Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-08-24
why Negroes Are Lazy

inquiring nearly through North Carolina,
writes from Dobson, Sury County, sum
ming up his observations as follows:
| The complaints against the blacks were
! the same.andas unfounded as in the Southa {
large. Their ,oorthlcssaess consists in the fact
that heg are not disposed 10 Work for nothiag
and receive the same treatment which con.
| sists in not touching their bats, and bowiDe
as low as they once did to those who have
always maltreated them. Te dare assert
their freedom is considered an ingratitude
to those who have taken care Of them SO
long, and ministered to them when sick
A stranger, TO hear the me aud women of
the South talk, would suppose that the
masters had worked in the fields, and the
servants had played the lady and gentleman
in the parlor.
The stories that from time to time have
reached our military posts have only par
tally revealed the cruelty practiced upon
the freedmen. This matter was forced upon
our attention by Whites and Blacks at every
step. The Blacks were asking for advice,
and the Whites talke d of their course with
perfect Indifference, as if there was nothing
wrong in their conduct.
In majority of cases, the planters have
broken faith with their hands wherever they
bave claimed to be free. They have been
kept at work by the premise of share 10
the crop, until the Summer work is over
and are now being driven off without cent.
This is becoming so general as to cause the
Government great trouble ia the end. For
the present, most OF them are living in huts
and abandoned houses, upon berries and
such vegetables as they can steal or procure
by an occasional days work. The whites
are complaining bitterly of these petty
thefts, and point to them triumphantly as
an evidence of the failure Of Emancipation
and the idleness and worthlessness of the
Blacks Few seem to think that there is
anything wrong in thus turning their old
servants cut Of doors. They say that they
cannot be al the expense of supporting so
many W women and children, and that they
are in no way bound to help them, and go
turn them adrift with the heartlessness that
has ever characterized the system of slavery
and its supporters.
Wherever it has been possible by deceit,
fraud or threats, to make the Blacks believe
they were not free, it has been done; and
az tkts matter ce'y many Of the strongest
Union men are guilty. This is the ground
upon which all political parties unite, and
ell that their combined intellect, pref udice,
hate and cunning can devise to keep the
Black man down will BE- done. Next win
ter, the Government will have all those
thrown out of employment-to feed, either
with food brought from the North, or OBJ
tanned here. 1t would be but even handed
justice to confscate the crop of every uian
who has thus deirauded his hands, and ap-
have legal claim to the fruit to their la
bors
Many cases came to our notice where, the
moment the crops were turned off the
Blacks were paid in Confederate money and
then driven off, although they had been
promised support for the year.
On SOME plantations the hands we're be-
ing worked from daylight to dark, under
the eye and lash of the overaeer, as of eld.
A black boy near Mocksvlle was nearly
beaten to death by prominent citizen for
daring to ask whether he was free.
Near Dobson, the hands on one farm
after getting through with the crop, went
in body and asked their master whether
he was willing to make any definite arrange
rlent with them as freemen. he told thon
he had no use for them as freemen, and if
they wanted to be free they could leave at
once. After wandering around fer a mum
ber of days, ill-,reated by everybody, and
not being able to find any work. they asked
their master to take them back. He told
them they might come, if they would sub
NIT to receive hundred lashes, and on this
condition they were taken back to work on
for nothing as of old, and the foggng was
administered. Another man of this place
gave all his hands hundred lashes for say
ing they would ask certain Union man of
the place whether they were free.
They tell the negroes that it was only
military power that made them free fer a
time; that our troops are being withdrawn
and will soon be gone, and the people Of the
State have yet to decide the subject for
themselves. The blacks are threatened
with all sorts of horrible things when the
Yankees are gone.
These are enly few instances which this
short ride brought to cur notice, but they
are quite enough to show that strong arm
| is needed to check the course of the whites
in this State. These Instances hdse all oc-
cured in that part Of the Stale cal}cd Un,on
and they are not islated cases, but met with
! hourly, the mon snt one goes out OF sight
of our military posts.
COL Whittlesey. the Commissioner of
| Freedmen for North Carolina, is working
energetically to reach all snch abuses, but
Is yet he has been obliged tosoonGne his at
tention principally to the central and Eastern
parts OF the State, and to the country along
the railroads. The interior towns and coun-
sies cannot bo reached till late in the Fall at
least, and then the question of support for
the winter will be very serious one, and
will call for prompt solution:
"Send tho negroes away" is the cry from
all quarters Few can be made to believe
that the Government will be so cruel as to
turn them loose aneng the whites. While
they were slaves the South chung to them
as if all that was worth living for was to
have row Of "niggerquarters". well filed,
Now the idea that these same "niggsrs"
are to be free and live among them rs a
thing past comprehension, and only on a
par with the other atrocities ofAbeltienists.
A very general dread is feigned OF felt OF
great trouble with the blacks; not because
OF the i'll treatment they are constantly re-
ceiving--the hish-toned Southerners ses no
provoking cause in this-but because of the
natural ugliness of the blacks, and the cer-
tainty that they will interpret freedom TO
mean license.
The cruelty of the old masters tends d.
rectly to trouble, and if anything can stir q
race, just beginning to understand that il
is free, to deeds Of violence and bloodshed,
this course will accomplish it. And if il
comes, the whole blame will rest on the
shoulders of the whites. The blacks as .
| clssu .rs asgAr IN werk and are willing "a