Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-02-09
NEGRO IMMIGRATION TO EAST
TENNEssEE-TROTB IN CONsE-
QUENCE.

Knox ille Tenn, Cores pondence of the Cincin-
cinnati Commercial
The plentiful harvest with which the la
bors Of the husbandmen in East Tennessee
have been pleased, and the protracted and
severe droughts that have visited most of
the Southern States, together with the pros
peci of an impartial franchise law in Ten
nessee, have attracted 70 this section of the
State great numbers Of negroes, and the cry
is still they come. From North Carolina
and from the cotton regions Of the sea coast,
from Georgia and from Alabama, with their
"plunder," and with the hope Of realizing
in this fair country their brightest dreams
Of freedom, they come, in cars and in carts,
on horses and on foot. The building of our
three railroads.&c. Knoxville and Ken
tucky, the Knoxville and Charleston, and
the Morristown and North Carolina, gives
great numbers of them work, and this, with
the large cribs, groaning with rine, yellow
corn at sixty and seventy-dve cents per
bushel, attracts them here.
So long as their coming does not conflict
with the interests Of our laboring whites no
complaint is made, but already the mur-
murings Of coming trouble are heard. The
rich bottom lands Of the rivers are the
points Of raIlying, and there the trouble
will first begin. In order that the real con-
dition of affairs may be understood, it
should be remembered that the laboring
field hands in East Tennessee are most of
them whites, and that during the war they
were loyal and opposed the heavy land
owners. Since the war the public feeling
against the wealthy Rebels has been so vio-
lent, and that feeling has taken such a shape
that they were forced 10 fee the country.
On returning now after the storm has sub
sided, they find their lands in the pos
session Of these whites, either as ten
ants under the freedmen's bureau, as
purchasers at sales ordered by courts OF
law under judgments procured in what
are generally known as damage suits, or as
purchasers under tax sales These parties,
in possession, cling tenaciously 10 whatever
legal advantage they have thus gained, and
for the past eighteen months our courts Of
law have been adjudieating these novel
questions. These contests naturally pro
woke a bitter feeling. In most case the
original proprietors come off the yictors
and now, after they have won their lands,
they retaliate upon their opponents by
turning them ont Of their leaseholds aud
putting in these iniinerent blacks In ad-
diiion 10 the whites who would work il
they had an opportunity, This country has
been infested by the hangers-on and camp
followers Of the armies-those who, in the
garb Of Federal soldiers plundered and
stole everything within reach, These
men have taken advantage OF the unsettled
state OF our society, and have perpetrated
the grossest outrages, stealing and plumber
ing. They have nothing 20 gain and every
thing 10 lose by peace aud quiet, and they
take every opportunity to keep up the mob
power that, Of one time, under the Rebel
power, drove ont and Plundred all who
were LOYAL and under the cover of loyalty,
plundered all who were disloyaL These
Glasses have now a new element 10 contend
with, and, under the plea Of hatred 10 the
blacks, they wage war alike upon the negroes
aud upon the landholders who employ
them. This struggle between the laboring
whites and the blacks viii continue and
viii grow bitter just in proportion TO the
number of the blacks and the extent they
affect the interest of the whites