Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-09-07
Letter from u 'sPoor White, of
the South.

The following is genuine letter from
an overseer on Southern plantation, and
is worthy CT attention as an evidence of a
growing feeling among the poor whites of
the South that their interests and rights are
sacrificed to the interests of the small but
powerful class who hold slaves. We, of
course, withhold the name of the writer for
his own sake.-Ed. Tribune I
To the Editor Of the N. 7. tribune:
SIR: l am plain, practical farmer, who
has been raised here in the South. and who
has never seen Free State; but, notwith-
standing l feel, and great class of our
people here feel, toward you of the North as
brothers. | am certain that if people here
would take second thought, and study and
reflect upon the dreadful consequences of
disunion, they would recoil with adherence
from political agtators and their doctrines.
These agitators would make the Northern
people believe that the South is united to a
man. There could not be greater mis-.
take. The people here are divided into TWO
classes-the rich and the poor-who are as
distinct and separate as the North Pole is
from the South Pole. 1t is only when cleo
ton days are on hand that the aristocracy
even countenance the poor man and then
they do it to get his vote. But poor men
have changed of late years toward the arts
tocracy. They have found out that voting
for the slave interest does not give them
clothing, meat and bread, and lands to
cultivate no such thing. They begin to
see that for every negro brought into the
country, one white man has to make room !;
not only in farming, but in every branch of
| business.
Can you not see, my countrymen, that
where man owns his one, two, three or
four thousand acres of land, and negroes to
cultivate it, that the poor white man of the
middle class has no chance, because he has
no land, and can get none either for love or
money; while the rich man can make, with
his negroes, three to four hundred dollars
. to the hand?
The negro mechanics here in Montgom.
cry have monopolized the trade; and the
Shareholders want to dissolve the Union and
open the slave trade at the South to drive
all the poor white people out.
Within four miles of Montgomery, the
capital of Alabama, and two miles from
William L. Yancey's plantation, James
Porter and others in Montgomery have
Struggled African negroes (twenty five in
number) upon their plantations within the
last month and have them at work in sight
of the capital and this is known to all the
government officers about Montgomery
These negroes cannot speak English. Where
they came from have never asked, for it il
enough for me to know that they have beer
brought here IN 7ioiasisn e. tn. the laws Of tn
land, and nothing is said against it.
g William L. Yancey will preach to tn
S people, and tell them that the laws for tn
: recovery of fugitive slaves ought to be en-
forced; but when it comes to enforcing th,
slave-trade laws, he does not open hi
mouth. Here he is speaking night and da,
:. for Breckenridge, and perhaps will be on
. of his Cabinet if elected Can you, in tn
face of these facts, have any confidence il
the man or his party?
have been for fourteen years an over
seer in this State, on some Of its larges
plantations, and | think my opinion is emit
tied to some respect, from my long expert
ence and daily Intercourse with the people
| demand for them that Truth, Equality
Justice, and the Constitution shall prevail
Yours, for free country v.
Montgomery Co., Ala, Aug. 4, 1860.