Huntsville gazette., 1884-02-23
The Condition of the Freedmen.
By FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

luo CuuICu duOuk tAO 1ACCumSAs ~ AA~S 49,
forgotten to take the school-house. But
nearly ell denominations, Catholic as we'll
as Protestant, have rushed into this vast
Geld. each after its kind, to labor for the |
salvation of the late slaves. This is the
more surprising in view of the long years
during which our churches could more cas-
ily see the heather thousands of miles over
the wide waste of waters than at home.
But let the dead past bury its dead.s
now come to the question as to what
was the physical condition Of these people
before emancipation; and in referring to it
bear in mind that am speaking to many
of generation to whom slavery is little
more than name, and we have no ade-
quate idea of what that name covered. /
have had this class of readers in mind in
all have said, and deem it fortunate that
you have allowed me to speak my word on
this subject through your respected jour
nal. With the exception of a few highly
favored house servants, the physical condi-
ton of the slaves was indescribably wretch
ed A brshel of corn and eight pounds OF
salt pork per month were considered
large allowance for a full-grown man. The
huts in which they lived left them largely
exposed to the mercy Of the elem ants Their
beds were boards, and their covering a mis-
erable blanket, with which they were serv
ed not even once year. Much of the time
they were worked sunder the lash iu all
weathers. Want. exposure, and cruelty
brought to them bodily ills and general
physical deterioration often to the extent
of repulsive deformty. That physical
well being is essential to physical perfec-
tion is easily demonstrated both in the case
of man and beast. Men laugh at the ir-
regular make up of the negro. but forget
that no people. white.or black. could pre-
serve the finer attributes of physical man
hood subjected to two hundred and fifty
years of slavery. 3 The woes of the, slave
mother can be read in the faces of her
children. Slavery has twisted their legs
Aattaned their feet. and impaired a depress
ed and cowardly aspect to their features.
Let those who laugh rather be ashamed OF
the crime against human nature which has
produced the deformity over which they
make merry. -"
Looking at the freedmen to day. in that
| class which remains on the old plantation,
we see but little improvement in food or
raiment, in form or feature. Twenty wears
are but speck in the life..of race. Many
have managed to get..a~ few acres and lit
tie home of their own. In sahs State of
Louisiana colored people pay taxes. goa
more than twenty millions worth Of prop
erty, and in Georgia. according to'the late
Senator Hill. Of that State they paid take s
on six millions. I.doubt not of asshowi G
equally creiitable in North Carolina Vir.
ginia. and other Of the old slave States.
The manner in which these people were set
free should never e overlooked. No peo-
pie were ever ema mancipated under conditions
more unfavorable for sgood results. The
Israelites had spoils Of the Egyptians; the
serfs of Russia had three acres of land Civ
en- to each head of family; the West India
slave was permitted to, remain upon the
old plantation; but the American slave was
turned loose to the open sky without mon
ey. lands, or friends, and, worst of all, un-
der the fierce resentment of those who
owned the land from which he must obtain
his bread. These, in the heat of moment
ary wrath, drove him away; and away he
went, free, but free only to want, hunger,
and pain; free to the chilling blasts of win
ter. free to starve. Of he went with his
sick and well, young and old, and the in
FAINT in arms. Many died, and the mortal
ity for time csused the belief that the
race would speedily die out. From the
gallery of the United States Senate heard
an able Senator from the North answer Mr..
Summers plea for suffrage with the remark
that it was useless to legislate for these
people, since they were sure to die out in
short time. But the old masters who thus
resented emancipatie relented, if they did
not repent. and after time called back
the freedmen to their old fields and quar-
ters. They saw that they had sent away
the hands, but had left the mouths. and
that they still needed the negro to work
their fields-a fortunate discovery for both.
Instead of dying out as predicted. the cen,
sus tells us these people have increased ten
per cent. faster than the native born white
people of the South.
In cor ciusion:
When consider that these people have
only been free during the last twenty years,
and that this freedom has been more in /
name than in fact; when l consider the
manner in which their emancipation WAS
brought about, not with the consent, but |
against the consent, of the masters; when |
cor der the fact that it was born of blood
boiling over in the battle field, the wound
ed pride and sullen determination it lett in
the old master class smarting under defeat,
and the many obstacles thrown in the way
of the progress OF these people, am far
from discouraged or dissatisfied. On the
see the colored people steadily
rising and believe they will ultimately