The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-01-19
THE BLACKS DYING OFF.
The Next Census will Show Worry Large
Decrease.
From the Philade1pha Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
AUGUSTA, December $50 far as
the negro race is concerned, the coming
census will be an exceedingly interesting
one, inasmuch as it will unquestionably
dispel the popular delusion that the
colored man is progressing and increas'
ing; and hence it may probably get peo-
pie thinking as to how the condition of
this people may be really improved. AS
to their progress we who live in the very
midst of the negro population know that
it is decidedly more retrograde than
otherwise; while the mortuary reports
published in the newspapers show that
the death rate is double, and often still
larger, tribe that of the whites. The
census of 1860 was to great extent
speculative, on account of the chaotic
condition of affsirs at that period; but
the strength of the race was undoubtedly
underestimated. Hence the apparent in
crease in the following census, and
hence also the fallacy that the negro
population is largely increasing?
The gentleman whose remarks are
quoted above has been, ever since the
close of the civil war, large planter in
scriven County, Georgia, and said in sup
port of his statement as to an undoubted
decrease in population among the ne
groes:
"Here on my place there were formerly
eighty negroes-to-day there are Only
two! My neighbor, Major Gibbons, a
Massachusetts gentleman, had some 400;
the Wades and the Joneses had some
800 each; the Herringtons 100; the
Bosticks, over the Savannah River, some
700, aud the Martins about 500. Where
are they all to-day? Why, on the plan
tatiors referred to there is hardly to be
found negro to hitch up ones horse
Many wandered off into other States
after freedom, but numbers of them re-
turned, broken down by hardships to die
within sight of the wrecks Of the homes
they deserted. In place of our oldtime
negroes we have wandering tribes of
thriftless women and young men, who
will rather eudure hunger for days than
do an hours homes! work to earn a good
square neal. This state of affairs is not
confined to this neighborhood. 1t OBJ
tains, to greater or less extent, almost
everywhere in this and other negro
States. But what can be done? There
seems to be no remedy for it. If hire
negro to do days work for me in nine
out of ten cases he will ask ME for his
'rations' in advance or money to buy food
with on the plea of desperate poverty.
If 1 give him this food OF money the
chances are nine to one that the man
will never turn up to do the work or that
l shall hear of his working in somebody
eIae's field who was not quite so easy
with him rs I was. And yet we have
not the shadow of law by which | can
hold such a rascal responsible. Our
statutes do not recognize that this species
of trickery is obtaining either money,
food or goods under false pretences."
Even to one who visits this part of the
world after many years of absence it is
patent that the negro population is
changed and decimated-more than de-
cimated. In place of the respectful,
unsophisticated old "uncles" and "aunt.
les" are to be found a few darkies, whose
main object appears to be to victimize,
in some manuer or another, the white
man. Give negro man q job of hoeiug,
for instance, and you must literally stand
by him the greater part of the time he is
doing it in order to insure its being done
anything like properly, or often done at
all. Give negro woman job of wash
ing, and if you fail to look after her
sharply she will spoil what of the cloth
ing she does not steal. Rascality seems
to be component part of the nature of
the country negro of to dsy-if not of
his city brethren; while bis roaming,
unsettled manner of life would almost
indicate that Numidian blood runs in the
veins of the Yves. African darkey, or
that they servilely and faithfully initiate
the pomadic trait of the people of Nu.
midia, for country darky is here to-day
and miles off morrow-at least many
of them.
There are, of course, some reliable ne
groes remaining in this quarter of the
world but these are few and they are
scattered over wide area. They are
mostly farming on their own account,
and by no means object to making the
admission that their success in life is due
to having been kept in strict discipline
py the white man. The negroes of West
ern and Southern Africa, the writer
[
knows, from actual observation among
them, are fairly honest and moral-the
direct antithesis of the average negro OF
the present generation. This would seem
Ito indicate that our civilization does not
agree with them. The religion of the
negro of to day is hysteria. 1t has no
more beneficial effect on their mode OF
life than has the hootiDg of an owl.
What seems to be needed badly by this
Ipecu]iar race is the discovery of some
unknown system of nlooal ethics which
would enforce honesty upon the males
aud honesty and chastity upon tie
females. Until this shall have been
found they will remain Improbable ser
wants Their notions of morality are
such a, cannot be contemplated without
q s,,udder. Their religious rites are q
fare. and two often filthy and blasphe
nous burlesque upon the rites of which
thew . odious limitations. Such, how
o-,. u.o;r nonditinn here. but witt