Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1883-02-24
For the MESSENGER.
More Negro Education.

Sitting in my room meditating
some thoughts on the cruelty of
lynching, a paper is handed me.
Reading some of its contents, one
of which our attention was especial
ly directed, was one by Bill Arp, of
Georgia. Being negro, we al
ways feel an interest in discussing
his situation.
He launched out with two oars,
paddles his canoe round and round,
makes deep dips but no progress,
because the current is so strong he
cannot safely go forward, and says
the darkey is curious problem
with us down South" We would
ask in what does his curiousness
consist? We can see nothing
whereon the writer stands, unless it
is curious how the "darkey" gets
along against such unmanly odds as
are practical in the South. Again
he says, we know him, we under
stand him; but the conundrum
which unpuzzles us is what is going
to become of him." Ifyou under
stand him, you need no more I'M
derstanding; if you know him you
need no information, and the latter
clause might be answered by asking
what is to become of you who claim
direct decent from the noble-hearted
Pilgrims, but who have wandered
far away from the fold? What is
to become of you who steal, cheat,
steal even that which is given by
his Creator-life. Cheat him of
that which your ancestors cheerful
ly granted-his rights.
Again, he says, " his state of slav
cry did not solve it, and 16 years of
freedom has thrown no light upon
it." A blind man cannot see, nor
does a man want to see when all
things are not what he wants them.
A man of common sense would not
suspect that slavery would solve it,
because the state of slavery in
America was the most damnable
law under the heavens the worse
that history has ever recorded and
mark towards inhumanity of the
holders.
How could slavery solve it
During slavery. when caught with
the book in hand by which we all
of the forest animal. When caught
are to be saved, was dashed as a part
supplicating to a throne of mercy,
again the lash was plated for bis
back. For all such inhuman acts,
what is to become of you?
Again, he says: "The expert
ment of educating him has proved
failure" That man must have been
sitting under the bowers of some
outrageous tree and watching the
progress Of a spider building his
webb, as to make such a diabolical
assertion as this. "The expert
ment of educating him has proved
a failure" On account of education
the negro race has men who would
look down on him as the eagle does
on the sparrow-very low. He who
would make such assertion is only
fit subject for that capacious build
ing at Morgantown.
Again he says: " Before the war
there were 40 whites in the Geor-
gia penitentiary and only 40 ne
groes, now there are $50 whites and
l, 400 negroes" By the gentleman's
assertion we would readily conclude
that Justice was melted out before
the war more squarely than now,
and if justice had sway, rather than
color, the inhabitants of the pcni-
tentiarys would be in the same pro-
portion now Jail negro one yea
if he would minus a crib Of a chick
en-, and white man would not be
sought if he would accidentally deal
in cotton and rob the Treasury of
the State of Alabama of S250,000.
Again he says nearly all the old
negroes have learned morals and in
dustry, are law-abiding citizens, and
the next generation, of whom free
dom has been given, are fast becom-
ing a curse to the land" If there
was any morality for the negro dur
ing slavery, it is not in accordance
with his holders. 1t is said that At
ricans are black by origin, if that