Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-12-28
tuesday evening, Dee. Is. 1889
EXODUS.
Northern Conservative Views
Condensed.
Why the Negro will Continue TO
Move.

WASHINGTON, December a.
Among the topics likely to turn up in
congress after the holidays is the
exodus, so-called, Of colored people
from the southern states. Accounts
from Louisiana, Mississippi. Georgia
and several other states show that
there is an expectation Of large and
increased migration of negroes from
those states nortbEard when spring
fairly opens. A Louisiana planter-a
republican in pOlitics-said to your
correspondent on this subject the
other day:
81 believe. from all | heard when
| was leaving home, that more colored
people will leave our state the coming
spring and summer than in ony pre-
Vious season. As soon as the weather
gets warm the exodus will begin, and
in my parish it threatens TO seriously
embarrass US planters. There is no
way Of ~persuadiug the people that
they would do better in the south. and
they will 90 north; the men first,
leaving their women and children be-
hind to be sent for later"
CAUSES OF THE MOVEMENT.
How 90 you account for the move
ment? Are they robbed or i'll treated?
Is it because their lives or property
are dnsliel' asked your correspondent.
No, 1t is not that this Louisiana
republican replied. "fhey are now
IN general safe enough with US. We
planters cannot do without the labor,
and the negro is master Of the stu
alton IN this respect over a large part
OF our state. AT the last election, ia
the parish in which | live and in
Others, he voted as he pleased, and his
employer, whether he was democrat or
republican, stW to it that he was not
prevented But they have become
restless; they want to see what the
world Is like; they believe that they
can never make themselves thoroughly
respected in the country where they
were once slaves or where their fathers
and mothers were so, and there Is a
certain amount Of truth in this. The
southern whites are not in general
unklnd 10 the blacks, but they show
In all their attitude toward them and
even IN their kindness that they
scarcely recognize the common hu-
mainly ofthe negroes with themselves.
A negro man is only a boy to them M
matter how old, a negro woman il
only a wench. As the blacks gel
some education they feel keenly the
o~llenslveness Of this, although tits no.
Extensively meant in general. 1t il
going TO be a great inconvenience t,
us In the planting states, this exodu
business, but | guess il is inevitable
Men are like cabbages-they do bette
for being transplanted-and If tn
negro is to become a respectable an'
respected citizen he will have to leay
the country where he was a slave-t
80 north, where no one has eve
known him except as a free man"
PARTISAN TwADDLE.
One may hear here, from souther
as well as northern men, a good de;
OF twaddle of hat kind with whic
Senator Voorhees,, Of Indiana, used
bore the senate last session, to th
effect that the exodus is a partisa
scheme; that the negroes will not q
well in the north; that they ought
stay where they are; that there is n
just cause for their dissatisfactiol
and so on. Aud there is on the otht
side, the republican side, namely, a
equal amount Of twaddle about Il
negro flying from the south becausel
is habitdally robbed, outraged an
shot to death.
10 BETTER THEIR CONDITION.
But men best fitted by candor
mind and knowledge OF the circun
stances agree with the Louisiana r.
public=S above quoted that the desil
10 migrate comes not from rae
hostility or from a desire for security
but is the perfectly natural and prope
movement Of a people who, with th.
attainment OF greater knowledge, get
strong desire to better their condition
in life"
What the negroes are now doing thl
poor whites Of the south did for man,
years boiore the late war. Censui
for forty years before 1861
show that there Was a constant str,au