The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-05-27
THE SOUTHERN NEGRO.
Noticeable Lack Of Progress In the Black Man
Where Unencumbered by the Whites.

says Johns Island, South Carolina,
correspondent of the Chicago Times.
Thousands of volumes have been written
about him and many ten thousands
of editorials and magazine articles, and
the more we study him the more we
don't know about some of his peculiari-
ties. And now, after seeing the free
negro i'll the North, the slave negro in
the South, and the freeman. and freed
man both North and South, and after
coming to some conclusions in regard to
them, I find on this coast and these
islands an entirely new variety of the
genus, necessitating n new theory.
To the best of my knowledge every
prophecy ever made about the American
negro has been completely falsifcd by
facts. L do not, just now, remember
one guess, even by the wiscst, that has
proved correct, whether the guesser was
friend or foe. In the first place, there
were those in England and the colonies
who said the negro would wither away
i'll bondage; but, unlike every other race
Oh the globe, and unlike his own race in
other countries, the negro in the United
States hourished in slavery and multiple
cd as no other race has
IDEAL NEGRO SOCIETY.
Here the colored people own the land
and hold the elective offices. They have
all the churches heart could wish, and
ut least three preachers to the square
mile. They have perfect social equality,
if there be such thing, for they have
all the society there is. The whites are
SO isolated that they have none. In
short, the negroes have the land, u
climate to suit them, the offices, the
stores, the schools, the churches, perfect
immunity from white oppression, and
free course to run and be glorifcd. And
with all this, what progress? Well, you
have to set stakes and take sight to see
that they arc moving at all. James
Island presents them at their best on the
coast; Johns is noticeably worse than
James; Wadmalaw is worse than Johns,
and each successive island from here to
Savannah, SO the whites tell me, is worse
than the last, although 1 find this hard
to believe. The exact progress since the
war L, OF course, cannot measure, as |
was not here then to take q point of do
parturc; but this I insist upon, that the
poorer class could not have lived worse
than now and lived at ALL The gain has
been by those who got land, and the
poorest renter in Indiana lives far better
than the best of them on Johns and
Wadmalaw. And now, with al this
evidence, lots of people arc prophcsying
as confidently as ever all sorts Of good
and evil for the negro's future. Instead
OF following this rash example, will pre-
sent the facts of my trip to this point
the reader may do his own prophcsying.
Yesterday morning [ left tho hospita-
BILE home of the wcll-to do black brother,
George Brown, and travelled strnight
south to Legare point. All the fields
were dotted with black laborcrs, few
plows were running, but nearly all tho
work was done with hoes as large as an
average spade, in the hands Of brawny
men and women. For many hundred
yards at time the cabins lined the way
side thick enough for an ordinary vii
lage, but all were cmpty-thc whole
family were back in the fields. The
women handled these heavy hoes quite
rs deftly rs the men, and ridging for
cotton was in rapid progress. In last
years cotton patch, where the ridges
were nearly two feet above the fulrows,
the boys and girls went first with heavy
baskets Of ''swamp trash, half rotted
leaves and grass raked up at low tide
and scattered it in tide burrows; the wo-
men came next with hoes and DUG down
the grass and loose stuff from the ridges,
with earth enough to cover it and the
"trash," and then the men with blow
and hoe put enough fresh earth on it to
make the middle ridge as high as the old
one. In this the cotton is planted, and
the first plowing throws what is left of
last years ridge to the growing plants.
"It takes
THE NIGGER AND THE HOE
TO ma Ie the Sea Island cotton," is the
provcrb of the whites. Many of them
have tried machinery to do this work,
but have discarded it. They say none is
made suitable for it, Everything ismised
i'll ridges on the is]ands-evcn those
vegetables we plant on fiat in the
North.
In the abandoned cabin during work
ing hours you will find no one, if the
weather is mild; if it Is cold you will sec
there from three to ten children, with
one girl big enough to be trusted with a
tire-if there is any. Very often there
Is none, and the little darkics crouch on
the sunny side of the cabin, their blue
gray-brown toes showing, like goose
ieet' the effects of chilling winds. There
ID generally water bucket with q pourd,
cooking pot Or pan, perhaps q dozen
aishes OF various kinds, rude table or
q poX, and IN perhaps half the cabins n
rude pedstead. Such luxuries no mir.
Fors' window curtains, stoves or nictnros
you will find only among the weil-to.do
and carpet have yet to see in a. nooro w
cabin, AL their habits show that ~,
expect to live and take their pleasure IN
hn ~, tln