Bertie County NcArchives History .....Ruffin, Phillis Beaten 1867
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerald Thomas gerald_thomas00@comcast.net April 4, 2017, 11:30 am

“A DEED OF LAWLESS AND INHUMAN VIOLENCE:” 
THE WHIPPING OF PHILLIS RUFFIN
by
Gerald W. Thomas

In February 1867, Phillis Ruffin of the Harmon’s Crossroads community
(present-day Aulander) in Bertie County, was in her early twenties. Phillis had
been born a slave and had lived in servitude to a white family in the
northwestern section of Bertie County until her freedom was granted as a result
of the Civil War. While Phillis was “free” in the context of federal and state
laws, she was not truly free in the societal “eyes” of certain Bertie County
citizens. In an attempt to achieve an education, she was attending a public
school in the Harmon’s Crossroad’s area.
	About early February Phillis had the misfortune of being provoked by a white
girl who lived in her neighborhood. The girl, for undisclosed reason, attempted
to physically strike Phillis. Phillis successfully resisted the strike and
verbally chastised the girl. Phillis’s act – defending herself from assault and
verbally responding – “unlocked for reversal … a long-accustomed relation.” In
other words, Phillis, a black woman, had defied a white person. In her former
societal standing, slaves who attempted to defend themselves against assault by
their white owners, the owners’ family members or plantation overseers were
ruthlessly subjected to further abuse and suffering.
News of the altercation between Phillis Ruffin and the white girl quickly spread
among the white and black citizens of the Harmon’s Crossroads vicinity.
“Couriers” on horseback rode from farm to farm “inflaming the temper of the
people and concerting measures to produce terror among the negroes.”  The
populace became “thoroughly arouse[d]” – Phillis Ruffin would have to pay for
her action. Certain white citizens of the area were going to ensure that the
“payment” would be extracted from the former slave. Vigilante justice would be
imposed.
On Thursday, February 14, 1867, Phillis was attending school when a number of
influential white men of the Harmon’s Crossroads area burst into the school
building and with force, removed her from class. The men dragged Phillis into a
nearby woods. One of the men was the father of the unidentified white girl who
had attempted to strike Phillis. The total number of individuals who were
present in the woods once Phillis was hauled there is not documented. But, the
identities of ten men are known – Abraham Jenkins (a Bertie County justice of
the peace), William Dunning, James Madison Early, Arnold Richard (“Dick) Cook,
John R. Early, Andrew J. Dunning, Wiley Dunning, John Rice, William C.
(“Cherry”) Dunning, and George H. Mitchell. The men were residents of Bertie and
Hertford counties. At least one woman, a “Mrs. Harmon,” was present at the
scene. The attendance of the magistrate Jenkins, obviously was intended to lend
“sanction” to the conduct of the vigilante assemblage, and according to
published accounts, he “did so.” Phillis, the accused, was dragged before the
self-constituted conclave of angry men, whom she had been accustomed since
infancy to call “masters.” Some members of the group howled for her to be
incarcerated, while one man swore that “she would be hung [sic, hanged].” The
men, worked up into a frenzy, demanded that Phillis “be imprisoned or whipped.”
Phillis, who in essence had been kidnapped and was being subjected to a most
unlawful execution of “justice” under the justiceship of Abraham Jenkins,
“exclaimed she would rather be whipped than go to jail.” Her exclamation, made
under the utmost duress, “was taken [by the men] as the assent which they
desired.” In an attempt to apparently lend some degree of legitimacy to their
action, an “indenture” was quickly “drawn up” by which, Phillis – having no
latitude to counter without further enraging the mob – signed the paper. Her
coerced signature, in the view of the horde, bound her as an apprentice to Mrs.
Harmon. In the eyes of the assembled citizens in the woodlot, Phillis Ruffin was
in effect re-enslaved. Mrs. Harmon then consented that her “so-called ward
should be flogged.”
The “impatient assemblage,” conceding to the mockery of legal formalities
“hastened to execute the penalty” rendered under Justice Jenkins’s authority.
Phillis was then escorted into an adjacent woodlot, where, some sixty yards
removed from any public road, she was halted and told to take down her dress.
She resisted and one of the men “snatched” her garment off her shoulders.
Stripped to her waist, except of her chemise, she was whipped by five men in
succession. Time and time again the men lashed her back with rods that were
three feet in length and from three-eighths to one-half inch in diameter.
According to a witness, she was struck one hundred twenty-six times. Phillis’s
chemise was tattered and blood flowed from the wales raised on her lacerated
back. The heavy blows continued to land at random and Phillis was shoved around
and kicked by the coldhearted mob. At last, one of the men – “an applauding
bystander” - not utterly insensible to the suffering and sex of the “wretched
victim” was sufficiently touched by the spectacle of her torture, that he cried
out, "Boys, don't hurt her breast[s]!"
Having satiated their savage vengeance, Phillis’s tormentors, fatigued by their
exertions, began to withdraw from the woodlot, leaving the whipped woman
mournfully crying and screaming in agony. But, two of the hard-hearted men
returned to her and inflicted ten more lashes each, “to stop her
[from]screaming.” Finally, Phillis, severely wounded and sobbing, pitifully made
her way to her home. For ten days she was unable to rise from her bed during
which time the pain from her wounds was excruciating. Even after being able to
get out of bed she was not able to perform any menial task or even to wear her
clothes without pain.
The significant number of individuals who were present when Phillis Ruffin was
whipped naturally led to public circulation of accounts of the affair. News of
the savagery carried out in the Harmon’s Crossroads woodlot began to spread
outside of the local community. The incident was reported to officials of the
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (commonly known as the
Freedmen’s Bureau) at Plymouth. The bureau was an organization established in
early March 1865 by Congress to help former slaves and poor whites in the South
with, among other things, legal assistance. The bureau was organized as an
entity of the United States War Department, thus, giving it the backing of the
military.  
Some of the eager participants in Phillis Ruffin’s whipping were themselves
about to face justice. On April 13, 1867, a Bertie County Superior Court grand
jury indicted William Dunning, Arnold Richard (“Dick”) Cook, James Madison
Early, John R. Early, Andrew J. Dunning and George H. Mitchell for the whipping
of Phillis Ruffin. The jury did not indict Justice of the Peace Jenkins. 
However, a more supreme legal power – the United States government – would
quickly assume responsibility for charging and trying the participants in the
savage whipping. In 1867 North Carolina had not been re-admitted to the Union
following the end of the Civil War. The state was led by provisional governor,
William W. Holden (appointed by Pres. Andrew Johnson on in May 1865), but was
under military control. During the post-Civil War period – the Reconstruction
era (1865-1877) – the United States Congress established five military districts
in the Southern States (i.e., the former Confederate States of America,
excluding Tennessee) to oversee reconstruction activities and attempt to ensure
the just treatment of former slaves. The districts were governed by generals who
had served in the Union Army during the war. North Carolina and South Carolina
comprised the Second Military District whose headquarters were at Charleston,
South Carolina. Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, a distinguished brigade and
division commander during the Civil War, commanded the district. Across North
Carolina colored infantry regiments oversaw reconstruction activities. In 1867
the Fortieth Regiment United States Infantry (colored) was stationed in eastern
North Carolina. Its regimental headquarters were at Plymouth where Company B of
the regiment served as garrison troops. The military post at Plymouth included
Bertie and Hertford counties in its area of command.   
On Sunday, June 16, 1867, a military court convened at Plymouth to try ten men
charged in the whipping of Phillis Ruffin. The defendants included the six men
indicted by the Bertie County grand jury in April. Brevet Lieut. Col. Charles
Bentzoni, commanding officer of the Fortieth Infantry Regiment, served as
president of the court. The charges against the defendants were: (1) riotous
conduct and (2) assault and battery. The court found seven of the men guilty of
one or both charges. The identities of those men, the charges on which convicted
and imposed sentences follow.
·	Abraham Jenkins, justice of the peace: Guilty of aiding and abetting assault
and battery. Sentence – to be removed from his office as magistrate; to be
confined at hard labor for the period of one month, at such place as the
commanding general [Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles] may direct; and to pay a fine
of twenty-five dollars.
·	William Dunning: Guilty of assault and battery. Sentence – to be confined at
hard labor for a period of two months at such place as the commanding general
may direct, and to pay a fine of fifteen dollars.
·	Arnold (“Dick”) Cook: Guilty of riotous conduct and guilty of assault and
battery. Sentence – to be confined at hard labor for a period of two months, at
a place as the commanding general may direct, and to pay a fine of twenty-five
dollars.
·	James Madison Early: Guilty of riotous conduct and guilty of assault and
battery. Sentence – to be confined at hard labor for a period of two months, at
such place as the commanding general may direct, and to pay a fine of
twenty-five dollars.
·	John R. Early: Guilty of riotous conduct and guilty of assault and battery.
Sentence – to be confined at hard labor for a period of two months, at such
place as the commanding general may direct, and to pay a fine of twenty-five
dollars.
·	Andrew J. Dunning: Guilty of riotous conduct and guilty of assault and
battery. Sentence – to be confined at hard labor for a period of one month, at
such place as the commanding general may direct, and to pay a fine of
twenty-five dollars.
·	George H. Mitchell: Guilty of assault and battery. Sentence – to be confined
at hard labor for a period of three months, at such place as the commanding
general may direct, and to pay a fine of seventy-five dollars.
Three men – Wiley Dunning, William C. (“Cherry”) Dunning, and John Rice – were
found not guilty of the charges and were acquitted.
	In accordance with military protocol, the official record of the court
proceedings, findings and sentences were transmitted to Headquarters, Second
Military District for approval. On Aug. 17, 1867, district officials issued
General Orders No. 75 per command of Major General Sickles. The orders
officially approved the Plymouth court’s proceedings and findings. Commentary
contained in the orders indicated that military officials at Charleston were of
the opinion that the sentences to be imposed on the convicted defendants should
have been more severe. However, the officials did not desire that the imposition
of the sentences be further delayed since two months had transpired since the
men had been tried at Plymouth. “The evidence in the foregoing cases discloses a
deed of lawless and inhuman violence. … In the revolting crime … all of [the] …
prisoners are shown to have been eager participants. In the interest of outraged
justice it is to be deplored that the perpetrators have been adjudged to undergo
punishment so inadequate to the enormity of their offence[s]. The proceedings
and finding are approved; and in view of the delay which would result from
revision, the sentences are approved, and the common jail at Plymouth is
designated as the place of confinement. The commander of the post of Plymouth
will see that the sentences are executed. By command of Maj. Gen. D. E. Sickles.
J. W. Clous, Capt., 38th U. S. Inf., A. D. C. and A. A. A. G.”
	The brutality of the whipping of Phillis Ruffin caught the attention of persons
across the nation. Newspapers as far away as Sacramento, California carried
articles conveying the details of the assault and battery and the results of the
military trial. Further, the United States House of Representatives included the
record of the trial in Executive Documents Printed by Order of the House of
Representatives During the Second Session of the Fortieth Congress, 1867-’68
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1868).
During the military court session in which the defendants in the Phillis Ruffin
case were tried, Henry D. Sanders, about twenty-eight years old and a resident
of Hertford County, was also tried. Sanders was charged with whipping two black
children – a girl (Ellen) and a boy (Robert). The court found him guilty of
assault and battery and sentenced him to be confined at hard labor for one month
and to pay a fine of twenty dollars. General Sickles approved the court’s
finding and sentence. Sanders, like the Ruffin defendants, was sentenced to
serve his time in jail at Plymouth.


Additional Comments:
Harry Thompson and I had a number of conversations regarding an epilogue for the
book covering "what happened" in Bertie County after the war when the
Confederate and Union veterans returned home. He and I did some searching, but
we never found sufficient sources for me to prepare an enlightening epilogue.
Harry and I jointly concluded that the war vets came home to Bertie, "put the
war behind them," and went back to their livelihoods. In the research that I
conducted back then, I came across a couple of Freedmen's Bureau records
regarding the whipping of Phillis Ruffin by white men shortly after the war.
Recently, I discovered much more information regarding the affair, so, I have
prepared the attached paper.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie/history/other/ruffinph279gms.txt

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