Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-04-25

tTrom a st. Louis Correspondent Of the Christian
Register.l

Neblstef.l
The significance of the movement among
the negroes of the South toward Kansas is
now confessed. At first it was said it didn't
amount to anything, only boat-load or two
of deluded blacks on wild scheme of adven-
ture But the case grew serious when the
number began to be estimated in thousands,
and they were still coming; when people
here, and still more people in the South, were
! calling upon our mayor to issue q proclama-
| ton to discourage and hinder them and the
! planters Of Mississippi and Louisiana declar-
! ed they should be ruined If this exodus con-
! tinucd II is still asserted, however, that
| there * some malicious and swindling scheme
| at the bottom of it that the negro is the vic
| thu of false representations made by the en-
! euics Of the South.
went down to the hospitable church which
| sheltered TIA" greater number of these people,
| to see them and have little talk. 1t was
curious sight. Bales, bundles boxes, trunks
of every description lay piled up in corners
or scattered about; pew, aisle and altar serv-
ed n hundred purposes not contemplated by
! worship. Two stoves were kept busy warm
! ing milk for the babies. Every now and then
| there was n spontaneous outburst of song and
| prayer. Evidently when they started North,
nearly whole societies of Baptists or Metho-
! dists had joined in the desperate venture, and
the church boud was still strong, the better
| oil helping the poorer. Remote as the re-
| sembance was in many respects, there was
something in the pious earnestness of these
| groups to suggest the pilgrim bands of New
| England.
On the whole, though they were poor, they
were by no means so poor As has been repre-
sented They were better dressed than i ex-
pected. Some had no money; but the kind
| ly feeling Of old acquaintance or church-fel-
lowship refused to leave them behind. Most
had but little money,-barely enough to pay
| their way to the new State, in which they
hoped to find home. few were wen of,
probably had several hundred dollars each,
but for good reasons kept the fact very Sc
| cretly. One case leaked out in this way On
one of the Missouri river boats an oldish man
soemnly affirmed that he had no money to
pay his fare (S2. 30 to Kansas City,. BY some
accident apocket-book fell out of his clothes,
and lying open disclosed bank bills. They
were counted by some of the by-standers and
amounted TO about $500
In the second place the leaders in this move
ment, if not the larger number are not the
old plantation negroes of the early ar-time.
| They are better class. They have already
moved once | scarcely found an adult in
the party which visited who was not n ma
| tive of the border States -Kenncky Mary
land, Virginia, etc. They said they were
taken South by their masters when the Re
bellion broke out. Consequently they have
much clearer notions of climate, locality and
means Of transportation than those born and
| bred on the great plantations
There no wayering or indeiniteness of
purpose among them. The first considerable
number reached here at the time of a severe
snow storm. The children, certainly, had
never seen snow before. All were poorly
provided for such a change in temperature,
and suffered badly, numbers falling sick.
| There was talk of sending them back down
the river. But they never listened for a mo-
ment to any such proposition. Some could
| have found employment here, but their look
was onward. Some expressed themselves
willing to stay and work, if they must, to earn
their passage money, but they wished 10 go
forward. They were bound for Kansas.
And they all tOd one story about the land
from which they came. They had endured
its bondage, its prosecutions, its denial of
their rights its methods of cheating them out
Of all they rightfully earned, its brutality and
cruelty, until they could endure it no longer
Make some allowance for eXaggeration upon
all matters deeply concerning them, yet no
humane man could listen to the tale of their
experiences without sense of pity and in
dignation, in many cases his blood curdling
within him at the barbarous atrocities which
they had suffered. Their testimony showed
that many Of the planters, at least, just as
much expected to live upon them, to use
them for their own purposes to keep them
in ignorance, to prevent them from obtaining
property or influence, or enjoyiug any per-
sonal rights, rs in the days of legal slavery.
They sometimes made pretense of selling
them land for their own, and after paying for
il several times over the blacks went to the
courts only to find they had no title at all.
They made much ado about furnishing them
free schools, but as often-as any way teach
er was hired to Keep them IN ignorance. They
could not often find a colored teacher capa-
BILE of giving instruction and If ever they
did, there was no school house for him, nor
were they well able to pay him. They had
the ballot, it was true but the shotgun al
ways pointed the way it was to be thrown.
Several affirmed that they had been able to
put by some money in sayings-banks; but
when they wished it they were by no means
sure of getting it, When they needed it most
to come North with they were repeatedly
told that the hanks had suspended! ! and they
left it behind them. One tine-looking, intel
ligent man, black as he could he, six feet high
and about thirty five years of age, said to me:
THAT country has been my home we like
the climate we know how 10 do the work
We should stay there if there was any chance:
but we have tried it long enough. If was
alone, l wouldn't mind so much the rough
things we have to go through there; I've
been through almost everything and / can
stand almost anything. But when a man has
a wife and children as have, and every night
perhaps for months they never go to bed at
night without crying for fear I'll be shot be-
fore morning, | can't stand it. man must
think of his family when he don't care for
himself"
Some people say this state of things clearly
shows that we want Grant back again in the
presidential chair. | am not so sure of it, In
other words, don't believe the "Grant poll
cy" is the best method Of curing the evil. If
that had been maintained, we may safely say
that this movement among the colored peo-
pie would have been delayed. But in this ex-
odus of the black man, in this tendency to
migration, in this exercise of choice as to
where he will live and what he will do, l see
the first hope of a natural and peaceful solu-
tion of this great social problem. Now that
it has begun spontaneously and unexpectedly,
the colored man himself taking the initia-
tive, better than send bayonets into the
South, let the government facilitate for him
the possession of a homestead in the North or
West. 1t may yet be SO greatly for the inter
est of the South to retain this population
among them that the whites will even yield
them the rights of freemen, and hold out such
inducements that the movement will be check
ed. But until this is done, the negro should
be encouraged to go, and helped on his way
by every friend of the race.
Small parties, exciting no particular atten-
ton, passed through the city last summer.
The immediate cause was supposed to be the
yellow fever on the river below. 1t is known
now that those who made up the earlier COM
panies have communicated with those left be-
hind, and the reports sent back were not dis
couraging. It is probable that the movement
is mostly over for the season. But, having
begun, who can tell where it will end9 No
one can doubt that the process of aeclimation
will prove fatal to large numbers of those
who reach Kansas. Much hardship and sick
ness and death are before this generation. l
think they partly realize this. But take it all
in all, they ask, How can we be worse of
than where we were? And whether they live
or die, they hope their children will be hap
py and free.