Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1879-04-24


tiers a Secondary Consideration
CoIored Men still Anticipating
the Promised Arcadia.
New York Herald.
| am q clergyman and ma
tive Of the South, and lived there
during the secession war and for
six wears after its close. spent
the whole of last year in the
South and | have been in more
than half Of the Southern States
since the beginning of the pres
ent year. l have for years made
the negro in his present condi-
ton and future prospects mat
ter Of earnest study. For these
reasons / think what / have to
say about the negro and in re-
gard to the present widespread
emigration Of negroes from the
youth to the West is entitled to
attention. Let me further say
that / am in no sense u politician,
and what / have to say will not
be colored by any partisan po-
litical views.
THE MOVEMENT NOT A SUDDEN
FREAK.
This movement is not a "sud-
den freak on the part Of the ne
groes. 1t began five or six years
ago and it has been gradually
spreading and increasing. 1t
has within the last few months
suddenly grown into such huge
dimensions as to attract national
attention. ! began to notice the
movement as far back as 1875,
and / have watched its gradual
growth from that time to the
present. i was then in injury
County, Tennessee. Two colo
mics had gone out from that and
the adjoining counties to Kan
sas. a good many of them re-
turned with very doleful accounts
of the hardships and suffering
that had overtaken the emigrants.
1t was thought that this would
put an end to the movement; but
not so. Almost every year since
then small companies have gene
West from Kentucky, Tennes-
see, Georgia, the Carolinas and
the northern portions Of Ala
ALBANIA and Mississippi. These
companies have usually been SO
small that they made but little
impression upon the community
from which they went. The mat
ter would be talked of a few
DAYS and then forgotten. Du-
ring these years larger colo
MES have gone out and their
movements have attracted more
general attention. Two or three
years ago two large colonies en-
igrated to Kansas, one from
Tennessee, the other from Ken
lucky. Their departure was
generally noticed in the South
ern newspapers, but the matter
was not looked upon with any
uneasiness. 1t was thought that
these States could well afford to
lose their colored population, be-
cause white labor is available III
the border States.
There has during this time
been a like steady emigration
from the States mentioned into
tre,tas. The negroes that have
gone to Texas have generally
been employed by agents as la,
borers before leaving home. !
begun to notice this movement
as far back as 1870. At first il
was scarcely noticeable, but il
has increased from year to year,
and Of late years it has assumed
such magnitude as to give
alarm in certain quarters. ]
have seen colonies on their way
TO Texas that filled two, three
and four coaches. Last autumn
I fell in with an agent who was
irving to raise a colony OF more
than two hundred to settle on
lands in Texas under his control,
Hewas also operating in Tennes-
sec. Alabama, Georgia and the
Carolinas. His plan was to en-
gage OILY a small number in any
one locality and to send them on
IN small companies as fast as he
engaged them. In this way q
great many negroes could be
sent ont Of the country without
attracting any very considerable
notice. In view of these facts
we cannot solve the problem Oh
negro emigration to the West
and Texas by considering it as a
Sudden freak" on their part
1t is a thing of growth, which
has suddenly developed into large
and alarming dimensions.
THE CAUSES.
IT is not easy to get at the
real causes that lie at the bottom
of this movement. Many plaus-
iblc reasons suggest themselves,
but we must not too hastily ac-
cept them as the true explana-
ton. | do not think that polltl-
cal considerations have anything
TO do with it, except indirectly.
Of course politicians will make
al tho capital they can of it and