Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-05-05
TIE vICTIMIzED BLACKS.
Their Easy Life In Louisiana Working
Half the TIme---A Land
Of Plenty.
oaisiana Letter in Boston Pol

-a1 ~ - &AN
one knows what the object is. AM
one with common sense must under
stand that where labor is so scarce
as it is in the Southern States tn,
laborers, who rule capital completely
cannot be ill-treated. As to their be.
ing bulldozed in these parishes, it i:
they who bulldoze the whites, fol-
since the terrible riots in October the
elections for delegates have gone en-
tirely Republican. No one can blame
the whites for defending themselves.
for the negroes, in armed bodies OF
thousands, threatened the whites WITH
death, the violation of the women and
the SLAUGHTER of little children.
Never was there such a mistaken
idea as that the negroes are suffering
from want or persecution, and never
were laborers better paid. Some work
on shares, getting nalf of all they
make, the landowners paying all ex-
penses. Some prefer leasing the
ground, a bale of cotton for six acres
that is, where they have teams-the
landlord keeping houses, machinery,
bitches and fences in order at his own
expense, and of course paying
taxes, which, oR ing to negro
legislators, are enormous. Some
are paid fifty cents a day and
r%ations, houses and fuel for nothing.
OF course all have as much wood as
they choose to cut, we, the land own
ers, lending mules and carts to haul
it. Those who work Tor wages get
their money and rations every Satur-
day. Children are employed in this
squad, and those men who work on
shares may happen to be idle. Many
women and men, too, never work
except to pick cotton, as at that they
can make from $3.50 to 81 a day. or
even more, and, as they have nothing
to buy but food and clothes, make
enough to live on all the year; in fact
no negro ever works more tnan halt
his time. Small children make con-
siderable by picking, as we pay for it
by the pouno. ALI have cows, pics
and every sort of poultry, and neariy
all have horses. Neither these nor
cows having to be fed, they Craze the
year through. Every family has an
acre free on which they raise what
they choose, and in this fertile soil
vegetables grow almost without cult
walton: if they chose to work a little
more they could feed themselves for n
mere nothing; food and clothing
are all they have to provide. We
give them nearly all the medicines
they use, often n%ourishing food
during illness, and every planter
is compelled to do much in charity, as
one cannot be brought SO near suffer
ing without trying to alleviate it. The
negroes, during the long summer, get,
| may say, tons of strawberries as
large as pigeon eggs. growing wild in
the bitches and bayous, quantities of
blaekberries " lid grapes, musqued1nes.
a sort Of grape, persimmons, v Ia
plums and pecan nuts all growing
wild. Fish are plentiful in our lakes
and bayous; they catch them in ..reat
numbers, even enough sometimes to
fatten hogs. Far ftom wishing to give
them credit at stores, as some of the
Northern papers say We do, ii is they
who exact it of us. When they get
their money we implore them to send
themselves to st. Louis for necessary
Supplies; but negroes with many good
qualities are terribly .extravagant.
spending their money for quantities of
tobacco, whisky by the gallon, even
for claret wines, perfumery, canned
i:uits and sardine9, for which they
have a passion, the women for fnery
and a hundred useless things. They
receive their cotton themselves, and
sell it as they think best, but their
money is generally gone before the
new crop begins, aud we are OBLIGED
to advance them everything, losing
ourselves if the CROP is bad, or of they
are. i'll, and in a hundred different
ways, so that really we get but very
little for our land. However, we do
not wish to lose that little. BY the
emigration Of these poor, misguided
people, who are told and firmly be-
lieye that should the Democrats gain
power they would be re-enslaved, and
it was this belief that caused the riots:
they were determined the Democrats
should be intimidated, and they
gained their point. They are not only
told now that in Kansas they can live
without work almost, that the United
Ssates government will give them land
free, build houses, give mules and $500
each to start them, but also, that the
government will not allow them to re-
main here, that they have a year to
get out Of these States, and that then
the Indians will be brought in to
kill those still here. A man passed
through our place the other day
telling them this in great secre-
cy, but some were so worried
they came and asked me II
they were to be driven away. They.
however, believe nothing we tell them.
and there is no use talking. A negro
on a ncighboring plantation last week
sold four mules for ten dollars each. a
number Of hogs foc fifty cents each
and chickens without number for ten
cents each took twelve of his rela.
tiyes aud went TO Kansas, leaving q
magnificent crop of cotton and corr
with half their years labor upon it
and a fine garden with numerous vege
tables already fit for use, and he wa.
one Of the most thrifty, having. o
course made considerable money t
own ali he did.
II is terrible to sec such abuse 0
Ignorance and credulity, for, as Mr.. +
Douglass says, they will all die Of col,
N Kansas, are already suffering their
but once there can never return
Should this movement continue, /
will ruin long suffering planters
among whom are many Northern mo,