Litchfield enquirer., 1874-04-16

with Beaufort asa base of operations, of which ramble I may say more at another time. After leaving Beaufort my stop ping places were Charleston, Orange l burgh, and Columbia in South Carolina; Atlanta in Georgia, and Chattanooga, Att hens, and Knoxville in Tennessee; at each l of which from one to three days were spent in study of the South, it's country, and its people My sources of informa- tlon were close personal observation, es- pecially about Beaufort. and free con- versation with all classes of population, white and black, Northern and Southern,
 including among the latter several persons of education in Southern ideas and influ- ence in Southern society, some of them representatives of the oldest and most cultured families of South Carolina. I shall not violate the proprieties of social intercourse by dragging the names of ] these persons before the public, but I have them ''in my notes," and have no idea of writing romance at their expense. On the contrary, my purpose shall be to 1 nothing extenuate, and set down naught in malice"
 In an inquiry concerning the state of Southern society, the condition and pros poets of the colored race in the South is the matter that, with Northerner, nat urally comes first to the surface. How is the colored man doing and faring? how 1 IS he likely to do and fare? On this ques- aon there is room for wide variety of op lnlon; and 8 nice little newspaper war is able degree by the letters of Dr. Abel Stevens, from Florida, on this subject. | According to my observation, Dr. 1 Stevens letters on the status of the color ed man-though undoubtedly written with thebest intentions-would be among the most amusing writings of the season, were 1t not that, as with the boys and the frogs l in EsOp's fable, what may be fun for the | white man is death to the colored man, SO ! far as it has any effect at all. Every word ] in detraction of the colored man is covet- ed club in the hand of his maligners and oppressors, now as much as ever-and the more unjust the better for that market es- pecially if it has the sanction and name of Northerner of reputation, and particu- larly of an Abolitionist, of however mild type.
 l I do not sit down to ''write up" the col ored man of set purpose, but to do him the justice due to all men, so far as I know what that is. And first, as to his industrial prospects: my acquaintance with the colored man has led to conclu- sions quite different from those of Dr. s. |, and from those strangely like his, which were continually whined into my ears by unreconstructed Sotherners, who hate the negro free as they never hated him in slavery. Of course, l saw some idle neg roes; but, considering all the circum- stances, the number of idlers seemed sur prisingly small. have seen the negro at work in the towns, with horse and dray, with hand-saw and jack-plane, with trowel and paint brush-as merchant; clerk,
 butcher. boatman, fisherman, stevedore, vender, laborer, etc., etc. and on the plantation, on his own little farm, or as a the rice ditches, making the fve-pound hoe fly, planting the cotton, corn, and sweet potato; working singly or in gangs, men and women side by side, old and young-at work, hopefully, cheerily, vi- gorously, and everywhere at work. And
 with the exception of few Northerners and very few Germans, the colored race are the only manual workers I saw in South Carolina. I have strolled among their fields, once parts of the great planta- tlons of their masters on the Sea Islands, and watched them as mechanics, clerks. and laborers, in the towns, and my con- viction is that, in proportion to their an- tecedents and incentives, no working class anywhere does better.
 l Neither Is the negro the mere routine drudge, the ignorant exhauster and deso- later of the soil, that he has been so often l declared to be. He is the most proges- sive worker In the South. Just as soon as possible, and on all soils where it is ap- | plcable-it cannot be used on the rice lands-he puts the blow in the place of | the hoe, and the sinews of the mule or the bullock-commonly only one-in the place of his own. His blow is small, the one-horse, mold-board, eorn-plow of the North; but it is free labor with improved implements. In an afternoon ride I have often met half dozen of these blows being carried home from Beaufort by negroes. The negro carrying home the blows is the best industrial spectacle have seen in all the far South. Speed the blow" could nowhere be more fitly sung than in South Carolina.
 As to education, the negroes are doing still finer things. have visited several schools, of low and high grades, acd con- versed with several teachers, and in sever al instances with pupils of various grades, and but one opinion has been produced in my mind, namely, that the colored scholars of the South, when their antece- dents and present home influences are taken into the account, are among the very brightest pupils have seen. This has been the expression to me of veteran teachers, who had taught in high grade Northern schools, and were using the most improved Northern methods with surprising success among their tawny r,ur,i1o iv,t tho OO,%1 0R hor among pupils of every race, the keen, frivolous ones are the many; but rarely is there higher percentage of the former than among these black pupils. Even their old masters admit this; it is so pa- tent to all that candid denial is impossi- ble. And the pure blacks are every where declared to be the brightest in proportion to their previous conditions and training At our Clafin University, at Orangeburgh, under the able Presidency of Dr. Webst- CT, was present at the college ''sociaP' at the close of the term, and saw the stu dents in the free unbending of social hour-an hour which showed their pro- ficiency in the social graces. All the pro- fessors testified to the zeal ofthese swarthy youths and maidens in their studies, and the encouraging progress they were achieving, especially the theological stud ents, some of whom are already preach ing with fine success. At Atlanta I was present Tn one of the graded high schools on review day, and heard reading and re- citations, and saw linear. map, and free hand drawing, and sketching. performed by colored pupils, that would have done honor to any Northern school of like grade. At Columbia had the good fort une, as the guest of Dr. Fox-who by the way is doing grand work for the South to be present, with several other visit ors, at society debate in one of the halls of the grand old University of South Carolina, in which Dr. Fox is now mak- ing himself one of the leading professors. After the formal opening the debate be- came general, and the States Superinten- dent of education, three or four college professors, and several students, black and white. took part in the tournament.