New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-03-18

ined promised land. but to send them back 10
their old homes
This curious exodus undoubtedly got Its
first impetus from Senator lngalls's rather
visionary bill proposing to set apart lands In
Kansas for colored colonization. Few OF the
plantation negroes can read, and it was nat
ural that the character of this measure should
be grossly exaggerated as the news spread
among them, until many came to believe that
the Government was ready to give them all
homesteads and set them up in farming.
Their old dreams of forty acres and mule
seemed about to be realized. The most aD-
surd rumors gained credence. letter from
Vicksburg to commercial firm IN New
Orleans, published in The Democrat OF the
latter city, says:
The negroes in this part Of the country have the
kansas fever" They have, IN manner quit work.
ana are preparing go to Kansas with General sher
man. who is now In NewOreans with his troops so they
say The report that the United States Government
has set Kansas apart as negro state ana VIII give
every family free land and $500 in money, build houses
etc. and all that here after the 18th OF March will
be killed by order Of President Hayes who has turned
Democrat
No doubt there were INSCRIPTIONS agents for
transportation lines ready to take advantage
of these ridiculous reports to persuade the
negroes to sell what little property they pos
sessed and invest the money in tickets to
Kansas.
In the region about Vicksburg q special
cause existed for discomfort among the
colored people. Last year the cotton
crop was a failure in a district extend
ing for about hundred miles around
that town. and embracing some of the
best cotton lands in the South. At the end of
their seasons work the negroes, who rent
land at n fixed price per acre, had to part
with nearly all their scanty crop to pay the
rental, and found themselves without money
to buy clothing and provisions for the ensu-
ing year. In their distress they seized eagerly
upon the rumOrs of Government assistance in
Kansas. and magniGed them into facts. An
other cause of their singular readiness
to leave their old homes, and probably
still stronger one, is the drpriyal of
political rights which they have suffered
during the past two yeals. The blacks of
Mississippi and of the northern parishes of
Louisiana are profoundly discouraged. They
have an iiea that the National Government. on
which they have leaned as the only support
for their civil rights, has deserted them. AL
though In a large majority, they find them
selves robbed of all political power by the
trickery and violence of the whites Their
ballots, if allowed to be deposited in the
boxes, have no more influence in deciding
the result of an election than if thrown INTO
the nearest BAYOU. No matter how ignorant
the negro may be, he sets high value on the
ballot, believing it to be his only weapon
against the encroachments of the whites on
his rights as a freeman. The bitter expert
ence he has gone through during the past
few years have led him to conclude that
it is of no use to struggle with the
whites for the right of voting guaranteed
him by the Constitution. They may let HIM
vote, but they will always count themselves
in a majority. With the franchise gone, or
rendered valueless by fraud, he fears that all
the rest will gO-his right to fair trial IN the
courts in cases where white men are con-
cerned, his right to sit on juries, and his
right to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Every
thing he values most, next to life itself. seems
TO be in peril. He fears that he will be re-
duced to a condition of serfdOm by State
laws and the terrorism of rifle-clubs and other
bulldozing organizations and that Abraham
Lincoln's precious gift of liberty will in the
end become an empty mockery.
A prey to such approximations, it is no Won
der that he is deceived by false hopes of
freer and better life in the far West, and con-
duerng the love of home, which is mach
stronger in the black race than the white,
sells his mule and his plough and with his
wife and children and scanty household
effects embarks on passing steamer
to seek land of liberty and law.
Unfortunately there is no place for him
in Kansas. Without capital to begin farming
he can do nothing. His labor, uDskilled as
he is in the methods of Northern farming, is
not in demand. His dreams of prosperity and
happiness vanish, and he finds himself pau
per among strangers, who seek to be rid of
him as soon as possible.