Lay This Body Down

The John S. Williams plantation in Georgia was operated largely with the labor of slaves—and this was in 1921, 56 years after the Civil War. Williams was not alone in using “peons,” but his reaction to a federal investigation was almost unbelievable: he decided to destroy the evidence. Enlisting the aid of his trusted black farm boss, Clyde Manning, he began methodically killing his slaves. As this true story unfolds, each detail seems more shocking, and surprises continue in the aftermath, with a sensational trial galvanizing the nation and marking a turning point in the treatment of black Americans.

First sentence: Jasper and Newton Countries in central Georgia are not all that different from the way they were in 1921, at as far as the more pleasant aspect of Southern culture are concerned.

Year

1999

Language

English

Publisher

Lawrence Hill Books

Editions

7

Pages

195

ISBN

9781556523571

Data source: Wikidata