Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-08-02
Negro.

HyRBrRr SPENCER teaches us that we
can't make man different from what he is
by merely calling him by a new name. For
example, the negro is to-day not developed
far enough 90 be classed with white men,
and therefore he cannot be made their
equal by schooling, nor by teaching, nor
by preaching, nor by any other means. He
can no more help showing his real nature
than could the cat in the form of a maiden
keep from running after q mouse. Mr..
BgUcx shows that there is no connec-
ton between the negro's religion and
his morality. In word. the negro is, to
soy nothing hard of him, hundreds of
years behind the white man. He is
child The stories told in the Arabian
Nights Entertainments no doubt seem
reasonable to him. With this introduce
tion by way of excuse for SANBo's folly,
we copy the following article from the At
lanta Constitution:
"Our readers have been kept advised
from time TO time of the remarkable de-
velOpments of barbarism that have been
taking place among the negroes IN Liberty
county and in other sections OF the state.
These negroes are not less civilized
than the average negroes in the country
districts of the South. The white people
of Liberty county have long been noted
for their piety, their refinement, and their
attainments. They are descended from
Puritan stock, and from the settlement at
Midway have sprung some of the most dis
tinguiShed men of the country. States
men, soldiers, lawyers, and literary men
have come ont Of Liberty, and there IS no
70 half there
are any more ignorant than the average OF
their race in any part OF the South. III
they are il is not because they were left TO
themselves as slaves, but il Is because they
have deliberately relapsed into barbarism.
Never were there more fortunate
bondsmen than those that fell 70 the care
and keeping of the pious and refined Pur-
tan families of Liberty. Their spiritual as
well as their temporal welfare was looked
after most assiduously, and, although the
negroes then largely outnumbered the
whites, as they Outnumber them now, the
missionary temper Of the white people OF
Liberty did not permit the blacks 70 suher
for lack Of religious teaching.
"But what is the result? Not many
weeks ago white man from Ohio made his
appearance in Liberty county, and he was
of once hailed rs n Messiah by the blacks,
who left their work andtollowed him about
L
a loon. told the negroes that on the 10th of
August he and his followers would ascend
20 Heaven. On the strength Of this the
blacks left their work by the hundred and
followed him about the country. Labor
WAS denOrnliZed. and the negroes were so
wrought on by their superstition and their
religious fsnaticism that the white people
feared the worst.
FINALLY the Ohio crank was captured
and lodged in the lunatic asylum, but no
sooner had he disappeared than his place
was taken by negro justice of the peace
named Edward Jones. This negro went
into a trance, and when he awOke he an
nounced that the spirit of Dupont Bell
had entered his body, and that hence
forth he was to be the leader. This state
ment was accepted as true 10y Bells fol-
lowers, and they focked after James. who
at last accounts was going through Liberty
county demOraliZing the blacks and raising
psndemonium.
"NO sooner had James announced that
he was Christ than he stripped of his
clothes and carried on his work unembar
rassed by garments of any kind. 70 his
principal disciples he gave the right TO set
up hnrems, and he himself had in his train
number of concubines. Children have
been sacrificed by his orders, and number
of negroes have been beaten to death un-
der the pretence that they we're possessed
of devils. Where this Outburst of fanati-
cism will end no one knows.
These manifestations and develop
ments are but part of the negro problem
with which our Republican friends deal 50
lightly and iippantly.' They are. only
few of the results that grow out of situa-
ton bristling with dangers that are by no
means Of a political nature"