The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1869-07-31
Colored Labor.

As the question. Of Chinese labor is
eliciting SO much attention throughout
the Southern. States generally, and is
beng so widely commented upon by the
press at large, let us, for moment, con-
slider one more intimately connected with
qus s:oipa county. One, the benefits of
which We have all, more or less, expo
fienceds Now, in the first place, we be-
lieye that the underlying principle which
governs and actuates the supporters Of
che idea of Chinese immigration here,
is founded upon nothing, more or less,
siian an Unsuitable and unconquerable
pfeiadice contracted for the black man !;
and in this our belief is confirmed when
we consider that the ones who seem to
advocate the question with the most fer
sof,aud feigned Importance, are those who
derogate the colored people, not because,
on their account, our corn fields go un-
cultivated, but because of the fact that
aea politics arc, Invariably, Republican
This is the objection, carricatured by
sabterfuges into bugbear, and it is the
only one. For we believe we can assert
with truth, that if every colored mau to-
day, were to unite hands with the Demo-
cratic party, two-thirds Of those who are
inow crying out against him, would i'm
.Iaeaiately and in unspairing terms exalt
him as a laborer, to the SKIES. He
would no longer be execrated as man
subsiding into a state Of stupid inertion
and laziness, forming more of one ele-
ment Of evil than benefit to the coun-
try.
The colored laborers of this State we
all know. They have been raised right
up here with and amongst us, aud hence,
-partake more largely of our ways aud
manners, than any other like element
chat could be introduced here would
show.
Chinese labor we know nothing about,
bnt We do know that contemporary his
tofy furnishes US with many examples of
sheir proclivities to take the upper hand
Gs the unsuspecting, connected with
host of other traits equally revol.ing to
the every sense of refined humanity.
~ Where is the black man, tell us, that
ysu could, with fifteen cents, incite to a
deed of urder? or for, perhaps, less,
creep upon one of his fellows from whom
he had sustained no injury, aud cut his
throat from his wife and little ones ?
On the other hand show us the China
man who could resist such temptation,
or forego such chance to make money?
You cant do it!
These, gentlemen capitalist. you who
are ever anxious to make money no mat
Ter who suffers, are truths, facts, and
they are not stretched upon.
Since the war, we admit, that many
acres of our largest plantations have
been standing idle but this is no argu-
meat against the colorcd man as la
borer, for in many instances he works a
deal harder to-day than he did for his
master. No these 1000 acre farms re-
main idle not because the black people
have refused to work, or that they have
become yagrants, but because of the fact
that they are working somewhere else
Fec example, there are perhaps, in a
scope of country for ten miles square,
hGs one plantation containing 5000 acres
Of land, while all the rest range from
2ea 20 800 acres. Now this former one
Wss worked prior to and during the war
By, say fifty or 9 hundped slaves, and the
others cultivated solely and exclusively
by white families. Well at the close
Of. the war, the black man found himself
and family free, and being tired of the one
....ak Ae a...IL Il III L. Ii