The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-12-29
MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES.
AMERICA,s AFRlCA.


POLITICAL QUESTIONS AGITATING THE SUR
ROUNDING COUNTRY.
The Vicksburg correspondent of the Gin
cinnati Commercial, writing on the 18th
inst, gives a graphic sketch of the negro
country adjacent to Vicksburg and of the
social and political condition of the colored
citizens: 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 be-
fore in the worlds history held political
sway over the white race. l make no ex-
ception W .atever, from Adams bad start to
the present, and defy the reader in all that
long record of contentious and crime, called
history, to find parallel to the state of
affairs here. Here the negro race has been
on trial for six years a governing
power, having everything their own way in
a political sense and most wret ched failure
they have made of it. The debts of these
heavy negro counties, the style of men in
office, and the rate of taxation are without
excuse. 1t simply stamps the negro as be-
ing 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 genera
tions. All that is required to have a genuine
spot OF Africa among US, as complete in all
particulars as may be found in Africa
proper, Is to remove the whites from a half
dozen counties in this part of Mississippi,
and leave such section exclusively to the
we would have miniature Africa
here, excepting only the River Nile. We
might call the Big Black river the Nile, how
81.
so complete that SANKEY'S mouth would
water for an opportunity to explore its jun
giles. / say this in no spirit of unkindness
to the negroes, not at all.
THEIR LOT 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. Thew did not make
themselves voters; we did it. They have
ever been as plant dough in the hands of the
white race, and will remain so to the end
Nor is the end so very far of. AS a 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 so
startling that no one can fail TO see the end.
There are those in the North who shut their
eyes to the accommodating evidences of
the decline of the race, and picture a
great future for the negro in America, but
in a 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 puz-
cling, if not distracting the wisest statesman
OF the land. will be solved In time, but it
will be by death. Here as everywhere in
the South, 1 find a strong DISPOSE
mi M q
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 PUSHES to candle,
and with about the same result. The prob
lem is being solved. i picked up a Mont
gomery (Alabama) paper, and find the num-
Der of interments in that city for November
officially reported at forty-eight-forty ne
groes and eight whites. 1t is the beginning
of the end. Vicksburg is the center of the
Africa of America. The city is the largest
in the state, and the county seat of Warren
county. Yet the
TOTAL WHITE POPULATION
in the city and county in 1870 was only 1907,
or a number that would not be considered
excessive in an ordinary Ohio township
The black population was 81 1862, which has
been largely increased by the constant flow
of country negroes from the great interior
to VicksbuEg. The next county above here
is Issaquena. The reader will hardly be-
lieve me when / state the population as re-
turned in the census four years ago. 1t is
white 741, black 6,l46i What do you think
of large county which contains but seven
hundred and forty-on white men, women
and children. Yet these few whites
own nearly IL not quite every loot of ground
in the county, and pay nineteen-twenties of
all the taxes. Owning the soil, they actually
have no voice whatever in the affairs OF
1ant To no hau h.,f
what does one hundred white votes amount
to when covered up by one Thousand black
votes? The negroes fill all the offices with
negroes, and pile on the taxes without re-
morse. Col. Gordon Adams tells me that
in one of these heavy negro counties they
have actually got the taxes up TO eleven
and q. half per cent. What agri-
cultural county on earth can stand
one-haif such taxes, or one-fourth? In
Kinds county, just back of Warren. the
taxes have been gradually increased from
50 so on the 1000 of valuation in 1868, to
S24 this year. And almost in exact proper
ton as they go up, the price of property
goes down, except on the assessment rolls.
The assessments are kept up nicely. Col
Adams tells me he has a fee OF 81, 500 against
a plantation worth 100000 in gold before the
war. yet he can not enforce the collection
without
RUNNING THE PARTIES
interested. Rural property is not half, and
in many instances, not one-fourth valu-
able as the year after the war. The man who
understands these things, and then COM
plains that the whites are not as mild as
doves, forgets that they are human. But to
return to population. The county just
above this as / have shown, has a negro
population of nearly ten to one. Tho next
county above that, Washington, has a white
population of 2.l64 and black pop
nlacion of 1905. This is the "black
belt" indeed. Yazoc county, back of
Issaquens, has white population of 1884
and black population of 1885. Kinds is
south of Warren, has white 1890, black
1896. The next county, Jefferson, has
white 3,2l5, and black 1886. These coun-
ties lie Immediately around Vicksburg, and
m oar raolflry nd hot bo