The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1898-11-25
HISTORY OF THE RACE WAR IN
NORTH CAROLINA.

A subscriber writes US as to how the
race trouble arose in North Carolina.
We give below a complete history
taken from Sudnay's american.
ITO no part of the country does the
problem of negro domination present
such deplorable phases as to Eastern
North Carolina, the scene Of the re
cent race warfare. \ belt through
this section of the State is so thorough
ly colonized with negroes that at every
point the whites are outnunbered
two to one, and In much of the terri
tory greater ratio in favor of the
black man prevails. This COLOMBIA
ton undoubtedly dates from the
election of 1896, when Daniel l.. Rus
sell, Republican, became governor
of the State, receiving the undivided
negro vote, estimated at 10000, and
carrying 10000 white votes, Republi-
cans and gold Democrats.
The Republican Legislature amend
ed the county government laws of the
State, making county commissioners,
magistrates and other county officers
elective by popular vote; repeating
the previous law, which placed the
power of appointment of magistrates
in the hands of the State Legislature,
and the appointment of all county
officers in the hands of the county
commissioners.
This at once placed in the hands of
negro residents in counties where the
race predominated numerically the
power to nominate and to elect to
office members Of their own race-a
power which they at one appreciated
and began to exercise. Eastern North
Carolina soon had negro magistrates,
commissioners, justices OF the peace,
and hundreds of officials in every de-
partment of city and county negroes
experimenting education, finance and
the most enacting branches Of the
government. This section of the State
became famed through the South as
"black mans paradise" and the in
fiux from South Carolina, Georgia
and Virginia began. Ignorant and
corrupt idols of the black masses were
forced to the front and into power,
and each year has marked broad ex-
tension of the ofIice-holding number
of the race.
Wilmington, n. c., in the heart of
the black belt, suffered most severely
from the new-found political aspira-
tions of the negro, and from what is
considered an even worse element in
the community, the white men who, fer
personal advantage, swayed the sen
timent of these people by polite al
utilization with them.
With population of $4,000, VIII
mington is now the home of 1000
negroes, who, until the desperate
means of the whites triumphed, had Il
majority at the polls, which assured
perpetual power Meantime, the ad
ministratIon of the ctty's affairs be-
came more and more incompetent and
shiftIess. Negroes feeling their power,
became more and more insolent. The
police force, dominated by negroes,
became mere nonenity, and the la WIS
were openly violated. Life and prop
erty became unsafe, and the minority
white population, paying, paying
ninety-six per cent. of the taxes, was
completely at the mercy of the negro
element:
The final spark, to kindle blaze of
indignation and to serve as a unity
ing influence for all organized effort,
was the now well-known editorial
directed at the white women of the
city and the South generally, which
appeared in the Daily Record, the
negro organ of Wilmington, the editor
of which, Alexander Manly. was
recognized spokesman for his race in
the city.
This was the situation when the
campaign just closed drew near. Re
publican and fusion tickets began to
appear in the eastern counties, in
every instance showing the extended
dominion of the negro by his promin-
ence on the tickets, several of the
counties having solid black delega-
tions nominated for the state iegisia-
ture and for county offices. Desperate
at the outlook, the white men OF the
east determined on desperate means,
and the banner of white domination
at any cost" was raised. Citizens
unions, composed of leading business
and professional men, were formed