"The John S. Williams plantation in Jasper County, Georgia, was operated largely with the labor of slaves. This may not come as a surprise, except that the year was 1921, fifty-six years after the conclusion of the Civil War. Williams was not alone in using "peons" - poor blacks bailed out of local jails, forced to work under threat of whippings, locked up at night, and chased down by bloodhounds if they tried to escape.

But Williams's reaction to a federal investigation was almost unbelievable."--BOOK JACKET. "Williams decided to destroy the evidence. He resolved to kill eleven black men who could testify to the situation on the farm - a farm that would have been considered inhumane even when slavery was legal. To do the job, Williams enlisted the aid of his trusted farm boss, twenty-seven-year-old Clyde Manning, a poor, scared black man, just like those he was told to kill."--BOOK JACKET.

"As this true story unfolds, each detail seems more shocking: a young man forced to methodically kill his friends; his calm, unresisting compliance; men chained together, two by two, weighted down with rocks, and slowly driven to the bridges where they would be thrown over, alive and terrified; men ordered to dig their own graves."--BOOK JACKET.

"The surprises continued in the aftermath, as even a bigoted rural community found that it could not overlook such a heinous crime. A sensational trial ensued, with the entire state gripped by the details revealed in each day's testimony. The trial galvanized national attention and marked a turning point in the treatment of black Americans. Clyde Manning and his fellow peons can truly be said to be the last victims of American slavery."--BOOK JACKET.