Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1879-12-03
" The Negro Exodus. +"

There have been many good accounts of
the great emigration Of laborers from the
Southern States, but we have seen none
which Is more complete and satisfactory
than that Of the Rev. DR.. Hartzell, the
editor of the Southern AdyOcate .J0urnqL at
New Orleans. His account is published in
the Methodist Quarterly Rccicto for October,
1879, and it is wholly IN accord with the re.
port of Colonel Frank II. Fletcher, the
agent appointed by the st. Louis Commits
sion to investigate the subject in Kansas
among the colored emigrants, much of
whose testimony he publishes in ms report.
The colored emigration, as DR.. Hartzel
points out, is not recent movement.
although It's immense proportions are a
late phenomenon. Its Older form was the
escape OF the fugitive slaves to Canada.
and in 1869 there was an organized move.
ment IN Tennessee and Kentucky to colo.
nlZe in Northern and Western States. But
IL the early spring OF 1879, in certain part.
OF louisiana and Mississippi, the emisra.
ton became stampede. In Nav, 1870. a
colonization organization among the planta.
ton labCrers in the cotton belt of Louis.
lana, Mississippi. Texas, and Arkansas con.
tanned 92SOO men, women, and children
more than twelve years old. Such orsani
cations are now universal throughout the
Southern States. In New Orleans there
are three, and in the month of july of
TINS year two hundred families left that
city and vicinity. Between February and
September 1000 emigrants went to Kansas
alone. How serious a matter this is. an.
pears from few figures The value of the
combined cotton, sugar. and rice crops for
the year 1879 was $3.50, 100000, made almost
entirely by negro labor. Whatever seriously
affects such production touches the inter
ests of the whole country.
DR.. Hartzell saws that "the causes Of the
negro exodus may be grouped under n
single head, namely, the conditions of
financial, political, and social distress in
which the negroes in the South find them.
selves after fifteen years Of freedom: and
the conviction that their former owners. who
with their allies now control every Southern
State, have in the past opposed their ad.
vancement, and do not now give sufficient
evidence of good desire toward them to
insure their present and future welfare a."
This view is confirmed by the statements
made to Colonel Fletcher by the most in.
telligent cOlored leaders in Kansas One
such from Mississippi said {" don't believe
that all the eolored people are coming from
the South. They will prefer to stay South
II they can have peace there. | would
prefer to live South if | was not afraid of
my life there. To get away | sold ak
thousand dollars worth of property for a
n-hundred, dollar note. | had bar.
gained for fve-hundred- tract of
land, which was to pay for the day of the
riot. Instead Of closing the trade, / hid in
the woods for four months, and finally cot
away. 1t Is just as impossible for a colored
man to get justice in Mississippi as it il to
n.y." Another from Louisiana, said "One
man offered me fifty dollars to stay. I
didn't stay, because | know'd | wouldn't
get the fifty dollars. We have lost conf.
dence in the Southerners. We don't
oelleve anything they tell us, they have
deceived US so often"
DR.: Hartzell reviews briefly the Iegisla.
ton IN the Southern States since the war.
and says that the spirit which dictated the
biack Codes has prevailed almost uniyers.
ally. The South" is an agricultural re-.
glon, and the contract system of labor is
very general, and the contracts are drawn
SO as easily to entrap an ignorant and
1oclie class OF laborers. The argument of
Mr. randall and others, therefore, drawn
from the large crops, is valuelcss to show
the content OF the laborsrs. DR.. Hartzell
ooes not deny slow improvement in some
quarters. There has been some acouisi.
tlon OF property by the colored laborsrs.
put the masses Of them are poor, and after
hIteen years of freedom the outlook ia
gloomy, and multitudes are DISCOURAGED
Inc general view of tho white class is that
the negroes are dependent race, which
must DC rlgldly kept dependent. The
cclored vote Is practically suppressed. In
no STATE otnce, nor in the controlling Gle.
ment OF single State legislative branch.
can mere be found any trace of the 8S7. $40
negro voters. Public opinion, as Governor
Nichols, OF Louisiana, and Governor Stone
OF mississippi, agree, does not protect the
| colored people, and DR.. Hartzell thinks that
oy no ordinary process of law can the
| United States protect them in the exercise
OF their political rights. His conclusion Is
the one which We have often stated-tbat
1t IS vitality important to the Southern
/ section OF the Union to stop the exodus
which is draining its life.blood away,
LABOR, and with it wealth and power. are
flying from the Southern States. The
white people of those States alone can ston
the exodus, and they can do it only bv
justice, by absolutely preventing bulldozino
OF every kind, by fostering friendly feel.
ing' Dy education and moral and religious
framing. 1t is especially a local State
WORK, put until there are signs of its honest
oSglnnlng, intelligent and patriotic men in
those states will understand that no mere
professions of good feeling will avail. II i
TOT them to take the Southern question ont
OF politics, for in the rest of the country
while by no means the only question, il Il
the one upon which the public mind i
most easily excited.
II cost Chicago $4,000 for decorations
on the occasion of Grants visit. but tbe