“The following Alabama tragedy is published by the ‘Columbia (S.C.) Telescope,’ Sept. 16, 1837, from the Wetumpka Sentinel.

Our highly respectable townsman Mr. Hugh Ware, a merchant of Wetumpka, was standing in the door of his counting room, between the hours of 8 and 9 o’clock at night, in company with a friend, when and assassin lurked within a few paces of his position, and discharged his musket, loaded with ten or fifteen buckshot.  Mr. Ware instantly fell, and expired without a struggle or a groan.   A coroner’s inquest decided that the deceased came to his death by violence, and that Abner J. Cody, and his servant John, were the perpetrators.  John frankly confessed, that his master, Cody, compelled him to assist, threatening his life if he dared to disobey; that he carried the musket to the place at which it was discharged; that his master then received it from him, rested on the fence, fired and killed Mr. Ware.”

Reference Data:

American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of A Thousand Witnesses, by the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1839, page 193