The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1865-11-29
ADVERTISING RATES.
The Free Negroes in Alabama.

A correspondent of the Columbus (Ga)
Enquirer, writing from Huntsville, Alabama,
gives the following description of the
condition and prospects of the negroes In
that section. We suppose this would apply
throughout the Cotton States He says that
the day will come when Yankee will
exhibit among the "Cowikees" n buck
negro, as curiosity, charging twenty-five
cents admission fee
In 1S45 the Hon. J. II. Hammond, of
South Carolina, addressed letter to
Thomas Clarkson, Esq., of England. on the
abolition of negro slavery at the South. in
which he said: Released from present
obligations, their first impulse would be TO
go somewhere. At first they would seek
the towns and rapidly accumulate in squalid
groups upon their outskirts. Driven thence
by the armed police force which would
Immediately spring into existence, they
would scatter IN all directions. Some bodies
of them might wander to the free States, or
to the Western wilderness, marking their
tracks by their depredations and their
corpses. Many would roam wild in our
big woods. Many more would seek the
reeesses of our swamps for secure covert
Few, very few of them, could be prevailed
upon to do a stroke of work; none to labor
continuously while head of cattle, sheep
or swine could be found In our ranges, or
an ear Of coru nodded In our abandoned
fields. These exhausted, our folds and
poultry yards, barns and store-houses would
become their prey. Finally our scattered
dwellings would be plundered. perhaps
burned and the inmates murdered"
This prediction has been fulfilled in part
with remarkable accuracy, and we who
live on the "Cowikees,n where there is a
large number of these unfortunate children
of Ham released from their obligations"
fear that the prediction will be altogether
fulfilled. We can not look out upon the
highway at any time without seeing them
going somewhere Some to Columbus,
some 10 Eufaula, some to Union Springs,
some to Montgomery, some To-, any
where; and they are gathered in "squalid
groops upon the outskirts, of every town
In the country. The EARNED police" has
already sprung into existence and begun
TO scatter them. If we are not mistaken,
we have read accounts in recent issues of
your paper, of the scattering of some of
these squalid groups, by the armed police
| of Columbus. A few are going to the free
States, and many of them are roaming wild,
II not In our 'big woods and swamps," yet
they are roaming and marking their tracks
by their depredations.n Few of these can
be induced to work.
Our farmers need their labor, and are
willing TO pay them for their services, and
they have been endeavoring for the last two
| months to make arrangements with them
| for next year, but we have yet to hear of u
single instance in which they have agreed
| to work on the farms on any terms. One
of our n9ighbors, an aged man, without
| children, told his, If they would agree to re-
main with him, and work as heretofore, he
would will them his plantation and its out
fit at his death, but not single one would
agree to 1t. They anticipate general ex-
| odus about Christmas. They all want TO go
to see their folks In Virginia, the Caro-
linas, or somewhere" which many of them
have not seen for half a century. 1t is not
improbable that some ofthem win endeavor
TO follow their folks back TO Dahomy and
Limboo. After they have all found their
! 'folks' they expect to locate in town, and
laugh and grow fat without taking any
| thought "of what they shall eat or what
they shall drink, or wherewithal they shall
| be clothed"
| We go out In the morning to hear our
lneighbor tell that some negro ran of last
night and carried of his horse or mule I;
another that the negroes have been stealing
corn from his crib, or cotton from his gin
house, another of depredations upon his SUI
gar-cane and potato patch; this lady has
lost so many sheets, quilts and towels, and
that so many chickens, ducks and turkeys.
| They have indeed, attacked "the corn that
mods In our abandoned fields" and our
"folds, poultry yards, barns and store
houses have become their prey" And We
| tear that 1t will not be long before they will
| plunder and burn our dwellings and muir
der the inmates.