This letter was written as a petition to President Grant and signed by 175 Texans about conditions in Texas in 1875. It is shown here using the spelling and composition of letter the way it is in the National Archives. It is fairly long you may want to print it to read.

After you read it please take a few minutes to write down your reaction to the letter.

The citation is National Archives, Record Group 60

(Justice), Letters Received, Texas.

On July 24, 1875, George Peoples et al., "Rosebeck" [Groesbeck], Tex.,

wrote to President Ulysses S. Grant.

"We the colored Citizens of Lime-Stone co. Texas. and of the State We do honorably ask you permission of presenting you this Petition. To inform you of the condition of the

colored people in the State of Texas, but it is almost impossibly Mr

President for us to tell you all. but We will try to tell you a few things.

But we have now runned a way from home. and have to be this Distance from

home to get up this petition for we will leave this County and State to

post this petition or it will never be seen by you For we have have Sent

Several petitions from this county and never have been heard of Since but

will try to go to Louisiana and Mail it there Now Mr President We will

estate to you what have been done to us right here in our county. We here

estate the property of colored people destroyed by the white people Twelve

houses burnt up. belonging to colored men. names as follows. Wood Trambles

and Seymore Abels, Green Woods. Lewis Rawls. Merrick Trambles. Allen Colman

Jone Dillard Henderson Duke. Bill Shrouds. Jennie Duke Anthony Trambles.

and one church house burnt. In this Lime Stone county in this State May

1875. four hundred armed white men through the country running colored men

of from their crops and killing Some of us. and whipping Some of us. and

hanging Some and burning Some. and Said every one (col man) that did Issue

a Republican ticket in that State Should leave or Die and running large

numbers of us from our wives and children and compeling our wives to give

up our Land Deeds. and abandon their homes and flee to the rugh woods, to

Save thier lives they have taken the majority of our crops from us. every

Sine 1865. up to the Present moment, they have taken our wives, and

Sisters, and Mothers and Daughters, and the white men of the Southern

States have Spoiled the majority of our daughters, and if we test against

them about our ladies, they kills us. Mr President, let us tell you the

truth When ever we or any of us even h ask the leave of walking or riding

with a white Lady we are took and ether Shot or hung or Burnt. or whipped

nearly to death. or be compeled to leave the State. and in this county. Mr

P. We are not allowed to Sit on grand Jury. or a very few of us on Petet

Jury. and mighty few counties in this State that a a colored man is allowed

to be on Jury. and if we look at white lady very hard as we wish to Say

Somthing to them We are Shot. there is been a large number of col people

Sent to Huntsville penitentiary with out Judge or Jury. and Some of them

has been Sent from this county for Stealing fifteen cts (15) worth and in

Said Co. of Lime Stone we will Send you a few names of our race that have

been murdered by white men here of late. and a few in Marion county that we

know are facts. In the County of Lime Stone, are as follows. Seymore

Abels killed 1875. Anthony Trambles killed 1875. Mericke T. killed 1875.

Allen Colman killed 1875. Robt King 1875. Nathan Virgin killed 1875. and

there were 24 killed that we cannot call names at present. all in the yr

1875. a list of names killed on another date in the same county. names as

follows Cannon Ruins killed 1874. Miss Nellie Rhodes 1874 Miss Sarah

Frinlder. 1874. 1 hung name unknowned 1874 Rev. Phil Fields 1874. Henry

Johnson killed 1873. Albert Maze 1873. Sam Marclanes. 1872. John Angland.

killed 1871. Rial Fort Berry. killed 1871. John Phillip Shot 1875 Isaac

Buier. Shot 1871. Thom Anderson Shot 1874. Archie Oneil wounded 1875

Cornious Pitts wounded 1875. Now we will State few killed in Marion county

Wash Porter killed 1874. Miss M. Batman killed 1875. Henry Ragland killed

July 1875, Jerry Pitts killed May, 1875. 2 men fund dead april 1875. a col

woman found dead 1875 George Hill killed 1874. a large number of col men

killed that we are not able to call their names. Some killed in 1871. and

in 1872. and 1873. and 1874 and and 1875, a large number has been Slain in

the county of Marion we know to be facts. have been So much devilment done

by these outragious Slave holding Masters in the county of Lime-Stone. and

other county in this State until it is almost impossibly for us to explain

to you Mr President what have been done in this State. Mr President We ask

you and congress of the United States. In the name of the almighty God. to

Send us protection in this State. and also give us our citizenShip. give

us Justice at Law. give us what we work for. let us enjoys the rights

that any other white man in the South. Stop the revels from killing of us,

and Stop them from whipping us. Stop them from taken our crops. Stop them

from runig us from our crops. prepare a law to make them let our women

alone. or let us alone about their women. let us have a right to Set on

the Jury Seat give us Justice by the laws. or give us a Territory to our

selves. Mr President We col. people. is in a terrible fix. We hope that

you and Congress will prepare Some means by the congress of the U. S. State

to Strike a line betwen the white & the black of the Southern States. Our

race have ask you before and asked Congress before. to Send us to Liberia.

We are willing to go and will go at any moment We would try to move our

Selves, but we will never be able to to move our seles, as long as we live

here in the South, among our old Slave holding masters. because they have

got it in their resolutions to not let us be able to move our selves. When

ever they find out that we are getting able to hire our own race, they

kills us or make us leave the country or puts us in prison and Swear that

we have done Soming that we never thought of. and they Swear here in this

county that every col. man that Issue a Republican Ticket, or act like a

Republican, that they intend to kill him this year or the next year. all

these white men that committed these murders of Texas. never has ben

punished and the Office holders of this State is the leading men of the

murdering and Robing and plundering. Mr President. how in the name of God

can we Stand that must we raise arms and go to war, or must we die like

dogs as we have been. or must we have a territory to our Selves. or must we

take all the abuse that we have been for the last past Ten yrs. Mr P. and

congress of the U. S. We call your attention to this petition We hope

that you and congress will take Action on this and release us from this

great Struggle. Mr President if Congress do Set and adjourn again and do

not take no action upon this or our Desolation and Suffrage we will apply

to farther nation to help us out of our Struggle. and We. and all of us.

are willing to pay any Government if it takes us fifty-years, to pay it to

releave us of this terrible Struggle if it take us fifty yrs. And Mr

President. We intend next Winter if you will allow us. we will Send men

from our country here. to EState the Conditions of the Southern States. We

shall not Send no man that ever held an Office in the South. We are going

to take our hard laboring men who clears the land. and Sews the Seed. and

cultivates the land and reaps the grain, and gathers the trop, and who

Supports the whole entire Southern States. Now Mr President please answer

in the News paper to let us know if you received this. for Some of the

whites of this State has taken our children for debt and making slaves of

us. Mr President we will close our petition In name of God And you have

done your duty by us once, and know you will do it again We look at you as

we did Abraham Lincoln and We looked at Abraham L. as the children did

Joshua and they looked at him as a Second god and we look to you as a god

on earth Your Petitioners will forever pray, and they wait for the voice

of you as the christian did wait for the Voice of God. This the Voice of

the whole colored people State of Texas. Total of names 173."