The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-26
THE SOUTHERN NEGRO

THE SOUTHERN NEGRO.
For twenty-six years the colored PEG
pie OF the United States have enjoyed
the blessings of freedom. After Il lapse
of more than a quarter Of a century, the
project ought certainly to have passed
the experimental stage, and we are JUS
titled in asking what the negroes have
been doing for themselves, how they
have been working out their own social,
moral, and educational salvation. In
the world today, there are honest, we'll
meaning people enough who declare that
the whole thing has proved an arrant
failure. They piously insist that it was
fore-ordained that the negro should be
the newer of wood and drawer of water
for the white races, and that any at
tempt to raise him to a higher plane is
simply flying in the face Of overriding
providence. When the success of the
colored people, who have launched out
from their southern home. is pointed
out to these pessimlsts, they declare
that the exceptions prove the rule and
that the southern negro justifies all the
hard things they have to say about his
class. Such critics, however, it is safe
to say, have failed to conquer the deep
rooted prejudices of birth and early ed
u~cation, and the face of their opinion
must be taken with some very large
grains Of salt. If they are open to con
viction at all, they might read with sat
isfaction a sympathetic article from the
pen of Samuel J.. Barrows in the current
number of the Atlantic Monthly. The
writer has undertaken a special journey
of $500 miles through the southern
country, and while he is careful not to
paint everything in rose-colored hues,
he presents a report of progress and en-
ergy that carries conviction in it's impair
tial lines.
From the very outset the negro has
been hampered IN his attempts at self
elevation. His previous condition made
it hard for him to rise to the virtues of
self-reliance and independent energy.
A state of slavery does not breed these
Qualities, and freedom found him where
slavery left him. He was no bloated
capitalist. In most instances he had to
earn his daily bread as a hired laborer.
There was not much in that. Fifty or
sixty cents a day will scarcely enable a
thrifty man to lay by much for a rainy
day or for the bettering of his prospects,
,.l ~. nroy;o,c condition IF tho naOro
with no thought for the morrow was not
likely to develop thrift. In spite of
these financial and moral hindrances,
all through the Black Belt and the ad-
jacent country, plantations have been
rented to negroes in 'one-mule" farms
of from twenty-five to thirty acres each.
That is a notable advance to begin with.
The man, who is making for himself a
home and a future, is pretty safe to de-
velop good, sound common sense and
self-help. His commercial surroundings
have been hard upon him. In some
cases his rent equals half the value of
his farm. In others, his lack of ready
money makes him the victim of the
Shylock of the local store, who takes a
mortgage or his crop as security for his
current expenditure, II charges him
for the accommodation at the moderate
rate of twenty, twenty-five, and occa-
s~ionally one hundred per cent.
In spite of these obstacles, it is graft
flying to learn on the assurance of Mr.
Barrows, that in thousands Of instances
the colored people of the south are rap.
idly becoming farm owners and house
holders. In Marion county, Georgia.
for instance, so per cent. of the people
own their homes, and some of them have
large plantations. In Terrell county, il
the same state, in a small city of 10000
population, nearly all the colored people
own their dwellings, and live in houses
varying from one room TO eight. II
Montgomery, street after street is oWne(
by colored people. In Chattanooga, one
third own their own homes. Menta
advance keeps pace with material pros
psrity. The records of the patent ofiic
afford ample evidence of the adaptiv
and creative power of the colored mar
Printing presses, cotton cultivators
automatic switches for railroads, tele
phone transmitters are among the lis
of their approved successes, and in man
instances the inventor is gathering in
good financial harvest as the result {
his ingenuity.
For the cause Of education the negr
is willing to sacrifice a great deal. Ih
students of Atlanta pay "a per cen
of the expenses of the institution. TIL
Harvard mon do no more. The latte
have their expenses paid for them, til
former earn them by hard, earnest labo
Towards the support of one sectaria
school in North Carolina, the colore
people of a Methodist Episcopal churc
contributed no less a sum than $500
Hampton, Atlanta and Tuskegee, ar
even in the north, familiar names
bright institutions of learning, III
public school system is appreciated, I;
il deserves to be. In numerous instance
supplements" are levied and paid vii
cheerfulness to extend the length of
school term, or To provide better a
pliances and an increase of teachil
power. AS Mr.. Barrows sums up:
1t 10 clear that the new generate,
of Afric-Americans is animated
a progressive spirit. They are ra
49,. ,~l TIlA,r sba;r aun 1aala,