Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1869-02-18

Wnere the negro has bern Tree III
t longest, the mortality among ther
, has been twice as great as anon
: the whites. lathe city Of Philadel
phia, from 1920 to 1881. one whit
! in forty-two died, and one negro il
every twenty one; and statistics
! wherever keRt in the Northern
States, show about>tAe same pro
| portionable mortality.
To this it has been replied tina
the Northern States are too cold
that they are not adapted to the eli
mate, &c; for in the Souther
4 States they rapidly increase a
slaves, and therefore will increasI
4 as, freedmen. This conclusion wo't
! be valid, if the conditions Of exist
renee of the slaves and freedmen
were the same. But the condition.
Of the two aradiferent, and 50 il
the result; and instead Of th,
freedmen increasing in number they
are absolutely decreasing.
Perhaps the most important in.
fuencing change upon the negros as
freedmen, consists in the careless
ness and imbecility with which they
treat their offspring. While slaves,
the. master and mistress charged
themselves especially with the care
Of the children, clothed them well,
ands saw that they were well provi-
dcd for in every respect; if sick,
they nursed them and administered
medicines and nourishment with
their own hands, and watched with
them through the night-in fact
cared for them 40 wei as they did
for their own children. When sick.
the adults were treated with great
care and attention. Care was also
taxed that they did not violate all
of the laws of health while well
and, in general, all the arrange
ments ofthe plantation were made
with view to securing the health
Of the slave. Hence the mortality
was small-so small that they in
creased rapidly.
AS freedmen, all this watchfuI
care is gone. The children, when
sick, get but little or no care, at
least Of rational kind. Improper
nourishment is given them, sick or
well, they are badly clad, and rear,
ed in filth, and exposed to all kinds
Of weather. The adults are very
careless, expose themselves much
at night-some Of them sleep but
two or three hours in the twenty
four-but consume the night in
hunting, or in some kind of dissi-
patton that is more injurious to the
system than hard labor would be
during the same hours. In addi-
ton to the autumnal diseases
Cholera Morbus, Remittent Fever,
Chills, &c, Pneumonia is a fre
quent disease among them particu
larly in Winter; and acting upon
constitutions thus impaired and de
bilitated, is very fatal. 1t is moi
unusual to find n mortality of 10,
and sometimes 90 per cent per
annum on many of the plantations
"a majority of them children; and
to visit any of their yards
lin death they are kept as rigidly
separate from the whites as in life)
one is surprised to see the great
number Of new made graves.
Very few of them are saving any
thing, and judging from their i'm
provideAt habits, it is not possible
that mary of them will ever save
sufficient of their earnings to enable
them to own land, which is a nee
essary step toward improving
their condition SO as to compete
with the whites. Their capacity for
mental culture has been fiercely dis
cussed by partisans on both sides
of the question, but when left to
the cool decision of experience, the
facts are about as follows: Up to a
certain point they equal or excel
the whites in the rapidity with which
they learn, but beyond that point
it is difficult, or impossible for them
to pass. All that part of an educa-
ton that is acquired by the exer-
cises of the imitatiUe faculties, such
as Reading. Writing, Defamation,
Elocution, Music, &c, but little diff
Guilty is found in teaching them,
and many surpass the whites
in the ease with which they master
them. But that part that calls into
play the higher intellectual facul-
ties, and which cannot be attained