Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-25

Whither They are Going, and the
Causes Of their Exo4nP. a..
The NaturaIF Fitness Of Things.

We have in several articles recently re.
ferred TO the colored people in Nashville
and the region Of country contiguous, and
| although we calmly and dispassionately
reviewed both sides of the subject, giving
the good and the bad aspects of their con.
dItions and status, we neither drew upon
imagination nor exaggerated facts In the
premises. The remarks we shall make
here bear upon different feature from the
others as relating to our colored popula-
| ton. Recently it has become clear that
many of the colored people are leaving
Tennessee, especially this or the middle
portion Of the State. This fact becoming
apparent, it has been eagerly seized upon
by those protesting to be par excellence
the friends of the negroes, as a prstext,
for political capital, and who have by tor
tuous twistings, unfounded assertions, and
lrrelevent insinuations, endeavored to con-
vsy the impression that they were forced
to leave in consequence of the intolerant
persecution and bad treatment by the
white citizens. Nothing could be more
remote from the correct state of thinou
than this In former articles we showed
that while those colored people, who in
dolently and viciously passed their time in
idleness and trifiDgness, relying upon de-
lusive promises and their franchise and
citizenship, as paramount for all afiictino
evils, present and future, were in a deplof.
able condition, just as any white psople
would be who should pursue the same
course; and we showed also that those who
tried to do something for themselves
we're succeeding admirably. We
gave the names, residences and places
Of business OF colored peoule who
had industriously gone to work in our
midst at the close of the war, who had ac-
cumulated property and who are doing
we'll There has at no time been sincs
the enfranchisement Of thu negroes. a see-
son in which those of them who were will
ing to work could not get good wages "a
farm hands, or situations as domestics-
The trouble IS they cannot be relied upon
and the difficulty of obtaining and keeping
good servants has been and Is one of the
chief annoysnces Of housekeeuers- ss
every one knows. It is then throuoh no
oppression on the part of the whites. nor
through no inability to find something To
do that the negroes are emigrating from
our section. We have inquired into and
Investigated this subject with some care
and particularly. The truth ia thew nave
found that social and political eaualitE.
much so ever as their rights NAV be re-
spected and projected, is here, as it ia At
the North and East, a bubble and a delu-
sion. In fact We are informed by reliable
authority that colored servants are not as
reliable now nor in as good demand at the
North as they were before the war, nor is
their general condition as good. AS proof
of this, by inquiries of the conductors of
the various trains running to and from the
city, we learn that there are fewer colored
people going North now than there were
some years since, and at the close Of the
war when the morning Of their promise d
millennium was first dswning upon their
visions. Why is this? Simply because
there are no inducements for them
to go there, and this fact they have learned
full well despite the preaching Of their pro-
fessed friends. 1t is a remarkable fact.
worthy Of mention here, that of the hun
dreds who did go North with as much
eagerness as the Israelites went to Canaan
as their promised land, very MANY of them
have returned, and proclaimed to their
friends that the South was the best AID the
natural home of the colored man.
Were they leaving this portion of the
State from any alleged causes Of oppression
they would naturally go North instead Of
South. But Just the reverse is the case
The fact is, the colOred people, long "a
they have been arriving at the conviction,
are becoming convinced that the speeious
promises made to them by their supposed
Radical friends were as hollow as the
sounds of brass and the tinkling cymbals.
They are beginning to see and understand
that their true friends are those with whom
their earlier years were passed, and the
land best suited to their necessities is the
land pressed by the feet of seryitude under
the training and direction of good masters.
On inquiry of those running the trains
southwark, and from personal observation,
we find that the colOred people who are
| leaving Middle Tennessee are going to the
Cotton States, where inviting fields spread
far and wide their prospects of remunera-
tive employment. Very many have gone
to Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas,
where they have been hired as laborers,
and where broad acres of unpicked cotton
yet whiten the valleys like fields of mimic
snow. Hundreds Of them have been hired
in Middle Tennessee and gone and are 60
ing to work those fields Others have gone
though not in such large numbers, to diff
fsrent parts of the South. Very few,
scarcely any, indeed, have gone, or are
going northwsrd The Nashville and
Northwestern Railroad and the Chatta-
nooga Railroad have conveyed most of
those who have left to their Southern
homes The Decatur road have taken of
number, but not SO many They have
been hired to go there to work at good
wages, and those who have so hired them
are confident that with no Radical or DO
itical interference they can make of them
good and useful field hands. This, then,
is the cause Of the negro exodas from
Middle Tennessee, and all the talk of at
tributing it to oppression or persecution is
bosh, moonshine and nonsense. The cot
ton plantations have always been invested
to the dsrkies by Radicals as possessing
for them all the horrors and terrorism OF
the inquisition II fleeing from white op-
preston they would certainly not go vol
UNFAIRLY TO these same hated CD cotton
fields.
UunateIy, in the course of human
events, while few of the colored people
wi, 20 North, their deportation and en-
igra.Iuu viii be to the cotton and sugar re-
gions, and 7the belt of cotton growing
States Will be the home Of the great negro
element and each one of them will have
to earn his bread, IN accordance with the
Scriptural mandate, by the sweat Of his
brow. In this there is a natural fitness of
things that nothing is likely to eontravene.