The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-19
GOING BACK TO AFRICA.
ARKANSAS NEGROES ON THEIR
WAY TO LIBERIA.

Twsnty-three and a Half of Them Ar
rive Here and TO Leave To-day on
Their Way to Africa-The Party
Made Up by a Washington COLOMBIA
ton Society Why They Are Leey-
ing This Country.
Twenty-three and one-haIt negro emf
grants for Liberia arrived in Savannah yes
terdaY morning over the Central. The one
half is ''R. R." for child travelling on half
fare.
There are several children under age in
the party. for whom no fare is charged, the
whole party numbering about thirty. Itcou-
sists Of Henry Goodwin, Andrew Montgom-
cry, William Coleman, Rev. J. 7. Thorn
ton. George Washington. John Timber
lake. Sam Patterson. and James
Williams, and their families.
They have tickets from McCrory, Ark, to
New York, via the Georgia Pacific, the
Central railroad and the Ocean Steamship
Company. They travel second-class and
their tickets to New York cost them Just
SIG each. They leave this morning by the
City OF Augusta for New York, where they
expect to find a steamship for Liberia
awaiting them. The whole cost Of the trip
to Liberia is estimated at 1928 65.
WHY THEY ARE GOING.
A MORNING NEWS reporter saw the party
yesterday, at the Central railroad depot,
and talked with some Of them. They are
hearty looking crowd, well clothed and
with well fed appearance, and
above the average for intelligence.
Contrary to the usual story they do not
regard Liberia as an Ell Dorado, where money
can be had for picking it up aud bread and
meat grow on trees. They are going to
Liberia with the expectation Of working
for living, and all they ask is health and
opportunity. AS it is probably the first
party of the kind that ever left this country
Tor Liberia with such practical ideas, they
may be a little more successful than the
average Liberian emigrant from this
country.
TOO MANY NEGRoRs.
Their reasons for leaving their homes 10
Arkansas are also different from that COM
monty given or ascribed to colored emil
grants seeking more congenial localities.
No outrages were perpetrated upon them
| and they were not driven from their homes
| ny brutal white men. Neither was
the land exhausted and q living
| no longer to be secured from it.
On the contrary, according to their own
statements, they have left the richest ooun-
try on earth, where they made a bale Of
cotton to the acre without fertilizers, and
other products III proportion. Their reason
for leaving was novel and unusual. The
country was becoming overcrowded with
negroes.
"How is that?" one Of them was asked.
BLOCKING IN BY HUNDREDS.
"Why, they are coming in there from
Mississippi at the rate Of 500 or 900 every
month ~ tho raplx rba /.
getting too crowded with 'em."
In explanation OF this he
said the planters started the
movement several years ago by bringing
large bodies of negroes from Mississippi
and other states 10 work on the farms. Then
the negroes took up the movement them
selves and began moving in crowds. Now
there are more of them than the country
will support, and as many as possible are
making arrangements to move out. The
majority OF them are preparing to move
into Oklahoma as soon as the Cherokee strip
is opened up.
The attention of this party and many
others was called to Liberia by circulars
sent out by William Coppinger. "secre-
tary and treasurer, Colonization rooms, 45O
PENNSYLVANIA avenue, Washington, D. c."
They determined to try Liberia. There are
between 200 and 800 others who are prepar-
ing 70 follow them this fall.
PROMISED A FARM EACH.
They did not have any Of the circulars
with them, but said they were promised
twenty-five acres Of land to each family and
six months supplies and credit for such
farming tools and other things that they
needed. Tho party is from Woodruff
county, near Little Eock. Most Of the older
ones are originally from Georgia. One
woman in the party, Mat Patterson, left
Savannah seventeen years ago, and went to
see her mother yesterday in Savannah
for the first time in that
number of years. Some of the party took
in the sights of the city yesterday, and
seemed so well pleased that it would not
have taken much persuasion to have pre-
vailed upon them to stay here.
The party camped last night in the colored
waiting room at the Central railroad depot.
They have photographed Secretary and Treas
urer Coppinger to meet them at New York,
and they expect to sail for Liberia about
March l.