New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-31

NUMBER INTERVIEWER,


navigating the river and settled in isolated
spots above the town, had given to certain
localities the appellation of the Canadian
Point. or in French 'la Pointe Canadienne,
These localities we have had, however, less
occasion to visit ut the time of our arrival than
those neighborhoods in the down town dis +
tricts. and, therefore, cannot give but mere
hearsay reeitals of them, because soon after,
by the change of business, these Canadian
establishments seem to have broken up, and |
at this day no trace of them can be found, |
with, perhaps, a few exceptions in that retired |
settlement, the upper part of Bayou MetalrIe |
where, in the vicinity of the Camp Parapet
some remnants of this population may be
found dispersed along the dreary heaths OF
that then forlorn watercourse in small garden
patches, with adjoining huts. 1t must be OBJ
served that when the white laboring families
arrived in this country, under.the French, as
well as Spanish colonial regime, they would
always prefer the more distant settlements
from town to being located in the vicinity,
whilst city farming at that time was generally
carried On by the more wealthy creole fami-
lies by means Of their slave labor hands.
The reason for this preference given by
white agricultural people to settlements In
the country, and among families who had but
few African assistants, is easily explained by
the constant disagreeable contact in which the
poor laboring whites would ind themselves
when in close proqinquity with the sable
race, under the protection Of their rich
owners. However, notwithstanding this dis
advantage, in after times the industrious Ger
4 man gardeners, and the equally hardy Gascons
in the dairy line, succeeded by getting a tirm
foothold in the vicinity of the city environs,
and at this present day they may be consid-
cred as having completely triumphcd over
! their former antagonists - that is, those
wealthy landowners who carried on these
branches Of local industry by means of the
former African labor hands. This being the
case, it remains to be. seen how, in the future,
great many branches Of human industry
may be affected by the now altered relations
between the two races of working laborers,
for it appears to us that necessity will compel
the now free and unassisted black artisans to
work much more assiduously, in order to be able
to sustain the ever-renewed competition with
the more intelligent white labor forces. That
this riyalship will happily occasion wide
field for the industrious display Of the respec-
tive labor forces we have no doubt. For,
ever since our arrival in this country, that is,
since 1916, we have observed this natural
strife OF competition In the beginning, that
is, some decades after the transfer of Louisi-
ana to the Union, the influx Of white popula-
ton was rather insensible, hence the labor for
all manual services, all merely mechanical
offices, was mostly performed by the blacks
and colored population. For instance, in
city FORCES or blacksmith shops, the master
smiths only would be whites, while all the
the other hands were either black or colored
(muIattoes.) So with most all other mechan-
les or handicrafts, the brieklayers or masons,
carpenters, painters, tinsmiths, butchers, ba-
kers, tailors, etc. In fact, had the country
continued under its former colonial system,
there cannot be the least doubt but that all
the lower mechanical professions would have
been monopolized in time by the black or
eolored population. Butinstead of this being
the case, the reverse took place, by the inces-
SAINT influx of white immigrants, so that even
such branches of industry which had already
been tacitly conceded to the colored popula-
ton, as the barber-shop business, etc, was
again taken from them by the superior indus
Try and activity of the white artizans.
Hence we find that in the latter years of the
old regime of serfdom or domestic American
slavery, there was constant exodus from the
city of such Africans, whose owners had taught
parishes, where still the competition with the
white industrious classes was not so disadyan-
tageous to the colored people But even there
all mechanical professions were soon filed by
white immigrants, and these latter being slim
ulated by want and necessity generally man
aged to carry offthepalm ofindustry, when the
colored artisans had not the same stimulants
by being part Of wealthy mans family, and
hence, always sure Of being provided for This
system, had it continued without interruption,
would finally have reduced the colored popu-
lation to the only last resource, that of cult
waiting the fields for in all other professions or
mechanical employments they would have
been ogerborne blythe superior white working
men or educated and trained artisans
Now, then, under the altered regime the
question is, what will be the final result of the
competition which viii assuredly be resumed
upon the4ield of active labor enterprise, from
the moment that things will have taken per-
nanent turn for stability and order. For, at the
present moment, it is yet too early to observe
the developments in this respect; there is yet
too much ofthat chaotic confusion, attending
the present transition state from one regime,
the former forced labo rorder to the newly in
regime, that Of free composition
amo vg the two races, white and black, upon
the b, aais Of full compensation for work by its
results 1t may be seen by this exposition
that the 1abor forces, now free and untram-
melted, Unwilling may exert themselves to the
utmost of their capacity, and in this respect
white artisans may find greater contest or
than what they had to strive
against un der the former regime. On the
other hand, the liberated blacks. or eolored
people being no longer sustained and exelu-
sively patronis;ed by their former white wealthy
owners, must rely upon their own efforts and
abilities. Hence for the country at large, this
mutual strife and competition cannot be other
wise than beneficial. but as we said before, we