The bee., 1883-02-24
A ISLANDER ON THE COLORED
PEOPLE OF THE MISSISSIPPI
RIVER PLANTATIONS.

The colored people of Mississippi OF
of any where in this country, have no
expectations of receiving anything like
fair treatment at the hands of their
enemies, but have some hopes at times
of being treated justly in the houses of
those claiming to be their friends.
The National Republican, of the 18th
f'on the Avenue" contains the follow
ing
1.-THE trouble is" remarked gentle
man, congress did an unwise thing in
appropriating money for the Missis-
sippi river sufferers last summer. 1t
was very bad precedent to establish,
aid it will be ears before the poor OF
the region which is subject to inunda-
ton get over the notion that all they
have to do when the river Slops over is
to fold their hands and let the govern
ment take care of them. The negroes
on the Mississippi river plantation
have already come to look upon floods
as God-sends, yearly vacations-re-
spites from all worldly care. DE guv-
ernment will give us rations, they say
to themselves and tain't no use for
us to lay up anything against the rainy
day This donation of rations is a
bad thing. There was an excuse for
it last year, but there will not be
another similar excuse for hundred
years. The States interested can
better afford to provide for their own
sufferers than to beg help from the
general government
NWe undertook to say that the man
who give this STUFF TO the Avenue
men. while he may be gentleman,
neither tells the truth, nor does he fail
to show his cloven foot of rank preIu-
dice and hatred to the cOlored race.
But this thingo simply saying, you are
another, is not argument, proof or facts;
SO. instead of this mode of answering a
serious charge against a race. We
propose ln IIIouuCt ItlSNH
First. We accept the charge thai a
great many colored people, did receive
the bounty of the government they
were no more able to refuse it than
were the white people, who, two to
one to the negroes, got the best
of the appropriation--aS they have
always done-because they manage the
thing and know more about how to
figure than we do. 1t was SO in the
days of the Freedmen's Bureau and
the Freedmen's Bank.
The real deep bottom rock idea of
the above fling, from the Avenue man
and his gentleman, was to prejudice
the reader of the journal against the
colored people-for if it had not been
this, why was the gentleman silent
on the question of what influences the
bounty had upon the poor whites.
1t is plain that there was an inten-
ton to show idleness and general state
of decentralization among the negroes
Here is what Mr.. Frank Wilkinson
of the New York san. who is now in
tion, has to say of Mississippi and
"alluvial land negroes" under date of
FEBRUARY 7th:
Il soon discovered why they did not
accumulate property in the interior of
Mississippi. The Jews, those sleuth
hounds of trade, were chasing them
through the valleys and over the di-
videS, and waving mortgages at the re-
treating dusky forms. The merchants
and traders simply seized their crop
and took it all. Many, ah, too many.
black men have told me. in answer to
my inquiry as to their prosperity;
"Boss, it makes no difference if de crops
are good or bad: it is nebber 'nough to
pay the store account, nebberr' 1t is
but fair to state that the great majority
of planters who furnish their hands.
are not to blame for this condition of
affairs They are in the clutches of
the Jews. Of the planters who are
free from Jews or factors, and buy
their supplies for cash, there are few
who actually prefer to have their black
Iaborers squander their money. These
men claim that they can handle the
negroes to better advantage when they
are in debt. As an instance of this
spirit, | met planter, a bright, snappy
man, who worked his cotton fields with
hired hands, resolutely refusing to rent
land to negroes on any terms. This
man is probably one of the most sue
cessful planters in the Mississippi
Valley. He told me that he could and
did produce cotton for six and one-half
cents per pound, and regularly made
money out of his business. I asked
him as to habits of thrift of his hands,
Damn a thrifty nigger!'' he exclaimed
in rep'y. Then he added: "When a
negro comes to me for work ask him
but one question: that is, "Do you play
craps? 2" (Craps is the negro gambling
game played with dice. "1f he answers
No I do not hire him. | want nv
hands to gamble and to spend their
money. | am running my plantation
to make money, not to elevate niggers.
| find that can make more money by
keeping my hands poor and dependent
than by having them accumulate
property. | will not allow a thrifty
niger to stay on my place" That
fully expresses the sentiments of very
small number of planters living on the