Robinson was tried, convicted and sent to the penitentiary.
In Wilkes County, Ga., a convict boss whipped a negro convict who sulked and wouldn’t work. The negro had a bad character, and was serving sentence for a grave offense.
The whipping may possibly have caused the negro’s death, though there was much testimony to the effect that he died from natural causes.
At any rate, a white judge and jury convicted the boss who inflicted the whipping, and he had to serve his time in the penitentiary. Robert Cannon was his name.
In another instance I myself furnished the evidence of maltreatment of a negro convict in the Georgia penitentiary, and, the facts being made known to the Governor of Georgia, a fine of $2,500 was imposed on the Convict Lessee Company.
The Governor was General John B. Gordon.
The name of the negro convict was Bill Sturgis.
Examples like these could be multiplied indefinitely from Georgia and every Southern state.
Another astonishing fact is related by Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart.