The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-10-16
SARGE PLUNKETT.
The Part That the Negro Has Played
Since Emancipation.
Atlanta Constitution.

Atlanta Constitution.
Whenever I get to studying about
the negro, I cannot help but think
how frail is human judgment upon
great questions.
If such men as old Horace Greely
and Thad Stevens and Summer-such
as these-could look upon the pros
poets of the New England States to-
day, I would not be alonein my aston
ishment of the turn that matters have
taken.
Years ago the New England politi-
clans used as an argument against slav-
cry that the South would start manu-
factories and use the slaves as opera
tives. This kind of talk was used
much among the mill operatives Of the
North whenever any agitation Of the
tariff came up. The stump speakers
fired the minds Of the operatives in
this way, when the probability was
that the South had no thought nor
desire of being other than an agricul-
tural section, and to-day if slavery
existed the New England mill opera
tive would be secure in his situation
and the mill owners would not be
menaced by competition that they
cannot Withstand.
l have changed my notions about
the negro to such an extent that | feel
shaky on all questions Of judgment,
but it makes me smile to think Of how
little the Northern mill operatives
think of themselves when they remem-
ber how they used to throw up their
hats for abolition and of how, since
the var, they lent their aid in making
the pursuit Of agriculture in the South
80 demoralizing.
We folks down South used to say
that the negro would never be free,
but they are free, and they we're freed
by the North.
I never did believe that a negro
could be educated, but he can. I have
seen the day when I would have
thought it all right to lynch fellow
for bringing the New York Tribune
into Georgia, and yet I saw the time
when Horace Greely was Dragged on
and /, myself, waltzed up and voted
for him.
When Thad Stevens and Sumner,
and many others, were so severe on
the South after the war, and said that
the negro must vote, l thought the
world would sink if they did, but the
world did not sink, and to-day the
South would kick harder than the
North if any move was made to take
their suffrage from them.
I have watched the negro for long
time, and my judgment has been
mighty bad as to his outcome, and as
to the changes.
The young generation Of whites
need stirring up just at this time.
They need not be deluded with the
idea that because they are so much
better than the negro, there is no
necessity for them to make any effort,
for I tell you that the men who get
the situations and do the work will
have the money, and moneywill make
them property owners and respectable
to an extent that may be surprising.
[ have had many surprises in the past
thirty years, but it tickles me that the
yankees are surprised, too.
There is one consolation that is sug-
gestiye by the remembrance Of what
a time We had during the war, will be
all right during the next war. Going
to the factory during the war was as
big thing as going to California
would be now, and after going you
were in good luck to get bunch or
two of thread. There was mighty few
factories in Georgia, and they were
only factories to make thread-at best
a little white cloth. These were al
ways crowded. the women from radius
of so miles congregating there. It
was sight to see the women and chill
dren camped around these factories
waiting for an opportunity to secure
thread. The factory managers requir.
ed these women to form in line and
march by window, or door, and take
their thread in turn. The rules were
strict, and if a woman broke ranks
she had to go foot. Thus it was that
many poor woman had to stand in
line for several hours before her turn
would come. It may seem strange to
the young generation, but it is fact,
and that is why I have often said that
yankees knew nothing of war and that
Southern women done the real suffer-
ing.
I have seen sights at these factories
that seem strange in these times. One
time, I remember, when there was
seven or eight hundred Of these wo-
men in line, some of them having been
there till they could hardly stand from
weakness, there came word from the
factory managers that no more thread
would be let out for Confederate
money.
The information was that the women
must either have meat, bacon or gold,
as the factory had as much of the
Confederate money as they could find
storage for.
This seemed to strike the women as
wrong, and without any previous un-
derstanding they made one grand rush
altogether, determined to have the
thread anyway.
A scene ensued, the like Of which
was never seen in Georgia before and
/ hope will never be seen again. The
factory with all that was in it was
soon at the mercy Of these desperate
women, made desperate by the wrongs
heaped upon them by spectators
while their husbands were away fight
ing the battles.
They sacked the mill and scattered
to their homes in the full belief that
their actions had been justified. It
may seem wrong now, and it did look
had at the time. but it was war times