The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1865-06-29
THE NEGRO.
Interesting FACTS AEOglt sssc lib
srnfci SE.sVcS,

Interesting FACTS .As0glt sac E.ib-
Grated Si;sScs..
baltimore Correspondence New York World. ]
Those persons who have never been in
the South, and have formed their ideas Of
the southern slaves from the industrious
and comparatively intelligent negroes and
mulattoos when we see around Us in the
northern cities, have no adequate concep-
tion OF the real character Of the NEGROES.
at the south. Accustomed, all their lives,
to implicit obedience; accustomed 10 q
regular and unvary ing routine Of labor;
accustomed to rely on their masters for
instruction and direction, for food, for
clothing, for medicine when sick and icr
the support of the aged and iniirm parents,
thcy are literally bcwIidorcd at The new
position in which they find Themselves
In few exceptional cases, the negroes on
some plantations have been sensible
enough to remain and to make engage
ments with their former owners to contin-
ue their labors on the old places; and in
al such cases the former masters have
employed their negroes in preference to
seeking other help and are paying them
fair wages.
Bat there are very rare exceptions. As
a general fact ii may be stated that the
whole system Of labor in the southern
states, has been broken up. The relations
between capital and labor, between em-
ployers and employees, has been violently
and suddenly discovered. The negroes in
every state cast of the Mississippi, and in
Louisiana also, to a great extent. intoxi-
Gated with their ncwly-acquired freedom,
(of ne nature, extent, and consequence Of
which they have not the most remote idea
have left their homes, and the scenes ii
their former labors, and with their women
and children have tyudged off scores. and
in some instances hundreds Of miles, to
the nearest city CT large town. The or
dcrs have been issued forbdding the con-
gregdting Of negroes in the large towns,
have not abated the evil in the least. The
orders never reached he most of those for
whom it was intended. and even If they
had they would not have been compre-
hended. The negros idea of freedom is
twc-iold: first, freedom from work; second
freedom 10 cone and go where lie Will; and
added to this they have Il vague idea thai
those who freed them viii also feed and
c!othe them.
L IS found in vain to convince them of
The necessity That they must continue to
labor in orde: 90 live. When The IDEA is
finally beat iato their heads they receive
il crm4blin.ly, and .exciaim IN their un-
coujh torla ot' speech that they have been
cheated and deceived. and if they must
work they are rs much slaves as before; or
rs they express ii. .-as much a nigga as
before; '-"ngga" Ni;h them being syn
onymous with slave They have cofne to
the large cities and towns as they would
come t, the promised land, expecting all
their vans to be supplied, and TO be sup
ported in luxurious ldleness. These ex-
pcctations of course were entirely ground
less and uuwarrantcd. No provision has
been made f.: their support. and the con
sequence Is. that every week thousands of
these poor creatures are Literally dying OF
starvation.
The operations of the Freedmon's Bu-
reau. though carried on with the most IN
dciat gable zeal, and with unt,ring indus
try, are utterly inadequate to reach and
a;ert this evil, which, instead OF decreasing
j. growing greater every day. Nor is it
less Iainf,.l to contemplate The sad effect
Of this stale Of things upon the former
mastcrs themsclves, and upon the planta-
tons. The planters, left destitute of help,
are com oelled to sec their fields lying idle
and uncultiya.ci, and to witness their
crops rotting in the ground, Cor want Of
propcr cultiyation They have done what
they could with their own hands, and by
the most praiscworthy industry Will sue
cecd in raising Il scanty subsistence for
their own families. But the heart Of the
true rhilanthro,ist would ache. in travel
ing through the south to see the tens of
thousands of acres Of fertile land lying
idle and uncuitivated, while those poor
people who ought t. be there to work, are
starving TO death The means Of COM
Portable subsistence for them are there.
but they have been enticed away from
them.
Failing to make engagements with their
negroes, and dcspairing even OF their ul-
innate return, many Of the planters have
engaged white men to work for them, and
10 take The place Of their negroes No
cne can blame them for this; and yet a
storm Of cxecratcn win be raised about
i. their heads for doing SO. My iniormants
have related to me numerous instance
where poor wlite men, living near large
plaa tations, have been engaged by the
planters by the year, to work for them,
and are actively engaged. These poor
men were not soldiers in the rebel army;
but as the Confederate soldiers return to
their former homes, they too will engage
in like manner. Five or six white men,
d ON plantation, can do the work formerly
done by twenty or thirty negroes; and as
there are comparatively few plantations
in the south on which more than twenty
able bodied slaves were employed, it may
be that the planters, in the end, will lind
this kind of labor the most profitable to
them; for, besides supporting the negro,
the master was compelled also to support
the negros wife and his three or four