American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1866-03-17
DESTINY OF THE FREEDMEN.


of the Memphis Commercial. says the N
Orleans Star, contains great deal tina
is interesting touching the future Of tn
freedmen.
All through this State and the adjoin
ing Empire State, there exists a grea
scarcity OF labor, and understand ais,
in Mississippi, Louisiana and South Car
olina. Many persons are at loss to accoun
for this scarcity, and l hear various eau
ses assigned for it. or these, however
the only one aPproximating the fact is
that death, in bis muiiform shapes, hal
been busy in the ranks of the negroel
since the war, and that not less than on,
million Of them have in that time paid the
debt of nature To substantate this and
TO give foundation for these extraordna.
ry figures. will cite one instance related
by friend of mine, who hired in Geor-
gia three hundred men and women, all
field hands, and apparently in good health,
who, when they reached the Mississippi
River, were found to have contracted the
small pox Of SO virulent type, that one
hundred and sixtyeight of them died in
less than two weeks, notwithstanding ex-
traordnary efforts by skillul medical
men.
Another youcbed for by the same per.
son is to the effect that Of seven hundred
and eighty men, women and children un-
der care of the Freedmen's Bureau, 10 a
certain town near Tennessee, he could not
get sixty possessed of health sufficient to
justify him in hiring them. OF three
hundred women subjected TO proper ex-
animation it WAS found that one hundred
and seventy five were in the various sta.
ges Of decay induced BY aggravated dis
ease, and that even children were smitten
with the worse than eprosy from contact
with their parents. And these are not
solitary instances. Wherever the army
has penetrated, and in the immediate vi
cinity Of large cities it is common. Apa
thy and abandon are results flowing out
of state Of war TO a people at no time
noted for intelligence or industry, and left
to themselves they are fast relapsing to
that -barbarous condition in which
the little enlightenment they have copied
from the white race only serves to en-
nance their bestial propensities, and en-
courage them to the indulgence Of self,
even to the very gates Of death through
uncomfortable diseases.
And thus it is likely to be fulfilled, the
saying so often repeated, that, to the ne
gro, liberty is death" His own master,
the petted iondIing Of a party for the pres,
ent supreme in the nation, he is, yet,
strage TO say, without a friend. When
he dies the Northern man says, zone
niger less" the Southern shrugs his
and says, "only for the Bureau
we'd take care Of them" and the survive
ing negro laughs, more than likely, at
he recital Of the manner Of death, and |
copying the style of certain characters
found in all large cities, responds, "What
made be KUN dar den" For more than
hirty years what to do with the Indian,
v as the paramount problem with legisla
ors. War and robbery by the Govern
nent and people Of the United States
rave brought it within thirty FIVE thou
and souls OF solution. Just now it is
be negro, as it has been for nearly TWEEN
y FIVE years; if the pres, ut state of things
xist, twenty years more will finally solve
be destiny Of the negro, so far as this
ointment is congrned. the philAn hrop
, negropholist. like The fana ic reIigionist
uring the Irish famine, when the sub
=cts OF their anxiety call for bread and
Medicines, give him "moral lecture"
icely bound, or Bible; more often the
moral lecture"
The newest phase Of the negro ques
ion" is their enforced emigration from I
florida, through the connivance, tits said,
{ Federal officers. No less than Eve {
undred were forced on board one vess 1
nd taken to Cuba, and sod. Under
re,ense of being hired to work on the I
cast Of Florida, they we're gathered from
ifferent sections Of Alabama and taken {
} an obscure point, yet available, and {
,ere shipped to become the slaves OF J
Iasters worse than barbaric, and to work r
nder a code more merciless than the I
rsconian. This is disgrsceful. and should t
: made the subject Of State iavesriga
On, as well AS Governmental. Several a
the negroes thus spirited" away are a
mewhat educated, and have written to il
cir former owners concerning the shame c
violation CT good faith through which |
ey are now subjects Of her most Catho [
Majesty. ii
e. tT
THEY DO HOWL. tC