Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1865-10-21
The Negro Race in Virginia
The Condition. heir Present
and Future.
[From the Richmond Wing, SPIT 90

We find the following statement in the
Columbus (Ga } Sun, paper every way
entitled to credit:
"The determination Of tho negro race
is already beginning. A gentleman, tells US
Of one who left her old cabin and came
here with her four children to seek work,
when for months there has not been work
and money enough in Columbus for half
the people in it. The negress, still wan.
ting to be in town, built her rude hut
near Girard, and in a short time three Of
the children died and were buried in the
bushes near by. Another woman, who
came here, and went aterwsrd to the
country bat not TO the old place, has lost
two out ofthrcc children in q week. Neg
lect was the cause of both deaths. These
are not rare cases. In all the towns they
are rapidly dying.
Gone of the blessings attend ng upon
freedom is the neglect Of children by their
mothers. A lady told US of hired ne
gress who let the lot and her babe for over
thirty hours, and feeling insultcd when
asked why she had left replied, the fewer
children the less work, ~
There are many examples of the same
kind to be found in Virginia. Not many
days ago, in an adjoining county, in the
neighborhood of certain coal mines, where
the population is unusually large for the
country, we passed a negro woman sitting
on the side of the road with a child wrap.
ped up in old cloak, lying on the ground
by her side. We inquired of her whether
the child was sick. or was merely asleep.
She replied that it was dead 1t had been
i'll, it appears for some time with the
whoopipg cough, and having grown rapid
ly worse upon the day in question: the
mother had brought iu from her residence
three or fur miles off to a physician who
resided in the ncighborhood. it died be-
fore she reached the end of her journey.
la the same neighborhood, where the me-
groos are very .hickly settled, the same
disease (whooping cough) i, prevailing to
an alarming degree among the chiidfon,
whom it pwecps of with ruthless severi.
ty.
In two houses, or rather cabins, it car
ricd away seven, few weeks since, in the
space Of TWO or three days. Nor is this at
all wonderful when we consider how par
ticulary this disease requires care and
watching, and how prone negro women
are, almost without exception, to neglect
their children. 70 show how preyalcn nj
this latter disposition is among them, il
may be mentioued that in the same neigh
borhood, but a week before the death o
these children, at a great baptizing, there
were present a number Of them with then
loud aud long drawn whoops The crea
turca appeared to be totally ignorant o.
regardless of, not only the danger 10 tn
children By the exposure, but the crimina
improprie,y OF spreading The complaint b.
carrying them, while laboring under it, int
the md.t Of large crowd. They regard
ed the baplizjng as a frOlic. and, wit
heedless folly, determined TO enjoy il
never once thinking OF the consequence:
eithe. to themselves or others. These ar
, but examples of despotion on the pal
of negro mothers which all who are ac
ouainted with the race know to be almo:
universal. There is hardly Que anon
them in one hundred, who will deny hel
self any coveted qualification to insure til
, life Of her child.
If a whole class of mothers can be s
! REGARDLESS of the lives oil their own of
= spring, what are we to expect in the cas-
t of adult negroes OF all bad nurSing,tl
|, nursing of one negro by another is tn
{ worst. They care hut little for each ott
cr, and It is matter of indifference
each, whether tn other lives or dies.
d their state Of slavery, under the strlngel
= pressure OF the strictest authority, the
= never could be brought to attend to Il
a sick. How is it to be now, when evel
!. man is at liberty to watch or not, just
), he may thiuk properl The negro SIC
II enough to require continual watching al
c nursing will assuredly die, unless he ha
g constitution stronger than any herct
fore known to the medical faculty.
k Proper food and plenty of it, war
clothing in winter, comfortable lodging
tn and a proper supply ifuel, are nccessa
" to preseryo the health in winter. The
ut things can only be procured by labor u
p. less the person seeking them be RI
to enough to procure them without The
co things, therefore, the negro will never pr
e. cure, if we are to judge from what We
o. witnessing every day and from what
. constantly hear. The negro has no CO
as cep,ion of the responsibility of his presf
49, s.;,;nn Uo connrivrg that the abOlltl