National Republican., 1879-07-25
o.NracoNIzr rur wuIrrs.u -

effect upon the popular mind.
"ANrAGONIZE THE WHITES"
This term is somewhat in use now at the
South, and is applied to those colored peo
pie who complain when they are despoiled
of their rights and labor by their hard and
unrelenting landlords, upon whose lands
they have toiled and from which they are
expelled by severe exactions through an
unjust and oppressive line of policy. If a
negro works land on shares and objects to
being robbed of his share of the products of
his toll on settlement-day, he "antagonizes
the whites" If he insists upon exercis-
ing the rights of citizenship according to
the dictates ofhis own Judgment, he 'antag
onizes the whites" II he objects to being
| driven from his home for the reason that he
insists upon exercising the rights of free
citizen at public meetings with his neigh
bors of his own political faith to discuss
political questions, he "antagonizes the
whites" If he has reached point where
he can no longer endure the multitude of
wrongs that his relations with the whites
have subjected him to, and he proposes to
seek n home elsewhere, where his opinions
and rights will meet with common respect,
he "antagonzes the whites"
Until recently we had supposed that this
antagonism, as the planters and their friends
are pleased to term it, was almost exclu-
sively confined to Louisiana, Mississippi,
and the cotton-groying regions, but it ap-
pears that North Carolina is not exempt
from it, The Raleigh IN. C.) Observer now
speaks of this matter is this flippant and
unjust manner, showing q depth of preju-
dice toward the colored race under which it
would seem impossible to live with any de-
gree OF self respect and comfort. 1t says:
The disposition of the negroes in many Sec
tions to antagoniZe the whites and to arouse
bad passions that would otherwise lie dormant
lead many thoughtful whites, who wish well
to the colored people but who are none the less
partial to their own race, to favor the exodus.
! 1t is apparent to any one who has access to u
large number of newspapers that there is n
growing sentiment in favor of the exodus At
first nearly all persons were disposed to dis.
suade the colored people from leaving their old
home for the inhospitable Northwest. But
this feeling is changing, and now the talk is
. let them go if they will this is free coun-
try, and 1t would be happy rddance if half
would CO.
/ No one who looks upon this question from
an unpredjudiced standpoint believes fol
$ one moment that the colored people of the
f South would ever have entertained the
, thought of breaking away from the
land of their nativity if they had been
fairly and justly treated by the whites, in
whose midst their lot had been cast, and
where they had lived from infancy. The
a colored race are, with here and there an ex'
= ception, an appreciative and grateful people
1t would have taken but a small measure o
, kindness, fairness, and justice to have hell
, them in the South for all time; but, as
rule, they have not enjoyed the least o
these, when they were entitled to all in full
measure from the surrounding whites. The
antagonism of the South has been on tn,
4 part of the Southern Democrats, who's
prejudices have not been so strong agains
, the colored man per Sc as against the right
: that have been conferred upon him by tn,
q Constitution of the United States. The an
" tagonsm that centres there arises out O
n the fact that the Southern Bourbo
, had determined that the colored citizei
Ia shall not enjoy the full and free exercis
: of his rights Of citizenship. But for tha
= there would be no antagonisms between the
r. white and black man, save, perhaps, littl
, friction that might arise under the polio
!. adopted since the blacks were set free, G
% despoling them of a large share of thei
l.. honest earnings at the end of each harves
IA Beyond this there would have been no IN
tagonism if the emancipated slave had nc
been clothed with the rights of citizenshi
aud attempted to exercise them. Undoubt
D. edly q fresh ''irrepressible conflict ha
D sprung up under the uniform policy of til
y South of treating the colored race as "nil
" "gers" instead of as citizens, and one whic
u unless that policy is suspended, will no
: find an end until great majority of til
u colored people have found homes elsewhel
in the country, where their rights will
l. respected. This may cost the colored ma
" some suffering, but in the end he will be II
y warded in the advancement which his rae
- has made in the progress of civilization, &c
> ucation, usefulness, and general Tespec
20 Good will no doubt come out of the exOdI
= = to the colored man ultimately, if not imm,
!" dately.