Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-03-31

I Oh WElleTS, vi lbC
posed absence OF any facts capable OF
! proof, have imagined that they might
impose almost anything upon the Gre
| dulity of the public. Thus / have been
| repeatedly told i'll a loose way that the
negro in the south will not work, that
| he is hopelessly lazy, that his idea OF
| freedom Is to live without labor, etc.
| This is common charge against the
negro: it is easily made in general terms,
but happily the as ,tion..may. be brought
under The dominion OF some general
facts which go TO test its truth, and to
show what prejudice and eXaggeratlon
hear dictated this reproach.
There is some flIppancy about THIS
reproach which has at last become tire
some. Nor are the sources from which
it commonly comes very highly recon-
mended to US for the qualities OF SEN
sorship. There are | regret yet dare to
say, many thousand of lazy white per-
sons in the South, loating on street cor
ners and drinking whisky, perpetualIy
talking of enterprise" coming down
South-as if said enterprise was some
thing to he brought to them in box
and opened in their midst-the day
Virginia is admitted into the Union, or
some ether event happens, who are ex-
ceedingly ready and apt to declalm on
the laZiuess of the 'cussed niggers."
Now do not believe that the negro is,
or ever will be, model of industry.
His temperament is tropical. But | do
say that, Notwithstanding his disadvan-
tages of nature and all other disadvan-
tages land they are many the negro has
shown since his emancipation an indus
try that is extraordinary; that is con-
stantly, daily increasing, both i'll volume
and discipline; that has supplied him
with comforts that he never knew be-
fore that has enabled him to build
churches and to found charitable insti-
tutions of his own; that has kept him
better clothed than he was i'll his former
condition; and that exhibits its results
to-day in the vast bulk of the agricui-
tural products OF the South.
There are two facts which furnish a
curious commentary Oh the reproach
that the negro is deficient in industry,
or that he has declined III this respect
since his release from his former condi-
ten:
l. How can we account for the fact
that there has been 10 considerable
failing Oft in the volume of production
in the south-OD the contrary, an in-
crease under many heads-On tie Spp-
position that the negro has decreased i'll
industry for it must be admitted that
accessiOns of labor in the South from
abroad-that is, other than the negro
have been wholly incOnsiderable. Again,
another common detraction of the negro
(and one made, curiously enough, by the
very same writers who haVe reproached
him for idolence) is, that he is dying |
out, that his numbers have been fear
fully diminished by mortality incident
to his emancipation and so these the
Orlsts. anxious to degrade the negro on |
every possible plea, are plunged into the |
Inconsistency that, if his race is really |
the victim of such fearful mortality, |
then The industry which it has shown |
in yet keeping up the average OF South
ern production is one that deserves |
wonderful acknowledgment and praise. |
The fact is, both of these hypotheses-
that of the decline of the negro in in
lustry and that of his disappearance !
Though death and Qisease-are false, |
and an example OF those Inconsistencies
and absurdities into which men fall who !
are anxious, from incomplete Observa
tiOn or from the haste of prejudice, to
construct theories, without attention to
the great facts which underlie the de-
tails and limit the area of speculation.
oCSOAIN IiCG W lltCu
/ wish to bring before the reader is the
appearance, for the first time in the his
tory of the Southern negro, of cOnsid
cradle migratory movement. Within
recent months there has been a move
ment Of the negroes, by tens of thou
sands, from Virgini to other fields of
labor, and the indications are of col
umn of emigration from the lands where
the cereals are cultivated, and where
wages are low, pushed down into the.
''black belt" extending from the Sea
Islands of South Carolina to the trans
borders of Louisiana. The
is one of vast economical i'm
portance, and does not appear yet to
have drawn sufficient attention from
what few thoughtful men remain among
the legislators and publicists of Virginia.
But propose to regard l. here only in
the single aspect of a striking, vivid
proof of the negro's desire for work,
which has enabled him to overcome
what is notoriously the strongest char
acteristlc OF bis race-an attachment to
local associations; and as an indication
also of a moral enterprise wholly incon-
sistent with the theory of his tendency
10 barbarism. We may, at least, see
now that the negro is not content to
placed him: emigration such as he has
is an incident of civiliza-
ION it has required calculation and a
strength OF purpose which barbarians
could scarcely be expected to have, for
,wenty thousand Virginia negroes to
cave their scanty and narrow homes,
going out not as mere adventures and
but las cheerful and organ
Zed bands of laborers.
The difficulty, us | have observed it
II the South, Is not 50 much that the
iegroes will not work, as that they are
lOt very ready OF very cheerful to work
where they think their wages either in
sufficient or precariOus. And it must
Je admitted that there are some grounds
If complaint in this respect. The wages ..
If farm-hands i'll Virginia are eight to
ell dollars n month and out of this
he labOrer has to provide clothing for ,
limself, pay doctors bills and support u,
Ill the non-producing members of his ,
amily, paying house-rent for them, as !
hey are but seldom allowed to reside on =,
lie farm where he is employed. This
$ hard life, and not calculated to i'm ,
,art much cheerfulness to the labOrer-
o make him quite as glad to work as :
ONE of his philosophic censors would J
lave him to appear. How the negro !
nerves himself to such ll-paid labor, q
lor he works so generally under condi- =
ions so hard, is rather the wonder; and ,
must confess to admiration of the res i
olute industry which thus makes the !,
'est of the situation, and does what !;
yer the hands find TO do. The results !.
Which he achieves out of these scanty
wages are yet more wonderful, and in
icate Il careful and eXacting economy $
Which those who have been fond of l
the black man improvident
nd careless of his money will find it u
very difficult TO explain. In the town {
f Lynchburg, Virginia, the negroes q
ave built out of contributions among l.