Morning journal and courier., 1884-05-26
PIantation NegrOes.

The Life of Field Hands-Thsir Domestic
 Relations.
 Wilmington CN. O. Correspondence Troy Timss.l
 Plantation negroes are, to those who see them for the first time, most miserable speci- mems of linen and brothers,' if they are to be judged by their external appearance. They are usually very black in color, with pronounced negro features, and ignorant In some cases they are but few degrees above the animals. They live only in the present, know nor care nothing for the future, and seem to regard freedom as only the means of deciding for them whether they will work or remain idle, and, ss may be supposed, if bacon or corn bread could be had without labor, it is safe to say they would remain idle. I was told however, despite their de- jected, work-a-dsy look, they are very happy and contented people, and they are treated with much consideration and kindness on the two plantations visited, being allowed to build huts and cut all their firewood on the lands and in illness cared for either by the overseer or owner, who employs physician in urgent cases Ths plantations have also stores up- on the rounds wherein the hands can buy at market rates all the neoessaries of their lives, food, clothing and shoes-in fact, any thing that can be had at the usual or ''gener- al country store" And this has been done in order to keep the plantation hands" at home, for if during the plantation season the hands can get of to town after pay day there is no chance of their return until all their money is spent or either work or star vation stares them in the face. And, as most plantation hands are born and raised in the work. they know no other. Occasionally & more ambitious or intelligent one will aspire to f1ssrn to be 8 barber" and leaves his "native heath" but it is said as a rule they do not take to education, and prefer to re- main ignorant and work by day, and If they can dance and frolio by night they are con tent with life as they find it. Their domes- tie relations and moral life is better left un- questioned in many cases, although the law compels marriage. It is often honored in tic religious ''rsvivals" and their colored preachers are ever on the plantation and hold services in their church at ''Orton" for the SIigiously inclined. Some of the women seem disposed to think that the lives of s'house servants" are more inevitable than their own, working as they do in the hot fields, but it is nos an energetic longing and involves too much thought to be pvt into active execution. One rather bright-lookinR young woman, to whom I spoke, asked me if I could get her 'tplaes" as cook at the North. asked her what wages she earned as 6 field hand, and she said: Mostly $3 per week. bat they say could get SIP for a month as g cook I"Her mental arithmetic was a little of, but she was in earnest. I told her that thought she would not like the Northern States, it was so much colder, and she laughed and said: That's what they all said, miss; mebbe I would mot" Freedom means to this class of people only the ability to earn money and provide for themselves, instead of having everything provided for them, and it will be long, long time before they are elevated or educated sufficiently to understand how much has been done for them.