Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-04-20
A REMARKABLE ARTICLE.
The Negro in the SOHth.

n From Lippincott's Magazine, for April.I
The writer has to confess that III
: was educated in that common schOG
= OF opinion il the South that alway:
: insisted on regarding the negro as spe
r officially inferior TO the white man-i
> lower order of human being who was
; indebted for what he had of civilZa
= ton to the tuition of slavery, anC
who, taken from that tuition, was
bound to retrograde and to relapse
5 into barbarism and helplessness. The
; writer was even advanced in this
! school. He had been fond of writing
his opinions on the subject-that the
: negro was an inferior species of hu-
!, manity, that by the employment OF
his initiative faculties he had obtain
; ed his maximum of civilization in the
; condition of slavery; and that to
| emancipate him would be to put him
on the high road TO ruin. Educated
thus to disesteem the negro, yet al
ways having q compassionate interest
in him-admiring in him his extra
ordinary qualities of humor and ten
derness, indu1ging a number of poetic
fancies in him, grown by education
and habit sentimental toward him,
yet constantly insisting that he was a
poor intellectually helpless creature,
who never could get along outside the
leading-string of slavery-the writer
was prepared to witness with pity
what the whole South arranged itself
to see-the misfOrtunes and inevitable
decline OF the negro from the moment
his emancipation was declared.
The South has seen no such thing.
Whatever may be the vanity of opin-
/ ion, which compels men to persist in
error, or yet more frequently to be si-
| lent under conviction, the writer
comes sharply before the public with
| this confession; that his former views
( of the negro were wrong, that the re-
/ suits of emancipation especially have
| been the reverse of his expectations,
a surprise, the force of which he can
neither resist nor contain. So keen
has been that surprise that from the
very intensity of it the writer is NOV
ed 10 communicate it to the public.
He feels more like eXelaiming "a
discovery" than writing in any more
deliberate mood of the proofs he has
obtained concerning the new condi-
ton of the negro. 1t is that this sim
gulary questionable creature has
shown a capacity for education that
has astonished none more than his
former master; that he has given
proofs of good citizenship which are
constantly increasing; that his devel-
Opment since emancipation is a stand
ing surprise to candid observers among
the Southern whites themselves; that
his condition since then has been on
the whole that of progress, and in the
face of difficulties that would soon
have tested and broken down that
progress had it been factiOus or dis
honest and that, so far from being a
stationary barbarian or a hopeless
retrograde, the formerly despised
black man promises TO become true
follower of the highest civilization, a
new object of interest to the world,
and exemplary citizen of the South.
Every year since the conclusion of !
the war have been in different parts |
of the South; have conversed with |
all classes of people here; L have ell
joyed the conditions of good Observ-
er, have observed the remarkable /
good order in civil life which the ne
gro has maintained since the day he /
was emancipated; ] have seen that
he is sober, law abiding-that he has
gone into his new condition with an
adaptation little less than wonderful;
/ have witnessed the zeal with which
the black people are availing them
selves of the schools and means of
have observed in South
ern cities the animated daily routes of
their children to the schools; l have
the industry of the negro
its steady, undeniable increase in the
South have wondered at the re-
markable thrift by which he has OBJ
tanned from his scanty wages not only
a livelihood, but a degree of comfort
and decency of dress such as he had
never known before; 1 have been
pleased to see manifestations of self
the pride shown in dress and
manners; and, above all, Ihave found
in him sense of importance and
conceived from the idea
that he is on trial before the world
The results of these observations /
have put against the weight of theo- :
y that had formerly persuaded me of |
he hopeless defeat of the negro and :
his worthlessness as n subject for in :
,ellectual eXperiment-the old ultra l
'lavehOlders' theory ythatnegroes with
Iut masters are cannibals all and the I
is simply that ] have de- {
,ided to follow after the evidence of q
ny eyes rather than to pursue farther {
he ingenuity of speculations.
On the conclusion of the war the ;
of the negro was re-
yarded by the Southern people as chief 7
Lmong terrors that were to be infiict- =
ID upon them by the loss of the strug-
lie. 1t had been habitually painted a
S the most dreadful feature in that a
leaths' head of ''subjugationn which L
or years had been held up in Confed- Z
rate newspapers to nerve to despera- ID
ion the arms of the South. The COM q
non representation was negro, wild a
nd intoxicated by a change of con-
ition so sudden and vast, would be il
o longer manageable; that he would n
o through the South numbering and al
lundering, taking revenge on his W
,rmer task-masters; or that, less vio- ei
mt, he would die and rot in the by- it
Tays, nuisance and an neye-sore until SC
ne animosity of race had expunyed ST
i'm from the face of the earth. How V
ave all these raw-head- -and-bIoOdv- 10
ones stories now disappeared, even in
ON the South! The negro has been su
ZEN to accept his great and sudden be
ift of liberty with sobriety and a 70
federation that history will be sur ed
rised to record, since it is withoutex- en-
nple; so far as L know, of a people
lus surprised by change of condi- Ia
on as radical as can be possibly IN
nagined, whose fortune did not hur- yI
: them into some excesses. What ic
promise there was in the negro was H
Immediately shown when he accent I'M
| without violence, and even with ali
It vanity, the gift of his freedom "a
ling into his new place with facili- fe.
of adaptation at which we have dn
1t yet ceased to wonder, taking up tn
ith quiet thankfulness his new ca ba
er, and even so little disturbed by he
e conceit of his new condition that ar
day it is the common testimony in a Z
e South that the white people suffer tn
, more from the Incidence of the th,
acks than they did in the days of les
avery. History owes here an extra dii