The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1867-05-24
A BLACK MAN TO BLACK MEN.
Common Sense for the COIOred Voters.
An Address to the Freedmen Of Tennes-
see and the Southern States, By
Joseph E. Williams, the
Colored Orator.

CO4OI6u OIaJOAs
have no interest in being deceived, in
regard to the new and solemn duties arising
out of the late freedom, and enfranchise-
ment of my race in the Southern States,
nor have I any interest in deceiving them.
The blessing resulting from our .emancipa-
tion must depend upon the great blessing
of our heavenly Father, in guiding US to
wise, prudent and energetic application of
the means of improvement, which may be
placed within our power. We must not act
in too much haste, nor from passion, in es-
pousing the creed of any political party
At the present time, the politics of the
country are mixed up and very unsettled.
It will be wise in US, therefore, to be calm,
and give ourselves time to examine and
weigh the great questions which bear upon
our future destiny. This have tried to do
impartially. And having lived in the
North and in the South, and having trav-
eled much and observed closely the man
ners and customs of different comm unities,
both in our own and other countries, 1
hope the prejudices of party politics and of
class Legislation are pretty well rubbed off,
and that am prepared to take larger and
more liberal views of our situation and
our future prospects than most of my peo-
pie in this country. 1 must beg you,
therefore, to hear me without prejudice
You are lay people, our interests are the
same, and we must rise or fall together
want US to rise, not like Jouah's gourd
vine, to wither in day, but like tree of
righteousu ss of the Lords own planting.
We can rise by industry, education and So
briefly, and we must have the patience and
determination to rise slowly and surely by
these means. Our fatherland and all the
world look with the deepest solicitude to
see what we will make Of our freedom and
if our improvements, then, prove to be
equal to our opportunities, we will inspire
energy and hope among the oppressed and
/ d0wn-trodden of our race in all the nations
whittier they have been driven. We
should look, then, not only to the present
and to ourselves, but to the future and to
the influence we shall exert upon the civil
lization of the world. and more especially
upon our own people. We are identified,
socially, morally and pecuniarily. with
the Southern people. We have been
brought up with them, played with them
as children and worked with them as men.
They know US and we know them, and we
are part and parcel of their household.
They nursed and cared for US and our
wives and children, when sick, as we did
for them, and although there have been
examples of hard treatment and cruel
abuse of the relations existing between US,
yet there is no example in history where
slavery of our people has been so mild and
so softened by social and religious culture
as in the Southern States.
The facts ofhistory show that they are not
responsible for bringing US into slavery.
The Yankees and English kidnapped
and brought from Africa the first shiE
loads of our people, and sold them into
slavery, and the New England Yankees
have continued the wholesale traffic evel
stree, up to the beginning of the war, SCI!
ling our people as slaves into North ant
South America and the West Indies. Anc
when they found that our labor did no
pay we'll in the cold and sterile farms 0
the North, they re-sold US to the cottOI
and sugar planters of the South.
Y Thus, in their hands. we have been useC
from the first as a commodity of none,
making speculation. They used us 70
the same purpose in the late war, not to Sc
Us free, for the President and Congress re
, peatsdly declared that the object of th
war was not to abolish slavery, but I
maintain the Union of the States. Blu
finding themselves hard pressed, they use
> US for the double purpose of saving thel
prescious bodies from the bullets of tn
i. rebels, and of crushing out the rebellion
- By our help and the blessing Of God the
ID succeeded and now. as matter of shee
,e justice, they proclaimed our freedom, an
gave us free suffrage, THAI is if we VOt
: for them. Such freedom Of the ballot-bo
d. y. is mockery, and it requires no great smar
y. ness in us to see that they still propose
, use us for selfish and political purposes
= Think you, my fellow-countFymeu, th
R. the Radical party of Tennessee would ba'
given us suffrage if they had thought
doubtful whether they could control th
4, suffrage to their own advantage WI
did they not give us the right to hold Q
fce and sit % juFies I answer. they a
afraid Of our power. for We are power
the South. They are still sPeeuiating
our people. as they have done from q
first ship load they kidnapped and soia
i! to slavery. They hattered to deceive
then thew aattered 70 deceive US aga