Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-08-08
THE SOUTHERN NEGRO.
THE SON OF A FARMER SLAVE DISCUSSES
THE WELFARE OF HIS RACE.


peared ia the Philadelphia Record
short time ago:
FDITOR OF THE RECORD IF you
will allow a colored reader to express
q few words through the columns OF
your paper regarding the muchtalked
of NEGRO question" and the nation
al election bill. ~ will take advantage
of your permission.
Being a native of Danville, Va, and
a son of former slave, / have been
living north bat a brief period, but
from what ! have seen of the swo sec.
tons I claim the southern negro has
more privileges than his nothern
brother Of the same race. Though l
have used my utmost endeavor to
avail myself of the ''eC:ual rights 80
boastingly mentioned by the friends
of the negro" in the North, am
debarred from the workshops, from
the counting-rooms, from official
positions, or from any occupation /
may seek, except that which requires
me to wear the white apron badge OF
cook, or waiter, or as hod-carrier. I
must seek only the positions least re.
numerative. if not the most mental.
When pass along Lombard street,
Philadelphia, [ fiHd that prejudice
against them has crowded the negro TO
gether like hogs in pen, and I ven
ture to assert that there is not spot
south of Mason and Dixon's line
where the negro is in so much misery
or faces such squalid poverty, as the
poor denizens OF Lombard street and
the other miserable quarters in which
he has been compelled, on account
of his COLOR to reside, in the "good
City of Brotherly Love-" It would
be wise to let little fthe sympathy
that arises from the love Of the
brother in black to begin here at
home.
The South has done, and is still
doing more for the negro than many
suppose. Negroes have been sent
from the South to the United States
Senate. to the lower house Of Con-
gress, TO the State Legislature, and
they have held minor positions, but
l have yet TO hear of ''black Con-
gresham" from the republican North
"a single negro that has ever been
considered good enough to hold the
position Of postmaster or any other
position that requires announce #
brain work. 1t is we'll enough to
live in the North and talk of negro
domination in the South, but where
10 the northern town, county, city or
State that will swallow the same
medicine? The northern negro is
not born slave. but he is just as eff
ectually shut out from the advantages
of humanity rs though the chains
were forged upon him. He can new
er be anything at the North but
"nigger" still, and the maudlin
sympathy 80 freely expressed for the
"rights Of the negro down South can
be better extended in the North.
Equally as many ''outrages" are
committed in the city of Philadelphia
in one week as the whole State of
Virginia in one Year, yet no congress
ional committee investigates; and
but for the rum" dealt out to the
ignorant Of both races on election
days and other times, the "outrages"
IN the South would be seldom heard
Of The salvation Of the negro North
and South is for him to do his own
thinking. When they, like the whites,
learn to divide ON party lines, they
will be more respected; but just so
long as they allow POT house polit'-
clans" to dictate their political course,
SO long as they allow them to keep
them in chains, just SO long will the
whites keep together. Northern
whites will not be dominated by the
negro, and they cannot force their
southern brother to do what they will
not do.
The "force bill" will not benefit the
negro, but on the one hand it ill re-
tard his progress. 1t is nearly thirty
years since the war began. The
majority Of the old slaves have gone
TO their quiet home. A negro who
can ever remember slavery must be
about thirty five years old. To have
worked in field under master he
must be close TO fifty years old.
Time and education are healing pre-
JUDGES, and the two races In the
South are drawing closer together, but
this fire brand about to be cast in
their midst by the fanatics at Wash.