Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-01-21
The south-A CoIored Mans Views

The following synopsis of Rev. Jackson.
| lecture is furnished us by G. A. Maston:
| The speaker commenced by saying that he
| spoke as an eye witness of many of the facts
| he was about to relate, and, as lover of the
| truth, he proposed to give fair and impair
| tial statement of the "True Condition of the
| Coloreu People in the South" There are
three sources from which the people of the
| North get their information, namely: From
| political newspapers, from those who make
but a short visit to the South, and from
those who go South with prejudice, none
of which ought to be relied upon. The
speaker admitted that there We're localities
| in the South where the colored people were
oppressed, because Of political differences s,
but these localities are isolated and rare,
and are not without parallel in the North
| and the West. The chief cause of the pow
erty, the dissatisfaction, and the recent exo-
dus of the coored people from the South, is
| non-poitical, and may be attributed to what
the speaker denominated Gland troubles. :"
Not being able to pay the enormous prices
asked for land, or to rent farm for more
than year at time, the renter, of course,
has only transient interest in the land, and
hence he squeezes it for all it is worth, pays
no attention to fences, drainage, or fertiliza-
ton. The legitimate result is, that both the
land and the tenant become poorer and
poorer each year, and finally the latter, re-
duced to abiect want, and discouraged, seeks
home in the West, or North. To the ques-
ton, why do the colored people not rent or
lease farms, for five or ten years, as men do
r h.
ousy or some other kindred passion, the land
owners positively refused to rent for peri
cd longer than year, Oh two years at most.
For they recognized the we'll known fact
that the least subservient, and the most in
dependent men, are those who have a spec
ial interest in or own the soil they cultivate.
Here the speaker very forcbly advised his
audience to get homes of their own: to edu-
cate their children; and to resolve to do
something and to be something in the world.
Small wages were also mentioned as another
difficulty, in the way of the progress of the
colered people of the South. Fifty cents day
Is prevailing price offered for common labor.
Yet, Notwithstanding these drawbacks, and
the previous relation of the colored to the
white people of the South, the speaker de-
clared that he felt as safe on the streets of
southern city, as he would upon those of
northern city. And Notwithstanding the
fact that the colored people Of the South
were turned out without dollar, or foot
of land, they have since the war, in the State
of Georgia, become sole owners of 100000
acres of land. And in order to further show
that the southern whites were not to man,
opposed to the progress of the negro, the
speaker read statistics showing that the Leg
slatures of the following states appropriate
ed money, as follows, for the higher educa-
ton of the coored children: Maryland,
$1,000; Virginia, $4,000; South Carolina,
$1,000; Georgia, $1,000; Mississippi, $4,000;
Louisiana, $1,000; and Missouri, 5000. The
above sums being appropriated annually for
the support of Normal and High Schools es-
tablished, for the training of coiored youths.
The speaker expressed himself as being sat-
isfied, that Srom the present outlook, the
time is near at hand, when the sentiments of
the better classes of the whites In the South,
will prevail. The land troubles will then be
easily adjust sd, and all will have a common
interest in the soil, in building up society,
and In purifying the political atmospheres of
the South.