Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-04-17
THE NEGRO EXODUS.


We copy on the first page of this issue from
the Philadelphia Times, an interesting article
on the subject of the emigration of the negroes
from Mississippi and Louisiana to Kansas and
other Northwestern States. This article will
well repay perusal, as presenting another cpl
sode in the eventful history of the black man
on the American continent. AS usual, in ev-
erv important movement Of the negro race,
political significance is attached to the emf
grafton of the negroes to the Northwest, the
alleged reason, in the present case, being to
numerically weaken the South and to cores
pondingly strengthen the North. On this
point, the Washington correspondent OF the
Charleston Ne,cs and Courier writes as follows
Those who remember how, tcn years ago,
an ignorant negro enthusiast got together a
large crowd of followers in Spartanburg and
started with them across the mountains to
"The Promised Land,' are not astonlshed
at the present movement by which thousands
of colored people are to give up homes IN
the South to 90 in search of better times III
the Northwest. Not only are your ex-Con-
gresham Rainey and other leading col0red
statesmen in favor of it, but the white Stal-
warts, including that Incompatible pair OF
Chambers, Old lack and VIM. E., see in it an
opportunity to hurt the Democratic party and
give aid and comfort to the Republicans. l
have met Southern men who see in 1t nothing
but an Utopian scheme which is to affect only
the negroes: but others with more foresight
say it is wicked political trick. They start
with the declaration that the Radical mana
gers care not straw for the bodies or souls OF
the negroes, and now mean to use them only
for political objects. AS stated by him, these
objects are as follows: First, to deprive the
South of population, and hence OF congresslon-
al representation; and, secondly, to enable
them to be judiciOusly distributed IN ONO, In
diana and other close Western States, SO as TO
make them Republican in 1880. A Massa-
chusetts Democrat goes so far as to declare
that under the guise of sending them to Kan
sas. they are to be colonized quietly into Con-
necticut, New Jersey and New York. This
looks as if Old Zack & Co. had given up the
South and were turning their attention to
solid North for Grant. While Rainey says
your cOlored people are anxious to leave South
Carolina and seek homes in the West, a lead
ing white citizen of your State says, Well, let
them 90. and Joy 60 with them. 1t creates
merriment that Zack has offered acres and a
mule to one hundred that will settle on his
land. :.
But while the promise of ''forty acres and
mule" is liable to mislead the thoughtless
people into a belief that a future paradise
awaits them in the bleak Northwest, the fol-
lowing from Western correspondent, presents
the other side Of the case, revealing the fact
that the Utopian dreams, created by designing
politicians, can never be realized:
The colored fugitives from the South have
reached the paradise of Kansas and have
scattered themselves among the cities OF Lea
venworth, Wyandotte and Topeka Steam
boats unload them on the cold and cheerless
wharves of Leavenworth and leave them to
shift for themselves A dispatch from that
point saws: "a few of the men find work
at odd Jobs about town and some OF the Wo-
men as house servants. They have no plans
for the future. They started with the lnten-
tion of coming to Kansas, and having arrived
here are completely at sea-" There is an
abundance of land to be had in Kansas free OF
charge, but people cannot get to 1t without
some expense, and when there they must have
money with which to build houses or prepare
shelters of some kind, and if they have teams
enough to do their own ploughing, they have to
be able to supply themselves with food for SIX
teen months, as the crop planted the first spring
on the newly broken prairie sod rarely amounts
to anything. Among the cOlOred people who
have reached the State, those with the most
means nave not enough to live on till they
could raise a crop, while the great majority OF
them are absolutely destitute. Much OF the
time since they began to arrive, the weather
has been very severe and there has been much
suffering among them, as most OF them are
very thinly clad. What is to become OF the
thousands already there and the other thou
sands who are following them, nobody knows
The colored citizens are holding meetings to
devise means for taking care of them, taking
up subscriptions for their benefit and doing
what they can to supply their immediate
wants; but much more than local aid will be
required to maintain them till they can raise
a crop.
In view of these facts, we trust there are no
colored people in South Carolina so silly as to
he misled and deceived by designing political
tricksters, who have used them merely as
football ever since emancipation.