Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-07-06

IhaI einanclPatlOn nau aHOrded t(
the black race to lift itself to thu
level Of the duties and responsible
ties enjoyed by it. You have muscle
power and brain power, she said
you must utilize them, or be content
to remain forever the inferior race
Get land, every one that can, and af
fast as you can. A landless people
must be dependent upon the landed
people. A few acres to till for food,
and a roof, however humble, over
your head, are the castle of your in
dependence, and when you have it
you are fortified to act and vote
Independently whenever your in
terests are at stake. That part OF
her lecture (and there WAS much Of
it) that dwelt on the moral duties
and domestic relations of the col
ored people was pitched on the
highest key of sound morality. She
urged the cultivation of the "home
life," the sanctity of the marriage
state, "a happy contrast to her strong
minded, free-love, white sisters of
the North, and the duties of moth
ers to their daughters. "Why" said
she, in voice of surprise, II have
actually heard since I have been
South that sometimes colored hus-
bands positively beat their wives! I
do not mean to insinuate for a mo-
ment that such things can possibly
happen in Mobile. The very ap-
pearance of the congregation forbids
it; but I did hear of one terrible
husband defending himself for the
unmanly practice with, "Well. I've
got to whip her, or leave her.
Again the white ivory showed what
chord was struck in the audience.
We heard a darkey near us say, "If
she will just stay here a few days,
she will find plenty of them sort of
husbands.
There were parts of the lecturers
discourse that grated a little on
white Southern ear, but it was lost
and forgiven in the genuine earnest
ness and profound good sense with
which the woman spoke to her kind
in words of sound advice. And
when we came to consider her
education, we had to conclude that
the grating passages were compar-
rtively mild. She was educated
among Abolitionists before the war,
and was a trained and practiced
lecturer in the anti-slawery crusade.
And yet, to Judge from her talk, she
is less bigoted and less embittered
to-day than nine-tenths of the white
Yankees of that school.
On the whole, we are glad we &C
cepted the lions invitations. Itgave
us much food for new thought. 1t
reminded us, perhaps, of neglected
duties to these people, and it i'm
pressed strongly on our minds that
these people are getting along, get
ting onward, and progress was a
star becoming familiar to their gaze
and their desires. Whatever the
negroes have done in the paths of
advancement, they have done large
ly without white aid. Wesay large
ly," and yet tho white people have
helped them to build their churches
and to promote the honest in their
undertakings. But politics and white
pride have kept the white people
aloof from offering that earnest and
that moral assistance which would
be so useful to people just starting
from infancy into a life of seli-de-
pendence. The white people, have
held back from a race who had CIV
en- up their political consciences
and their suffrage power to strangers
and to notorious enemies of the
South, and have preferred to let
them do the work of opening the
eyes of the black people to their true
relations and interests in society and
politics. But for the interloping
carpet bagger, who came between
the two races to make strife, and to
steal and plumber by means of a
suborned negro vote, we have never
doubted that happier relations would
have existed between the two races |
since the war ended That time
will yet come. It is hastened o !
step by the political defeat and con-
sequent departure Of every addi-
tional one of these evil birds Of
o~1 ~ r,r.,.-