The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-05-10
Tow Hill.

Columbia has a classic region within her bor-
deIs, known as "Tow Eil," which formerly
contained over one thousand American citizens
OF African descent, but at present its population
will hardly reach four hundred. These Amerl-
can citizens have had the exclusive use of two;
churches and two school houses for many years
the negroes have employed preachers of their
own color but their schools have been free and
taught by white teachers, the same as all our
public schools. In moral and intellectual Gull
ture, our negroes have had all the advantages of
our white citizens, and yet we cannot report
very favorably on the result of the advantages
thus lavshly extended to these equals We
think we are within bounds when we assert that
three-fourths of these Americans live by begging
and stealing. The women start out in squads,
a la Gipsies, in the morning with bags and beg
of the farmers, sometimes they go eight or ten
miles, but usually not over four or FIVE, for a
back load of provisions and old clothing the
buck niggers start out about dark, also with
bags, and they never capture hams or bacon
from the smoke houses unless they get on a
route where the chickens roost too high. Our
farmers contribute freely to the support of these
negroes, and seldom, il ever, complain of the Or
ganized system of chicken stealing for fear that
the negroes will burn their buildings if com :
planned of. They are always ready for law and
large numbers attend our courts as plaintiffs,
defendants, or witnesses; we were once wit
ness in Il case of ejectment in which some TWEEN
tY negroes were sworn, all Of whom swore false
to our personal knowledge in almost every state
ment they made to the court. Such is the result
of free schools and christian advantages TO our
negroes. We do not feel disposed to complain of
nature, we find the white race possessed of more
capacity and intellect than the black race and hold
that it is the duty of the white race to provide
such laws and regulations as will protect the in
terests Of both races under the present system
the burden of their support is thrown upon the
white race, and we hold that the whites are
more to blame for the degraded condition of the
blacks than the blacks themselves. We have
plenty of black families in our borough, where
the parents are thieves and drunkards our
christian philanthropy furnishes free school
for their children, but goes no further, and these
children are reared in the footsteps of their pa
rents. fla law compelling attendance at school
until they were ID years of age was enforced,
and they then were bound out on farms or to
trade, they might be made useful members of our
Republic, but say our philanthropists, that
would be oppression. Very well. In one case
we should have black man with trade trained
to the habits of industry, and in the other
drunken Niger getting his living by Stealing
Which is the best result for the negro, and the
whites from whom he steals2 Past philanthro-
ply has got the negro as low as he can be reduced
and the present proposes TO reduce the white man
to the same level. Enfranchsing negroes will
be like ptting poodles against bull dogs; his
pretended friends are his worst enemies and
every move they make is but hurryng up the
time when his race will cease to exist Columbia
(Pa,) Herald.