The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-04-16
The colored Emigration to the West.

L
| latter have lost-contains an article I'M
| der the title of Southern Poverty" de
picting in exaggerated style what is rep
resented a. the utter wretchedness and
| indulgence of both races. Everywhere,
SAYS the writer, 1.-The people show by
their dress and manner of living, that
they are poor" And yet the same jour
| nal pretends that the whites have accu-
| INFLATED wealth from the blacks, and
that the latter in consequence Of the
system of extortion which has been
practiced upon them, and Of political
persecution have fled to a region whose
climate is wholly unsuited to their ply
steal natures. If the whites have accu-
| mulated large profits, where are the
signs Of it? The Tribune itzolf express
ses the absurd folly,of its assertion, when
it says the plantations have sadly de-
Perforated from the condition in which
they were found when emancipation was
declared-cities have gone backward
''and owners Of large plantations wear
coarse clothing, live on palmer fare than
ordinary laborers in the North, and
are oppressed with debt accumulated
from year to year to meet their eXpen-
ses" This is the condition of that class
of our population, who are falsely and
hippantly charged by Northern agita-
tors with the systematic robbery Of the
blacks. The picture is overdrawn by
the Tribune writers whose brutal IN
stincts evidently delight to dwell upon
the misfortunes which they pretend to
describe. But who will say that there
has not been cause of this alleged
Southern Poverty" Were not four
billions Of property Of slaves DESTROYED
at one stroke? Was not the labor system
which constituted the source of South
ern trade, commerce and wealth, utter
ly demoralizeda and broken up? Were not
cities pillaged and burned. Plantations
overrm and desolated? Houses, and
household effects plundered, or given to
destruction? And were not the enamel
pated classes taught after the war by the
Freedmans Bureau that freedom meant
license, and that the days Of systematic
labor, were over? That the whites had
no rights which were entitled to respect?
And that the government would provide |
for them? And were not this large |
mass Of uneducated and credulous hui |
mainly which was wholly unequal to
the immense responsibilities suddenly |
thrown upon them, moulded into a politi-
cal organization through the agency Of |
federal bayonets and placed at the con-
troll Of band of adventures who ha- |
bituaIly plundered both white and black
Is the South to be tainted with the |
that others have caused and |
which she could not avert?
The spirit of emigration among the |
blacks (Which by the way has been
greatly overrated) is not caused by bad |
treatment from the whites among whom |
they have lived. 1t is due rather to the
errors into which they were led by the add
venturers who assumed control of them, |
and who deluded them with promises
that were impossible of fulfllment The |
landowners have done the best they |
were able under the circumstances. The |
fact is they have injured their own in
terests as well as injured the blacks by |
the accommodating spirit which they
have universally shown in employing |
them. For example, there could not be
a more slovenly and worse system for
the landowners than what is called cul- |
tivating on shares. BY this ruinous |
system, the planter has little or no
control over the labor on which he relies |
for utilizing his capital in land, farming
utensils, work animals, &c, &c. 1t was |
adopted to please the whims of the |
negro who would not be hired because |
he did not like the restraints of employ
ment in that way. By this method oF
cultivating on shares the laborers were
furnished at the expense Of the land
owner with land, team, planting nipple
ments, seed for planting, houses to live |
in, and permitted the use of the premises
and pastures of the proprietors for their
stock as if they were their own and they
received one-half of all the crops that are
produced by their labor What more
liberal arrangement could be asked ? |
1t gave every laborer the opportunity
of securing competence. They were
in many instances furnished by the
planters with supplies for their family
at cost and moderate interest added
or if they preferred, as they have gen
orally done, they have established credit
with merchants by giving lien on their
growing crops. Where the laborers have
furnished and fed their teams, and sup
piled themselves with what was necessary
to make their crops, the landowner has
been content with fourth of the pro-
ceeds These are about the bases upon
which labor contracts have been almost
invariably made. Unused to shifting
for themselves, disposed to let each day
take care of itself, and naturally inclined
to improvidence, it has been too often
the case that at the close of the
season, the negroes have found that
they have traded to the extent
If the value of their crops, and
,ven beyond. Disappointment has fol-
owed; and the merchant or the planter
Who would not refuse to supply them
With what was demanded, is made the
capegoat and accused of unfair dealing.