The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-02-05
ARP on THE EXODUS.
Every Race Has its Own Sir oracle ANU
the Coiored Race Seems to Have been
the Most Unfortunate OF AL

! EHOri the Al4auLa louStiLulioA.I
] OF course il was a trick-s0mebody 5
trick-this gathering of the negroes 10
90 to Africa. The mystery about 1t all
is that 81. .G2. They could have gotten
g Just as easy-maybe >. But it wasn I
the trick of our people. The cEedutlty
of the negro is amazing. One would
think they had learned something since
! freedom came-something about trust
lag strangers. The idea Of going to
! Africa for 81 and postage stamp would
convict anybody of lunacy. Two thou
sand of the dupes in Atlanta with their
tickets and as many more all along the
! line to Washington-all waiting for the
agent and the ships. Some went from
! Gainesville, and are Oh the road some
where. They won't talk. They are
bound to secrecy. They have been
! honGood. Education Goes not seem to
rid the negro Of the superstitlons and
vacaIies that belong to the race. Every
community has its oracle, its conJnrer,
its fortune teller. There is one over OH
the hill back of US. The women anc
the girls have more faith in her than III
their preacher. If one Of them loses
any;ning she goes to the old woman,
who listens to her story and floats some
coffee grounds in saucer and tells the
name of the thief, and generally tells
the truth, for she is smart and knows
her nabors. Ny daughters nurse went
to her yesterday to have her fortune
told, and said the old woman told her
she would get a present before night
from the good lady she was nursing for.
| Well, of course that was compliment,
| and my daughter dident 50 back on
, the colored oracle. Her good Will is
worth something when nurses are
/ scarce.
| But I was Illuminating about tie
exodus to Africa-not about the going,
but about the desire to go. Is it a sign
Of anything? Ever since L was boy
there has been talking and writing
aboilt the Jews going back to Jerusalem,
and sometimes the signs of it are pretty
good, but they have never made a start.
And now the wise men say that Provi-
| dence planned the slavery Of the negro
for his good and waited 100 years for
his civilization, and then sent Stanley
to Africa to get the Dark Continent
ready, and now that same Providence
is inclining his mind to go there, and
this is the beginning of the great
exodus that is to come. Well this may
be so or it may not be, but it is all
right if it is. Our people are willing
and waiting. But the negroes can't
swim and they can't be foated over for
81 l.G2. One thing is certain-they will
20 when their time comes and not be-
fore. This thing was tried half a cen
ture ago and it was too soon and dident
work. The Colonization Society meant
we'll and spent lots Of money. They
built ships and sent agents over to
Liberia to prepare the country for the
colony. They took over thousands and
thousands of negroes who had been set
free by their masters in Maryland and
Virginia, but they died like cattle with
the murrain. Most Of the states had
laws which forbade slaves from remain
ing in the state after they were set free.
They had to go north orgo to Liberia.
But still there was q great many free
negroes in the South-negroes who were
| born free-and they were = middle class
between the slaves and the white folks.
They were not up to the one nor down
TO the other. Like the Irishnlan's def
milton OF 4 fairy, They are the spirits
OF folks who are not quite good enough
for Heaven, but are leetle too good
for hell.n And so when freedom came
10 the slaves, the old-fashioned, high
toned free negro was in fix. His
middle station was knocked out and he
felt it keenly and was mad. He was
either down to the level of the ''com-
mon nigger" or they were brought up
! TO Dis. Most of them were respectable
muiatt0es and had trades and occupa-
lions in the towns like white folks.
| From that class all our southern bar
Uers came, but rs one Of them said to
me not long ago: II was always a
democrat, sir, and mixed with southern
gentlemen, sir. was in the Mexican
war, sir, and I was intimate with
| General Henry II. Jackson and Cover
nor Colquitt, and all the blooded stock.
| | associated with gentlemen, sir, be-
fore the war, but one day Mr.. Lincoln
took his pen in his hand and set all
these black niggers free, and, before
we knowed it, there was about 10000
new BARRIERS jumped up with brush
in one hand and 4 razor in the other
and we o!d-fashioned free niggers hain't
had any comfort since"
I knew one Of these high-strung
mulattoes who got rich, and owned
plantation, and bought some slaves and
worked them. He never forgavc the
yankees for taking bis property with
out paying him for it, and what was
worse, they raised up the other negroes
10 be his equals.
About fifty years ago an old gentle
man died in our county leaving large
estate and over 100 slaves. He left a
will in which he set free thirty-seyen
of them, aud directed that his eNecu-
| tors should send them to Liberia. He
charged that they should be provided