Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-09-21
THE ROMANCE OF THE
NEGRO.


the pen of EDWARD A. POLLARD.
The writer thinks that "there has
been q LOST THEORY, as well as q
Lost Cause for the South in the
late war" That is to say, the South
given over apparently to judicial
blindness, drilled in the school oil
Thomas Carlyle and. other negro
haters, even advocated the doctrine
Of the humanity of slavery, mas
much as the negro if freed and left
to take care of himself was bound
to degenerate to barbarism, become
the easy prey of every known and
unknown calamity, until utter ex-
tinction would be his lot. And as
they were not DESTROYS of seeing
A." the poor negro" so fade away and
perish, they charitably held him in
the only condition which they con-
ceived he could live in. The South
was even willing to evidence the
sincerity of their devotion to the
interests of the negro to the extent
of fighting for him, and they fought,
and fought, but they lost the negro.
Their education and their proclivi-
ties, drove them to some extent to
expect a speedy fulfillment of the
vaccinations of these seers, and
their bitter unrelenting caste pre-
JUDGE induced them to SO ardently
desire the extinction which they
were taught to believe would ensue,
that they blinded themselves to
every other consideration, and de-
liberately set to work all over the
country to disseminate the most
silly reports of the " fast thinning
ranks, and in some localities where
disease and death We're not hasten
ing on the process of determination,
the shotgun, the knife and the pistol
were even called in pretty extensive
requisition, and so the work went
bravely on-ever and anon cheering
the negrophobist with the prospect q
a happy providential radiance of
she negro. But, says Mr.. Pollard:
Those who have been looking for
the providential radiance of the negro,
md have been constructing mortality
tables to suit themselves, must have
been rather surprised, waking up some
not long since, to read in the
newspapers an outgiving from the
United States Census, our ne plus ultra
If statistical information. We are
here given to know that since 1860
he negroes of the South, despite the
of the war, have increased
nearly ten per cent. Tor more exactly
'peaking 81 per cent. J, and that in the
United States of to-day there are not
ess than five millions of black people!
We can no longer shut our eyes to
what we may be unwilling to believe.
The day for prophesying for the black
nan of America fate similar to that
If its red man is past. The fact, well
'ome or unwelcome, must be accepted
hat this race, in numbers already
nation, of characteristics
lifferent from the white mans, is be-
ng mixed into the society and politi-
al system of America, and is working
'ut there all experiment attended by
he circumstances of a peculiar ro-
nance. A comparatively small num-
Der of Africans, brought across the
eas from their native wIds, grown up
nto people of millions, trained in
he harsh school of slavery, but school
whose benefits are that the negro is
brought to his present capacity for an
more hopeful than has ever
Tet been made for his true civilization,
ire to be displayed to the world not
,nly as new test of the social and po-
itical system of America, but as last
supreme effort to take off a reproach
hat has lain for ages on the African,
md to meet the prejudices against him
n a new arena, and under auspices
hat have never been offered before.
t is the apparition of a new figure and
lctor i'll the civilized world; a great
and chronological problem to
De solved anew; condition of things
pr,lng out of the dramatic circum-
tances of great war; a sudden trans
Ormation that exceeds the surprise OF
iction; a new prospect dawned on
What had been before supposed the
most hopeless and melancholy outlook
# history-the regeneration of the
african; an intense study already COM
nehced of this hitherto hopeless race,
s of one suddenly becoming interest
ng; the discovery, so to speak, of the
egro as unique, poetical character,
'sl,ed out of circumstances the most |
npromising, yet already displaying
apacities aud virtues that have cap
ured the observation and interest of |
he world. In this romance the writer |
esires shares, as in a great event of
istory that has happily occurred in
is times and generation, a crisis and a
Gene with which Providence has al
owed him to be contemporary. and of
hitch he is scarcely content to be an
lie spectator.
Mr.. p. is astOnished at the little |
nowledge the shareholders of the
outh had of the real character of