New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-01-19
THE SOUTHERN EXODUS.

|
laughed to scorn as that which predicted and
deprecated q general migration northward OF
the Blacks so soon as they should be
emancipated. That they would utterly refuse
to work, preferring to steal or beg, and
that they would nevertheless work so
cheap and so much that White labor
| ers could no longer earn Il living
were propositions reiterated by Democratic
orators and resolution till some OF
| these must have come at last by mere force
of repetition, to believe them; but that the
"niggersn would all break for the North when
| liberated and roam necessarily from the
| Pcnobscot to the Columbia, stealing and
giving odOr,n was as undOubted dogma OF
| the Democratic faith as Free Trade or n Specie
Currency.
We have now passed seven years since Eman-
cipatiOn and nearly five since Peace: and
where are those locust swarms of vagrant
mendicant, predatory, malodorous "nggersY'
Echo answers Where9 Northern eye hath not
seen them. Northern len-roosts and clothes
lines bear no testimony to their vsitatons.
Northern White lahorers have work or want
it, obtain good wages or poor; but are IN
neither case helped or hndcred by ringers"
We doubt that the Census soon TO be taken
will return so many Blacks north of the Poto-
mac and the Ohio as there were in 1860,
adding barely two per cent. per annum for
natural increase. As for negro bcggars, we are
not accostcd by one where we used to be by
two for the pretext of fleeing from Slavery
often false, but always plausible, and generally
eilcctive--nO longer avails; and the "nigger'
who hates to wOrk-(and alas! he and his
White counterpart are both too common)-muSt
now tell another story altogether; and he does
not find ears so receptive or hearts so sympa-
thetc as he did ten years ago. la this region,
the negro vagabOnd and practiccr on the crodu-
lily of soft -hearted philanthropsts is nearly
played ont.
There is no perceptible current of Black mi
grafton northward, but a very large and strong
one southwark and sOuthwestward. Mary
land, Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky, are
losing their Poor Blacks rs well as their Poor
Whites by thousands, while Mississippi, Arkan-
sas, Louisiana and Florida are gaining the
former, and Illinois, Missouri, Kansas Arkansas
and Texas, the latter. Texas is gaining both
Blacks and Whites immensely; Arkansas IN
lesser volume, yet still considerably. And the
current of migration dcepens and brOadens as
the days roll on.
IL is evident that the landholders ard old
stand-bys of Virginia, the Caroinas, and Ala
bama, are perplexed and d.sheartcned 10y this
movement, which battles all their calculations.
They have been confidently expecting a great
and rapid influx OF Northern capital and labor
TO buy and improve their lands; instead Of
this, they see their poorer neighbors and OK
slaves departing by thousands. 1t is even
doubtful this moment that the States named in
this paragraph will have so many inhabitants
III 1870 as they had in 1860.
This movement of population seems to us
natural benefcent inevitable. The old status
under slaveholding domination has irreyocaby
passed away; the deluge is slowly subsiding but
tho dry land is not clearly manifest. There is
an abundance of cheap land in the old South ;
but it is held in large tracts, and not offered
for sale in such parcels nor on such terms as
are calculated to induce poor men to pur-
chase it. Even the Poor Whites, who
formerly lived about the edges of the great
plantations, and picked up meager, pre-
carious livelihood by little hunting, a little
fishing, very little downright work, and an
occasional hunt for a fugitive negro, do not
find place to suit them in the new order of
things Like one of old, they "cannot Dig
that is, where negroes do most of the digging
while "to beg they are ashamed" if they
must work for living, they choose to do it
where work will not be badge of social
| inferiority, at least in their own estimation ::
so they set forth in quest of :" fresh fields and
pastures new.n They will evince more
| energy, more ambition, in new country than
! they ever would in that where they were born I;
| Just as the Irish in America are more energetic,
| more hopeful, more helpful. than in Ireland.
The Blacks migrate under an impulse at
least equally Ineligible. Crops have in the
average been poor and earnings meager in
| Virginia and the Carolinas since Peace: they
| cannot find steady work, even at low wages,
| this side of the Savannah; while they are
promised all the work they can do and better
pay for it farther South. Ample experience
has established the value of the Southern
negro as the best "fed-hand" on earth no
| other labor can be hired which will make as
much cotton to the hand as his will. Both Cot
ton and Sugar have paid well for the last two
years; hence, the planters are not merely
willing but able to hire more and pay
better this year. Under the bygone
| regime the average cotton-planter was usually
| two crops behind-hand; owing one to his factor
| for supplies and another to the negrO-trader
for hands; if he had a good crop and a good
price for it, he bought more land and more
negroes: if he had poor crop or a low price for
it, he paid nothing-how could he payf Thus,
| he was never out Of debt, but generally sink
| ing deeper and deeper into it: but now he
sells his crop and is astonished to find a
balance on the right side of his ledger.
Time he must now nav his "hands -