Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-05-15
The Anrkrille Guqnirer.

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YORKVILLE, 8. c.:
THURSDAY MORNING, MAY Is, 1879.
THE KANSAS COL0RED EMIGRANTs.
The Kansas City (Mo.) Times, in reply to
a correspondent in Louisiana, as to how the
colored immigrants are faring in Kansas, says
they have been attended with serious hard.
ships, whilst the communities on whom they
are cast have been subjected to the most dis
tressing burdens. "They are, for the most
part" says the Times, composed of the super
anuated, infrm, diseased-the aged and the
young, the mammies and the picaninnies
though the exodus were designed to rob the
cradle and the grave and foist upon Kansas
a large percentage of the most incapable,
pauperized and dependent class. They are as
ignorant as they are helpless, and, coming
exclusively from thu Southern plantations,
they are worthless as house servants, even j
there were any market for their employment
There are no skilled mechanics among them,
and the best equipped one whom we have seen
was the happy owner Of a wood saw, who
said he could make cypress slaves when he
couldn't work with hoe. They have gener'
ally come in state of destitution, many Of
them sick from diseases brought on by expo
sure, and very many have already died"
To show in what manner these colored i'm.
migrants are welcomed by the people of Kan.
sas, the Times produces the following from an
editorial article in the Atkinson Champion,
the leading Republican paper in Kansas:
"The mayor of Wyandotte has issued a
proclamation notifying all steamboat owners
and officers that the city Of Wyandotte will
hold them responsible for importing destitute
persons to its shores, and the legal penalties
attaching to such offence will be strictly en-
forced. He has also published an address in
which he says that there are in Wyandotte
over 1000 colored refugees, utterly destitute
that large numbers have died and many are
now sick, and that unless aid is promptly fur.
nished hundreds will starve. We have al
ready stated that Kansas cannot provide en-
ployment for these people that not -eeRRss-iI -eeRRs il
twenty Of thspa>es >esn s1d anything to do in
this SAte that our people are too poor to
SUPPORT them in idleness that they cannot
live on homesteads on our frontier unless they
have means to support themselves for at least
eight or ten months, until they can plant and
harvest crops; and that, as they have no ex.
perience in Northern methods Of agriculture,
their success as homesteaders would be doubt
full under the most favorable circumstances.
"These statements are true as affecting all
immigrants, white or black. Kansas is new
country. Her people are, as rule, in very
moderate circumstances. There is no en-
ployment for unskilled labor in this State.
And immigrants, white or colored, coming to
Kansas destitute, will inevitably suffer the
most severe privations. Something ought to
be done by those whose words will be needed
by the unfortunate people, to make them &C.
quainted with the facts. If they could find
employment in Kansas; if they could sue
ceed as homesteaders on our frontier; if there
was any way in which they could make q
living in this State, we would gladly welcome
them. 1t is not because they are colored men
that we say to them don't come. We say the
same thing to all destitute people, white or
black. We call the attention of our repre-
in Congress to the subject, and urge
them to ascertain whether the officers Of the
Government in the South cannot be instruct
ed to communicate to these poor, unfortunate
people such information concerning Kansas
as will enable them to understand the situa-
tion of affairs here"
Copying the above editorial article from
the leading Republican paper Of Kansas, the
Times adds:
Gas to the cause of the negro exodus. it
has become more and more apparent that it
was instigated for mischievous purpose, and
through the dissemination Of lying reports
among the ignorant masses at the South.
The statement of our Louisiana correspondent
that their idea that they can 60 for nothing,
that they will be fed and clothed by the gov
ernment, and not have to labor in Kansas,
is correlated by recent revelations concern
ing the base and cruel deceptions which have
been practiced on these ignorant people by
the emissaries of the emigration scheme. But
this cannot last. The hard truth, the inevi-
table suffering, must in time open the eyes of
the colored people, and then the exodus will
stop. The retrograde movement has already
commenced. Over forty families have been
shipped back to St. Louis at their own request,
and others are to follow. They are disgust
ed with their reception and appalled, at their
prospects, and having satisfied their curiosity,
q large pecentage of them will soon be seeking
to return to their old homes and friends,
were they can be assured of comfortable
subsistence"
The emigrants themselves are beginning to
sec the folly of their undertaking, and as rap
idly as they can procure transportation, are
returning to their former homes. Last week
about one hundred and forty of this class
men, woman and children-arrived in St.
Louis, on the way to their former homes in
Warren county, Miss. They gave an unfa-
vorable account of their reception and treat
ment in Kansas, and expressed much pleasure
in being able to return to the South. They
we're abundantly supplied with all necessaries
for their trip down the river by interested
parties in St. Louis.
To the colored people in this section who
contemplate emigrating to Kansas-if any
such there be-we commend the facts in the
following paragraph from the Philadelphia
Times: