The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-06-21
mr. Beach Gives More OF hts Opinions.
From the Brockport Republic, juno Is
The South.
[Continued from last week.

lSohLluueu EOm lasL week.
Out Of the cities and villages there are
Dut lew White people except the owners of
plantations. A poor white man has never
found those sections of the South in which
| slavery extensively existed desirable place
| to live. His services were put on q par
with those of the negro, and his social
| rating was in the same scale. The whites
Of the South are nearly all we'll educated.
and are fully cOnversant with all the
| amenities of refined society. Many of
| them could boast that in their veins
coursed roval blood, and many of the
| old and aristocratic residents took to them
selves the name of &c first families" to indi-
cate that they stood above the average
social scale: They assumed, and still as
sumo, that they are superior people, just
tocracy' do the same thing, to their dis
| credit, with the intelligent masses. A fixed
society, like that at the South, is very rigid
| IN its rules, and is not likely to undergo
any radical change unless there should be q
great change in the elements of population
through immigration. What Is considered
the best society is practically closed to
those Who cannot furnish a pedigree of
Irespectabiity. The sentiments of an indi-
vidual has little to do with the matter. The
| individual whose sentiments are not popu.
lar may be ostracised in hundred ways
| out Of social circles.
The negroes. as q class. are just what
might he expected when the circumstances
stood. Their situation under the institU.
ton of slavery was somewhat analogous to
convicts in our State prisons. They were
kept ia ignorance, heavy penalty being
imposed upon any one who should learn u
negro to read. They were kept on the
coarsest fare, corn meal and bacon being
| their chief food. The product of their labor
| was wholly their masters, hence they did
rs little labor as possible and avoid the
infliction of the lash. The marriage re-
lation was q loose one, as husbands were at
all times subject to be separated through
sale from their wives, and children from
their parents. Thus the system of slavery
begot ignorance, idleness, and vague views
In relation to family ties and obligations.
In this condition the negroes were made
free and invested with the prerogatives of
free citizenship. Are they to be censured
or ridicnled for their pecuniary, social, and
intellectual position, especially by those
who forced them into it? The system of
slavery is, responsible for making the
southern negro what he is. At the end
Of generation, under the benign and
ennobling influence of schools, the south
ern negroes will assume their proper
attitude among the citizens of the nation,
be it high or low in the general scale.
Nearly all Of the real estate at the South
standpoint this class is suffering more than
the other. While taxes are high, in the
present disorgan zed condition of labor the
general products are light. This is one Of
the chief reasons why all kinds of real es-
tate is low. While labor is so greatly need
ed, wages are very low. The negroes re-
ceive but from fifty to sixty cents a day for
their labor, or $40 month when boarded.
This is probably all that they earn. The
fact is that the negroes are altogether the
most independent people of the South.
labor supplies them. The shareholders
dressed them in the coarsest apparel,
and fed them upon the cheapest substantial
food. Accustomed to this style Of living,
they need labor but little at the low wages
they receive to fully supply all their wants.
4 cabin to live in, 4 little fuel for cooking,
a few light clothes, and supply Of meal
and bacon, meets all their requirements.
:Blessed be nothing" Had they been
brought up to enjoy more of the ncces$a-
res and luXuries Of lie, they would need
labor more to acquire them, rs do the Ia
boring people Of the North. Time will
NOTh CuullSCS III GlltSc III OLucI
and the youthful generation of negroes
will work better because more intelligent,
and because through intelligence acquiring
n taste for books and newspapers, and Il
better style of living, will require more to
supply their wants. The ruling low rate Of
wageS-about one-third what is pad at the
North-attracls no foreign cni9rantS or
other laborcrs to the South. The result of
all this is stasnation, dlapidaion, and re-
| trogradation. Fields rs fair as the sun ever
| shone upon, forests OF primeval grandeur,
and streams furnishing almost lllimitable
! water power, are as untouched by modern
enterprise rs when this country was dis
covered by Columbus. This condition is
result of slavery and the rebellion, und
these things must be outgrown before lands
| naturally fertile, Il climate mild and sau-
brioltS,- S,-where nature has done 50 much
and man so little-can be made TO yield the
full fruits of freedom, free labor, and enter
prise. The more quickly correct public
sentiment is created the sooner will these
blessings follow.