Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1862-02-27
The London Times Oh Free Negroes

HC LVHuOH iItHfS VI IItG UCSiWS
In presenting the following ex-
tracts from an article in the Lon
don Times, We do not claim for
them any Importance at all as an
expression of opinion. That news
paper seorns to have opinions
But we have there at all events adj
missions from most hostile quar-
ter, admissions not prompted by
honest convictions indeed, but by
the mere cotton instinct and the
conscience of agrocer:
There is no blinking the truth.
Years of bitter experience-years
of hope deferred, of selt-devotion
unrequited, of poverty, of humil-
iation, of prayers unanswered, OF
sufferings derided, of insults unre-
sented, of contumely patiently en-
dured-have convinced us of the
truth. 1t must he spoken out,
loudly and theoretically, despite
the wild mockings of bowling
can't" The free West India ne
gro slave will not till the soil for
wages; the free son Of an ex-slave
is as obstinate as his sire. He will
cultivate lands which he has not
bought for his own yams, mangoes,
and plantains. These satisfy his
wants; he does not care for yours.
Cotton, sugar, coffee, and tobacce-
he cares little for them. And what
matters it to him that the English
man has sunk his thousands and
tens Of thousands on mills, ma
chinery, and plant, which now tot
ter on the languishlng estate that
for years has only returned beg
gary and debts. He eats his
vans and singers at "Buckra."
We know not how this shonld
be; but it is so. The negro has
been bought with price, the
price of English taxation and
English toll. He has been ''re-
deemed from bondage" by the sweat
aud travail of some millions OF
hardworking Englishmen. Twen-
ty millions of pounds sterling
SlOO.O0O,0 00-have been distilled
from the brains and muscles of the
free English laboror, of every de-
gree to fashion the West Indian ne
gro into ''free and independent
laborer." Free and independent"
enough he has become, God knows,
but laborer he is not; and, so far as
we can see, he never will be. He
will sing hymns and quote texts,
but honest, steady industry he not
only detests but despises. We
wish to Heaven that some people
in England-neither government,
people, nor parsons, nor ciergymen
but some just.minded, honest
hearted and clear-siehted men,
would go out to some of the Islands
say Jamaica, Dominica, or An
tique, not for q month or three
months, but for a year-wouid
watch the precious protege of Eng
lish philanthropy, the freed ne
gro, in his daily habits, would
watch him as he lazily plants his
little squatting; would see him as
he proudly rejects agricultural or
domestic service, or accepts it only
at wages ludicrously disproportion-
ate to the value of his work We
wish, too, they would watch him
with hide thicker than that of a
hippopotamus, and body to
which fervid heat is a COM.
fort rather. than an annoyance,
he -droningly lounges over the
prescribed task on which the in
trepid Englishmm, uninured to
the burning sun, consumes his I'M
patient energy, and too often sacri-
fees his life. We wish they would
go out and view the negro in the
blazonry of his idleness, his pride,
his ingratitude, contemptuously
sneering at the industry of that
FACE which made him free, and
then come home and teach the
lesson of their expert
ence to the fanatics who have per-
yerted him into what he is"
The Eutaw (Ala,) Observer has
from Pensacola that I
all the Mississippi, Alabama, Geor-
yia and South. Carolina twelve
months regiments will re-enlist al
most to n man. for the war, and