The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1871-09-21

AoiIo"
Harry-Tin.es is gitt.1' very squally,
Mars Henry.
Sheriff B-Why, how, Harry
Harry-Dey talks mighty curious to a
fellow bout dis election.
Sheriff B.-What do you mean by talk
ing curious?
Harry-From the way desc colored folks
talk, it would be dangerous to vote for de
convention. l always have voted with
you, an I've had a heap of hard things
mobbed me at de Falls Church, an /
'spected to be beat to death every minute.
got away from dem dat time. But now
dey says if insists on voting agin my
color, | deserve to be hung. Dey say
nights is mighty dark and paths is mighty
crooked.
Sheriff B.-They are just trying to
scare you into voting as they want you.
Harry-Dey say if go for de conven,
ton times will 60 hard with me.
Sheriff B.-Who says so?
Harry-All of 'em tells me so. Dey
say orders come from Raleigh to dat ef-
feet, az if l goes for de convention I'll be
hurt, dat's all
III. Simon Gay, member of the Bap-
t!st Church, in good standing, had con-
versation with Alfred Wright, colored
blacksmith at this place, with regard to
Robert Hammitt, another colored man,
who voted convention"
Wright-De scoundrel ought to be drove
out of town.
Gay-What for?
Wright-Why, votin de conservative
ticket.
;Y,'}
Wright-Hell see whether it's free
country. Not one colored man should
trade at his shop.
Gay-Supposc conservatives should feed
you out Of that spoon, you would certain
ly starve.
Mr.. Gay became disguised and turned
off, leaving Wright .muttering terrible i'm
precautions on the unoffending head of
Hammitt.
Wright Jenkins, a colored man, thus re-
lates his experience in voting the conserv-
alive ticket:
GA crowd, one evening, tried to get me
down to the railroad bridge across Tar
River, just to take walk, dey said. l
'spected something wrong, cause | heard
they had threatened me. So l pretends
like it wasall right; but soon as l gets out
of the embankment gives 'em some first
class leg bail l heard 'em holler out,
Wen git you yit, you scoundrel.'
At another time they got me IN crowd,
and dey said dey was going to whip me. 1
talked until got to the edge of the crowd,
and | eased off tolerable fast
At Dortch's precinct, four miles from
here, Riland SoTey, colored man, was
handed a ticket by white man named
Moore, when a Grant white man, who
stood at the box and voted 500 of his
black machines, with frC wing face and
stentorian tones, Numbered out:
"What do you mean? You know you
amt voting right"
The negro wilted, and at once "came to
time"
Major Durham, seeing the negroes filing
in to the polls at Joyner's depot like
dumb, driven cattle" under the propelI
ing power of an office, holder, inquir 4 of
them:
why do you vote all together SOY
The whites do not all OF them think alike.
They are never so united as you are
Why is it,"
With one accord they exclaimed, eve
are vOtin' agin you whites"
Then, suppose the whites should all
vote, No Convention how would you
vote? ?" asked Major D.
WED go for convention" shouted the
negroes.
So lying and coercion sway this black
human mass like huge ball The office
holders tell them the whites are itching to
re.enslave them, erect whipping posts, and
raise blOodhounds for them. They tell
the blacks they are perfectly justifiable in
taking the strongest measures to make
their own color vote right"
The above are only few Of the thou
sands of instances in which the negroes
are intimidated. Every respectable white
witness can mention numerous cases that
have come under his own eye.
To evidence to the Northern mind the
various ways in which the black mans
prejudices are nursed, this example is cited ::
A grand Grant mogul, whose nod will
make negro tremble, hedged in with
offices, State and Federal, rioting in
postotfice and magistracy, who unblush-
ingly proclaims his belief to be that the
SIN sets in Grants pocket, remarked Off
cially day or two since to a citizen:
You white men are to blame for the
negroes stealing SO much more than white
men" On. B-He excluded Grants white
office-holders.)
Why, how do you make that ?" the
citizen asked
"You don't pay 'em enough to support
their families"
I'VE pay them as much IS we are able,
and as much as we pay white laboTers.
You know a great many of US employ
some white labor and they don't steal"
"Well, l wouldn't work for such wages"
said the postmaster.
But" continued the citizen, "you
know in the western part Of the State they
don't pay laborers as much as we do, and
that's the reason so many of the negroes
have come to Edgecombe and other cotton
counties, and the criminal dockets there
don't compare with ours. We can't afford
to pay more. Few men make more than
four per cent. farming, and the large ma
jority cont make anything; at least we
haven't since the war, owing to the fluctu-
ations in the cotton market. We always
pay as much as we are able. When We
obtained better price for our staple we
paid our hands more. But that made no
difference in the amount of stealing"
"Umph!" was all the ?. NJ. could ejacu-
late, and the citizen, seeing his discomit-
ure, still piled him:
- An officeholder like you, whose word
10 law oilu SoepSI W tutcc utSIOtS,
should not Countenance crime by such Ian
guage. You become particeps crlminis
You know that we can't raise hogs nor any
thing else without losing a good part by
roguery. They steal our cotton and corn
in the fields, or cabbages in the gardens,
peas in the patch, etc. If one is jailed. it
is no disgrace. Didn't Judge Moore tell
them from the bench at Martin court he
believed they perpetrated crime in order
to get into Jail, 10 keep from working in
the hot sun and to get fed? When one
comes out of Jail he is lionized by his fell
lows as bearing the reflected lustre Of a
martyr to the white mans injustice-all
your teaching-and received in the highest
colored circles. There are thirty in Tar
boro Jail now, and only one white man,
and he stranger, at cost on the taxpay-
ers OF 40 cents per head, every day. They
steal our property, and we are punished
more than they for it."
Do the Northern people understand
this? Do they know that it is all to keel
certain men in Office?
Can the Sun not teach Northern men
who support the ofhceholders that in case
of & q bloody war of races" in the South