The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1875-12-16

'h"' hen Iile rent mas Dcen palu, IL
may have enough left to fill my
pockets with greenbacks; then calico, i,
flour, whisky, tobacco, hinle and bug
,gy will be mine, and l shall be elcvat,
cd to the highest plane Of my am,
bilious aspirations. The negroes
have no more judgment about tho
proportion of corn and cotton that
they should liant than children. Re,
member, whites, that the negroes are
among us. They must live, If they
starve, 80, will you. D,n't hatter
yourselves for moment, that the me-
gro race can atarve in your midst
without dragging you down in the
fall ! The course that has been pur.
sued has furnished The world with
more cotton than it needs, and has
raised the price fall the necessaries
of life, plunging the whites into'bauk-
ruptcy and ruin! And has brought
the negroes to tile brink of starvation.
We may toll day and night to make
cotton, but the more we make, the
lower the price and the higher are
prov isions; upon this line we may
work until we become walking skel-
etons, and remain all the while mis-
crably poor and half starved !-while
all the world outside of us, is laugh
ipg at our folly, and growing fat and
saucy upon tile unrcmr n u ated sweat
that issues from our every porc
But the negro again. We do not
control him-he controls us. He
idles away one third Of every year,
counting from Christmas to Christ
mas; and Lis sorry farming is equiv
alent to the other third. lie makes
no manure and but little more than
half a crop upon the land tha! he
pretcnds to cultivate. Soon the land
will be so poor that he cannot sup
port himself and pay rent-w what
thcn? You will take the land away
from him and let it rest, or SOW i,
in grain. But what will become of
the ncgro2 lie will DC compelled to
cmigrate to Afiica or the West; or
'they vii! go about in gangs like
prowlng wolves, plundering the
country and killing the whites
You may call all this sensational, or
the mere phantasm of sensitive
brain; bul consider, if you please,
the signs of Abo times, and the cause
now in full operation, in connection
with their legitimate effects. The sea-
sons in this section, for the the last
two or three years preceding this,
were almost perfect; yet starvation is
now at our doors! | have seen near.
ly all the renters in noighborllood
gathered around one small farmer,
that happened to be so fortunate as
to have a little money, corn and meat,
offering to gather his whole crop in
one day for little something to
keep soul and body together! When
we see u dozen buzzards gathered
around one dead snake or as many
crows pecking away at a stray nub~
bin of corn, or hear the black birds
chattcring in the cracks of y our corn
crib know ye, that starvation is not
far off
And what is the cause of all this2
Various reasons have been assigned;
but the real cause is, the negroes have
the agriculture Of the South pretty
much in their own hands, and they
are Just about as well qualified to
manage it, rs So many children. II
we give them farm upon their own
hook, they can't run it, unless we
advance to them; if we do that they
cannot pay back, unless we unsettle
them, and leave thcn right where
VIC found them. Many Il white man
has brought himself to grief, on ac,
count of allowing the negro tho
plnnanra ,,f rnnninr, q tor,n. or, He