Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-23
AMERICAS AFRICA.
Things as They Are in Negro
Ridden Mississippi.
Lamentable Condition of the
White Citizens.

HH V. R." in the Cincinnati Conmetcial.
Very little idea has the general reader of
the enormous negro majority in the region
surrounding Vicksburg. No other spot in
the world, outside of Africa, has so large a
negro population in proportion to the
whites. Here we have negro rule, pure
and simple, the governing class being the
most ignorant that ever before in the
worlds history held political sway over the
white race. Imake no exception whatever,
| from Adams bad start to the present, and
defy the reader in all that long record of con-
tentions and crime, called history, 10 find
parallel to the state Of affairs here. Here
the negro race has been on trial for six
years as a governing power, having every
thing their own way in a political sense,
and amost wretched failure they have made
Of it. The debts of these heavy negro coun-
ties, the style of men in Office, and the rate
| of taxation are without excuse. 1t sim
| ply stamps the negro as being incapable Of
self-government, much less of governing
others. Put them to themselves, deprive
them of contact with the whites, and they
would relapse into mild sort of barbarism
IN two generations. All that is required to
have genuine spot of Africa among Us,
as complete in all particulars as may be
found in Africa proper, is to remove the
whites from half dozen counties in this
part OF Mississippi, and leave such section
exclusively to the negroes. In forty or fifty
years we would have a miniature Africa
here, excepting only the River Nile. We
might call the Big Black River the Nile,
however, and then We would have an
Africa so complete that SANKEY'S mouth
would water for an opportunity to explore
its jungles.
say this in no spirit of unkindness to
the negroes, not at all. Their los in life
has been hard; and their condition to-day
is pitiable. God only knows what is in the
future for them. They have been as dough
in the hands of our race, and will remain
so as long as there are any of them upon
this soil. They did not come here from
Africa; we brought them. They did not
enSlave themselves; We did it. They did
not free themselves; we did it. They did
not make themselves voters; we did it.
They have ever been as plant dough in
the hands of the white race, and will re-
main so to the end. Nor is the end so very
far of. As race they are rapidly on the
decline in America, and by the time
the second census is taken, fifteen
years hence, this decline will be
to see the end. There are those in the
North who shut their eyes to the accumu-
lating evidences of the decline of the race,
and picture great future for the negro in
America, but in few years they will be
compelled to open their eyes to the cold
figures of the census. The problem of the
races, which is now pulling if not dis
tracing the wisest statesmen of the land,
will be solved in time, but it will be by
death. Here, as everywhere in the South,
l find strong disposition, amounting to a
passion, on the part of the negroes to flock
to the cities, and in the cities they die
from two to six times faster than the
whites. They rush to the cities as moth
rushes 10 a candle, and with about the
same result. The problem is being solved.
picked up Montgomery (Alabama) paper
and find the number of inteTmenss in that
city for November officially reported at
forty-eight-forty negroes and eight whites.
1t is the beginning Of the end.
AMERICAS AFRICA.
Vicksburg is the center of the Africa OF,
America. The city is the largest in the
State, and the county seat of Warren coun-
ty. Yet, the total white population in
city and county, in 1870, was only 1907, |
or number that would not be considered |
excessive in an ordinary Ohio township.
The black population was 1882, which |
has been largely increased by the constant |
flow Of country negroes from the great in |
terror to Vicksburg.
The next county above here is Issacuena. |
The reader will hardly believe me when / |
state the population asreturned in the cen
sus four years ago. 1t is, white TAI, black |
6,146. What do you think of a large coun-
ty which contains but seven hundred and |
forty-one white men, women and children? |
Yet, these few whites own nearly, if not |
quite, every foot Of ground in the |
county, and pay nineteen-twenti-
eths of all the taxes. Owning the /
soil, they actually have no voice, whatever,
in the affairs of government. To be sure,
they can vote, but what does one hundred |
white votes amount to when covered |
up by one thousand black votes? The ne
grOes fill all the offices with negroes, and |
pile on the taxes without remOrse Col. |
Gordon Adams tells me that in one of these |
heavy negro counties they have actually |
got the taxes up to eleven and a half per
cent What agricultural county on earth |
can stand one-half such taxes, or one
fourth? In Kinds county, inst back of |
Warren, the taxes have been gradually in
creased from 80 on the 1000 ofsvalua-
tion in 1868, to S24 this year. And almost |
in exact proportion as they go up, the price
of property goes down, except on the as
seSsment rolls. The assessments are kept /
up nicely. Col. Adams tells me he has a
fee of $500 against a plantation worth /
100000 in gold before the war, vet he can
not enforce the collection without running
the parties interested. Rural property is |
not half, and in many instances not one
fourth as valuable as the year after the |
war. The man who understands these /
things, and then complains that the whites |
are not as mild as doves, forgets that they
are human.
But to return to population. The coun-
ty just above this, as | have shown, has a
negro population of nearly ten to one. The |
next county above that, Washington, has a
white population of 2, 164 and black pop
ulatiOn of 2,4J5. This is the ''black belt"
indeed. YazoO county, back of Issaquena,
has a white population of 4, SS4 and black
population of 1885. Kinds is white {, S26
and black 20,659. Claiborne, just south of
Warren, has white $500, black 1896. The
next county, Jefferson, has white 3,2l5 and
black l0.636
These counties lie Immediately around
Vicksburg, and you can readily under
Sbduu Nudl TIC llc8iOtS CUulu 10 OF dlItIlpL
to do if they were bloody minded But
they are not. Whatever may be their
faults, they are dOcile, and in that sense in
offensive. During the fight here it was
telegrsphed over the United States that the
negroes were burning gin houses and barns
in retaliation. They did no such thing.
can not learn that the negroes have DESTROY
ed single dollars worth of property. If !
they wanted to, they could take revenge in
this way for all wrongs, real and imagina-
", but do they not and will not. Whatever
their faults may be, they are not revenge
ful and bloodthirsty.. In all the troubles
here they have not in single instance
harmed the hair of white persons head
in the unprotected rural districts. When
you hear that they are attempting TO take
revenge on the whites in any such way,
put it down as a lie. There is no race on
earth naturally so peaceably inclined and
inofensive rs the negroes.