Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-11-27
THE NEGROES In NASHVILLE
How they Live, Move and Have
their Being.
Facts Concerning their COndi-
tiOn-Beg, Steal or Starve

One Of the most lamentaDle cOnbequGn-
ces of the new order Of things, and one
which is brought wildly to the view in the
winter season, when the cold and biting
winds from that north-country, so full Of
unredeened promises to them few years
since, drives them from the commons, Is
the condition Of the thousands Of negroes,
aggregated together IN our city, and Ii the
suburbs. The results of the war, and the
overthrow and disruption Of the old sys-
tenn of labor denuding the fields and the
forests of black labor, and destroying the
relationships long existing between master
and slave, caused the negroes TO flock by
hur dreds to the large cities and towns 10
the utter dispsrsgement Of their moral,
physical and mental conditions. Many of
them were thus lured to the cities by the
wily Radicals who, while they were strut
ing with brief authority in place and pow
or. in order 10 perpetuate the same, held
out to the views of the dsrkies the glitter
ing boon of the franchise, with hopes of
office and position in the future. In no place
was that Radical game prRctsed more ex-
tsnsively and successfully upon the credulity
of the African population than in Nashville
and vicinity. Our citizens well remember
the winters of 1861, when with
sweeping, violent and intolerant proscrip-
ton. unpracticed and unheard of 10 this
country, the whites were deprived of their
votes and the negroes enfranchised. The
disgraceful scenes of November and De-
cember, 1857, cannot be forgotten by our
people. Our public squares and thor
oughfares, our temples of justice and our
Capitol, daily and nightly presented scenes
and orgies that would put to the blush
the inside of Pandemonium- Rsdicalism
ran not and was in the full flush and tide
of success Candidates for Office, judicial,
State, county and municipal, presented
themselves from Vermont and Massachu.
sets, from the Northern, the Eastern and
the Northwestern States, who owned
nothing IN our midst, and who had no in
terest in common with us. Negroes were
allured to the city from the country, from
the highways, and the hills and hollovs.
They were enfranchised and were in the
midst of their millennium. Soup-houses
were established for them at the public ex-
pense; fuel in many instances was furnish
ed in the same manner. The schools
were virtually destroyed. The days when
negroes had to work In Nashville, were, to
appearances, at an end. The season of
'Jubilo" had emphatically come. SUCH was
the picture then. Wonderful changes
have taken place since. The house these
Radicals created. founded upon oppression,
has come tumbliDg about their ears. They,
after feathering their nests for q season and
filing their pockets with ill-gotten gains,
sawthe ruin in which they were about TO be
overwhelmed in time to escape the crash.
So much for them. But how about these
poor deluded darkies, into whose ears they
had seductively whispered the honeyed
words of deceit, of citizenship, Of place, OF
equality, Of power and wealth. All! these
poor creatures have sowed to the winds
and are now reaping the whirlwinds. They
were lured from the country, from the
farm, and from the shop, only with view
to procure their votes, with hundreds OF
promises, not one of which has been made
good. They were Withdrawn from the pro-
lection of those among whom they were
raised and reared, and the only persons
who felt any interest in them, and induced
TO 60 after strange and false gods. We now
have before us, in dark colors, some Of the
results.
In and around our city, these negroes
have accumulated in herds Some OF them,
il is true, are honestly employed, and by
upright dealing are endeavOring to set an
example worthy of imitation; but IS
TO how by far the larger por-
ton live, move and have their
being is TO us al q mystery and q
marvel. 1t is fact undeniable that near
three-fourths of the negroes huddled TO-
gether within our city and around the en-
virons have no steady employment, OF
tangible and reliable means of support.
The manner in which they live is in many
instances pitisble in the extreme. There
are some streets in the lower portions OF
the city as parts of Gay street and near the
vicinity of Line and Summer streets, and
the negro barracks, where tenement houses
are packed with them, and where in a
state Of utter restitution whole families OF
them can be seen.
Provide yourself, reader, with disinfec..
ants, steel your sensibiiities to the effects
Of squalid wretchedness, and step with uS
10 the doors of some of these novels and
miserable rooms. Don't be overcome
with the sickening odors and exhalations,
compared to which the black hole of Cal
cutt8 was an aromatic garden of June roses.
Here you see from three to eight or
dozen women, boys, girls, children, ole
men and young men, piccaninies, sill en-
gagged in the occupation Of "doin nuffen
Follow us along Lick Branch, and peel
into the cabins, dotting the hill sides be
yond and in the valley. Here you fnt
the same worthless, miserable specimens
of black humanity, crowded together, thei
nakedness scarce concealed from the cold
sitting on benches, on stools and on thu
floor, fostering in filth, or lszily lounginj
about, with no conception of their presen
condition, or ideas Of laboring to alleviate
= It. Out beyond Line street, on the hill
sides and along the valleys beyond tht
Chattanooga depot, and the limits Of tn
corporation, the same ungracious sight
are presented. lowering around For
Negley and the other Notifications, th
frowning guns from which helped to plac
them where they are there are huBdred
of others in apparently the same state {
poverty, idleness and restitution. eros,
ing the turnpikes and approaching th
classic region of ''BlRck Center, they ar
seen ia still greater numbers. This localit
is one of the worst about Nashville. Her
DAD Perkins revels, and here they g
armed, and make raids upon the fences fC
fuel. and the meat houses for food. Wo
be to the hog or shost, or COW or calf, 0
sheep or OK, found wandering about th
precincts of Black Center. No living an
NAL or vegetable, or fowl, or con-
crib, or fodder-stack, is safe In tbs
region. The negroes here defy the Law
and live by theft and plumber. Cows an
calves have been found freshly shot dow
in the vicinity with portions of them take
TO smoke on the Goals in some negr
shanty. Meat has been found cut
chunks and sailed away with the hair an
hide on. In this vicinity it is next to in
possible for residents TO keep meats an
garden supplies for their families, to So
nothing of fences that are burned frol
their gardens and fields. Go, too, on th
hillside to the left of South College an
Front streets. Innumerable negro shal
ties enclosed in rock fences, that Al
crumbling away, ere to be seen, with hel
and there a small struck patch" HUI
dreds of netToes, big and little, youn
and old, live and breathe in these lit
rookeries, tie small patches nnentiont
being the only signs Of support to be seei
Coming back towards the city, prohtabl
investigation into the condition OF tne'
negroes may be extended by examinlr
their modes Of life, as they extend ID the
abodes along the valley leading from frol
to Summer street. In the valley, az
along its skirts the entire lengt
the old rookeries, unclesn shal
ties and foul easements, whic
during very wet weather are innundate
with water, are filed with them in a sta