concludes that this event helped to define "a complex and crucial, yet almost forgotten, moment in history"Aa moment when, although the South had fulfilled some of the worst assumptions of outsiders, "the citizens of Georgia stood up and declared their limits." Recommended for larger public libraries and academic libraries.ARobert C. Jones, Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Fifty years after slavery was believed to have ended in the U.S., John S. Williams, a Georgia plantation owner, was convicted of murdering 11 "slaves" held in peonage on his property. Also convicted was Clyde Manning, the black overseer who had been raised and used by Williams since childhood. Manning, who supplied crucial testimony against Williams, claimed that he was forced to kill most of the men on threat of his own death. The murders were meant to cover the practice of peonage, the forced indefinite labor of black men charged mostly with vagrancy. Peonage was an open secret in the South as late as the 1920s, when the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, precursor to the FBI, began investigating the illegal practice. Freeman, who has written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, uses newspaper articles and court documents to render a compelling account of the murders, the sensational trial in rural Georgia, and the social mores of the time and the region. And he explores, to chilling effect, the personalities of Williams and Manning. Vanessa Bush


From Kirkus Reviews
Freeman's first book has a subtitle calculated to bring readers up short. Plantation slaves in 1921? Therein lies a horrifying tale of the Old South. A Georgia-based journalist, Freeman first came across this story when his hometown, Atlanta, was hosting the 1996 Olympics (although it was widely covered even in the northern press at the time of the events described in the book). Although slavery theoretically died with the Confederacy, in the Jim Crow South there were still forms of debt bondage, called peonage, that were little more than gussied-up versions of the ``peculiar institution.'' A young black man would find himself arrested for some minor offense and issued a fine that he would be unable to pay; a local farmer would pay his fine and put him to work under slavery-like conditions, ostensibly to pay off this unasked-for loan. In the case of gentleman farmer John S. Williams, the result could be death by beating, bludgeoning, shooting, or drowning. Williams, unwillingly aided by his black overseer, Clyde Manning, murdered eleven of his plantation workers in 1921 when he thought that the nascent Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI) was considering federal charges against him for peonage. Eventually, the story came to the surface with a trio of the corpses he and Manning had tossed into a nearby river. Remarkably, Williams was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, primarily on Manning's testimonythe first white southern male convicted of first-degree murder of a black man or woman since 1877. (It would be 45 years before it would happen again.) Freeman walks the reader through the eleven murders and their aftermath with cool detachment. The book is scrupulously researched, with an eye for the telling detail. A good true-crime story, with far-reaching implications. (12 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Today’s Black Woman
"Horrific real story."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The John Williams plantation in Georgia was operated largely with the labor of slaves-56 years after the end of the Civil War. Williams was not alone in using "peons," poor blacks bailed out of local jails, but his reaction to a federal investigation was almost unbelievable. He decided to destroy the evidence, to kill 11 black men who could testify to the situation. Williams enlisted the aid of his farm boss, 27-year-old Clyde Manning, forcing him to methodically kill his friends. Men were chained together, two-by-two, weighted down with rocks, and thrown over bridges, alive and terrified; others were bludgeoned with an axe, summarily shot, or ordered to dig their own graves. The surprises continued in the aftermath, as even a bigoted rural community found that it could not overlook such a heinous crime. A sensational trial ensued, gripping the state, galvanizing national attention, and marking a turning point in the treatment of black Americans. Clyde Manning and his fellow peons can truly be said to be the last American slaves. This riveting book is based largely on the immensely detailed court testimony, the FBI investigations, and other records. A vivid, haunting story of a long-forgotten incident, it helps to illuminate the long journey of African Americans from slavery to freedom

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews

Follows the story of the murder of 11 black laborers being held in peonage on a Georgia farm in 1921. With the Federal Bureau of Investigation's case notes providing much of the information, the conditions that these virtual slaves lived under are explored and the trials of the white plantation owner and his black overseer for the murders are detailed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

Freeman's first book has a subtitle calculated to bring readers up short. Plantation slaves in 1921? Therein lies a horrifying tale of the Old South. A Georgia-based journalist, Freeman first came across this story when his hometown, Atlanta, was hosting the 1996 Olympics (although it was widely covered even in the northern press at the time of the events described in the book). Although slavery theoretically died with the Confederacy, in the Jim Crow South there were still forms of debt bondage, called peonage, that were little more than gussied-up versions of the "peculiar institution." A young black man would find himself arrested for some minor offense and issued a fine that he would be unable to pay; a local farmer would pay his fine and put him to work under slavery-like conditions, ostensibly to pay off this unasked-for loan. In the case of gentleman farmer John S. Williams, the result could be death by beating, bludgeoning, shooting, or drowning. Williams, unwillingly aided by his black overseer, Clyde Manning, murdered eleven of his plantation workers in 1921 when he thought that the nascent Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI) was considering federal charges against him for peonage. Eventually, the story came to the surface with a trio of the corpses he and Manning had tossed into a nearby river. Remarkably, Williams was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, primarily on Manning's testimony—the first white southern male convicted of first-degree murder of a black man or woman since 1877. (It would be 45 years before it would happen again.) Freeman walks the reader through the eleven murders and their aftermath with cool detachment. The book isscrupulously researched, with an eye for the telling detail. A good true-crime story, with far-reaching implications. (12 b&w photos, not seen)