She stated further, that they were in the woods nearly a month, and that as soon as they were able to travel they left the vicinity and procured a home with a Mr. Dixon, on the lower edge of Chatham county.
An affidavit, based upon the statements of this young lady, was made before the Hon. A. W. Schaffer, U. S. Commissioner at Raleigh, N. C., on the 8th day of September, 1871. It charged the men, recognized by this girl, as being present and concerned in the outrages above related. Warrants were issued, and the officers of the U. S. Secret Service went to Chatham county and arrested the parties and brought them before the Commissioner. The more wealthy and influential members of the Klan rallied to their rescue, became their bondsmen, and they were released to await trial.
Miss Furguson’s description of the dreadful indignities to which she and the other members of the family were subjected, was of the most graphic and thrilling character, and aroused the sympathies of many who heard it.
The defenders of the “white man’s government” were alone amazed and enraged at the persistency and courage of this young girl of the “white man’s race,” and they determined to ferret her out and punish her again. In this they were successful, although for greater safety, the family had broken up, and the mother and daughter had secreted themselves, as they supposed, beyond the knowledge of their persecutors.
On the night of the 20th of September, 1871, three men, armed and disguised, and who had been detailed by the Camp for the purpose, appeared suddenly before the miserable hut in which these unfortunates had taken refuge. An entrance was easily effected, and the women were told that their doom was sealed, and they were to be whipped to death.
These three protectors of the “white man’s race,” then fell upon the women, beating them brutally. Susan recognized one of them, by his voice, as a man named Jesse Dixon, whom she knew. The moment she called his name, the three ran away, leaving their victims, who passed the remnant of the night in the woods.
On the following day, the mother and daughter made their way to Raleigh, where fresh complaints were entered, and the Secret Service officers, armed with warrants, went out and succeeded in capturing two of the murderous assailants, who were brought in and held for trial. Mrs. Furguson and her daughter were then retained in the city as witnesses, at the expense of the government, and to protect them from further outrages.
Susan J. Furguson, the heroine of the terrible experiences above related, is now twenty-one years of age. She is a girl of commanding presence, is endowed with a powerful constitution, great energy and force of character, and an indomitable spirit. Her P. O. address is “Snow Camp Foundry, Chatham Co., N. C.,” where herself and other members of the family can be found, in verification of the facts above related.
There are few narrations in the annals of “persecutions for opinion’s sake,” more shocking in their inhuman details than the foregoing; certainly, none that cry with a louder and more earnest voice to the government, and the right-minded people of the country, for help for those who have been the subjects thereof.
No amount of retributive justice can erase one solitary scar from the knout-welted bodies of the Furgusons, or remove from their spirits the dreadful memory of their disgrace; but to those who went forth to battle in the days of “The Nation’s Peril,” who stood shoulder to shoulder amid the roar of cannon, and, in vindication of the right, successfully withstood the shock of rebellious armies, it must ever remain a matter of profound gratification that the victories then achieved in the field are now being perpetuated in such a firm and vigorous enforcement of the laws as will have a tendency to make them substantial ones in the repression of any and all such outrages in the future.