The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-07-26
THE SOUTHERN BLACKS.


Northern people, who judge of the ne
gro race by the few specimens of intelli
gent colored BARRIERS and walters they
see at home, always have their theories
as to the condition and capabilities o
of the race sudd }nly unsettled when they
study the pure African types ofthe plan
tations-igDorant, ragged, dirty blacks
with couutenances so brutal as to be re-
pulsive, and persons and clothing 80 dis
gustingly and odorously unclean, that
their presence is insupportable, How
ever enthusiastically one may favor the
principle of equal civil rights, he does
not want to ride IN railway car with
such creatures as these. Fortunately be
is not obliged to, for they go into the car
provided for them of their own accord,
and seem to have no desire for the com
pany of the whites. Occasionally a re-
specially dressed colored man or woman
rides in the same car with the white pas
sengers, no one objeCting. Color preju-
dice seems to be slowly giving way, but
the prejudice against close association
with such dirty, bad smelling people as
are the majority of the plantation ne.
groes may be expected to continue for all
time.
The whites at the South say that all
negroes will steal, but this is an extrava-
CANT generalization, for every white man
or woman who repeats this common say
ing will, if questioned, admit to having
known colored people who were scrupu-
lously honest. Nevertheless, it cannot
be denied that the blacks as a class are
much more given to stealing than the
poor ignorant whites. Southern prisons
and penitentiaries are full of negroes,
and in more than one Southern State
there is serious agitation in favor of re-
Viving the whipping post as punish
ment for theft, to relieve the community
from the heavy burden of supporting 30
many prisoners. have found convinC.
ing evidence that the heavy preponder.
ance Of blacks over whites in county jails
and State prisons is not the result of any
unfairness on the part of judges and ju-
ries in the trial of the former. In addi-
ton to proofs of this given in former let
ters, l may cite the Mississippi State
Prison, which, under Republican admin
istration, had on its rolls about one thou
sand convicts, only one-tenth of whom
were whites, and now has about two
thousand (effect of improved administra-
ton of justice). but shows no change in
the proportion of blacks to whites, ten
to one being still the ratio. In most of
the old slave States large number, not
all, of the conviCts are hired out to con-
tractors to work on railroads, levees and
plantations. The system is not good
one for correction and discipline, but the
States are too poor to build prisons large
enough to hold all the negroes guilty of
grand larceny.
1t may we'll be doubted, as 1 said be-
fore, if, on the whole, the negroes are
making any substantial progress. They
are in the best condition in sections
where the whites predominant, while in
regions where the black population is
proportionally heaviest, they are barely
one remove from African barbarism.
They speak the English language, and
profess a religion that is nominally Chris
tia1, but in their ways of living they are
barbarians still. To give
5hem political sscendancy over the
whites was the most horribly grotesque
experiment ever tried in the science of
government. The only hope of their
getting forward in the path of civiliza-
ion, with anything like rapidity, lies in
The prospect that the tide of emigration
will soon be DETECTED from the West to
he South, and the whites, thus reinforc-
ID by large numbers Of settlers from the
Northern States and Europe, will become
vs. dominant in numbers as they are now
n intelligence. The negro appears ca
oable of originating and developing no
ruits of civilization from his own nature
the white man must SOW the Seed - |
v. y Tribune. 's1.l od' 10 'H"tllll'S '' p 4