The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-10


Vided penalty of 80 lashes for so do
ing. The other states, with few excep-
TONS either passed laws which probib-
TIED the teaching of negroes to read or
write, or such laws as gave school ad-
Nantages only to whites. In the effort
70 accumulate wealth the negro met
quite as much opposition and discour-
agement as in his efforts to obtain an
education. With all the above men
toned and many more burdens and
disadvantages the negro struggled up
grade, and when the curse of slavery
plunged the nation into civil war it
found few of the race in possession
of some wealth and education. When
treason's hand was placed upon the ma
tons throat, the negro offered his SER
vices to defend the flag that had re-
warded him nothing. nothing but mis-
cry and hardship for past services.
His services We're rejected and he was
told at the same time that it was
white mans war. But. when defeat
seemed almost certain. his services
were accepted, and throughout the war
he proved himself neither coward nor
traitor. A host of reliable witnesses
could be produced to prove how nobly
he fought, but We do not deem it nee
essary, for the record is well known.
OF the 1880 negroes who entered the
United States volunteer service, 36.S75
When the war was over, the negro
found himself in possession of liberty,
but ignorant and poverty stricken. The
1900, 600 eX-slaveS were homeless. Even
the one-room hut was theirs no longer.
They had no one to provide for them,
and knew not how to provide for them
selves. 1t had taken but short time
to realize that it was sink or swim,
and they willingly took their places
among the toiling millions of American
laborers. Those who remained on the
plantations found employment at star
walton wages. Some worked on shares
with the owners: and others leased
small patches of land. AT the end of
the year these invariably found them
selves in debt to the owners. after
turning over all the crops. Those who
sought employment elsewhere met with
refusal, except where the least desir-
able and hardest labor was to be per-
formed.
with liberty came also the opportu-
nifty for intellectual improvement. With
the assistance of many of the liberty
loving white people of the North the ne
gro began to build churches and school
houses, that he might obtain religious
and intellectual education In many
localities as fast as these places We're
built the reasonable hands that had
just failed in their efforts to destroy
the union applied the torch and burned
them down. Such was the condition
of the negro race when they began
their career as freemen.
THE writer does not believe that he
has overdrawn the picture, but has
left unmentioned many of the inhuman
and brutal wrongs, which did so much
toward degrading negro manhood and
Womanhood. Thirty-six years have
passed away. The negro race in
America presents a different pic
ture.
Instead of four and one-half mil
lions of ignorant pennyless, nameless
and dependent beings we see 5000 900
of self-supporting, industrious, law
adding citizens, with a smaller per-
centage of criminals, loafers and OBJ
| jects of charity than can be found
among the white American citizens.
And not one anarchist or traitor. In
| stead of the one-room cabin for the
| family, they have houses with rooms
| sufficient for the decent accommodate
| ton of a family: and many thousands
| of homes of refinement and culture,
| where truth and virtue are just as
| sacred as in any of the homes of our
white fellow citizens.
"All over this land we have churches
presided OVER by pastors of our own
| race variety, with hundreds of thou
| sands of members. The African Meth
odist Episcopal church, with men,
| bership of 10000, with $3.50 churches.
5,125 ministers, Al schools and colleges.
| with every department managed by
| negroes. is enough to disprove the claim
| of those who say we are incapable of
| self government. We have charitable
and fraterna societies wherever there
are any number of negroes. In the
ranks of professional men may be
| found many eminent negroes. We have
mechanics of all grades. Our repre-
| sentatives in the military service of the
| country have proven themselves brave
and patriotic and willing to sacrifice
| their lives in defense of their white
comrades and the stars and stripes,
which permits their brothers to be
| slaughtered without mercy by lawless
mobs, shooting, hanging and burning
them at the stake, for any real OF
! imaginary crime without trial or con-
! victon. Much more could be truth
fully said to the credit of the negro
race of their progress in 36 years, but
we believe that sufficient has been said
to enable us to say what the race may
| be reasonably expected to accomplish
| in the future, and to say without fear
| of successful contradiction, that his
| tory cannot furnish US with the record
| of any race that has made as great
| progress along religious, intellectual
| and financial lines, under like condi-
| TONS as has the negro race. If in sc
| years the negro could make the prog