The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1900-10-04
GOOD OLD SAM PITTS
Bill Arp Writes About an Old tx
Slave.
SOME OF NEGUO'S SAYINGS
Difference Between Negroes Nova
days and Those of Ante-Belium
Times.

Uncle Sam is dead. Good old Sam
Pitts. He never changed his name
when freedom came. "My old master
was a good man." he said. Oar was
good people den and bad people jes
like dar is now-black and white, but
de black has got wusSer and wusser
since dey got free. Effen q black man
had a good master he was might" well
0ff, fer he didn't have no sponslbilltg
Effen | bin sho of a good master and
my wife and children been sho Of one
and we all live together ontill We die
/ wouldent keer anything bout freedom.
Niggers got too much freedom anyhow.
MY old master used to make de Niger
gals get married and take man and
stick to him, but nowadays dev don't
marry at all hardly. | got a lot or
grandchildren what haint got no daddy
to speak of and don't know my sons
in-law. Dey don't come about in day
time. Oats what killed my old woman.
She les so mortified and so shamed
she never got over 1t. SO many spur
ious children all round calm her
granny. Effen a white woman do dat
way she as disgraced, but a black
oman don't keer; she shine as big as
ever and dev don't turn her outen de
church. lDde old times she got d
whippin and de ort to have it yet.
White folks dun quit whippin bad mig
gers: dey send EN- to chaingang, anu
dey don't keer for dat. | hear dat dar
is four or FIVE thousand in dar from
Georgy. How's dat-.dident have nary
one before de war. Gwine to school
too much spek and work too little.
Don't know what is gwine to come OF
all desc grown up niggers. Oar Is
dozen or more round de depot or
trampin' around town doin' nuthin all
de time-livin' often dey mammies and
snokindese little paper Seegars.
Old Uncle Sam dident talk much, but
sometimes he would lean on his hoe or
his ak and spress his feelins. 1t did
him good. He has been chopping my
wood and helping me in the garden for
thirteen years and we will miss him.
He fell down paralyzed with his hoe IN
his hand. He was 1.-The man with the
hoe" to the very last, but he never was
Door. for he made a good living and
had many friends and owned a COM
Portable house and lot. They sent II
my wife for some grave clothes and ne
will be buried in right decent suit OF
mine and We will go to his funeral.
! was Illuminating about this good o.d
s-negro who had seen thrity-three years
of slavery and thirty-seven or free
dom and knew the good and the bad
of both conditions and then my thought
wandered to the malignity OF those
who have slandered us so long With
out a cause Here is book OF poems
gy John G. Whittier and thirty-seVen
of them are pitiful appeals for the poor
slave and invoking heavens curses
upon his master. He knew no more
about slavery as it really was than lie
did about Barbara Freitchie and he fed
the Young people of New England
upon poetic lies for thirty years and
instilled into their hearts that hatred
from which they; have recovered.
Strange it is that smart people VIII
write about things they have never
seen. Now, the idea of an uneducated
negro slave getting down on his knees
and making an apostrophe to the north
star-and yet that is the title OF che OF
the poems-"The Slaves Apostrophe 70
the North Star" That niger was pos
sum hunting right then, but the poet
makes him to say:
Star of the North. look to thee,
Thy light and truth shall set me free.
But enough of this. The question
still survives what will become of the
negro. And that other question looms
up before us. what will we do with TO-
100000 more of them over IN the
Philippines? A more senseless war
was never waged. 1t was corceiVed!n
sin and is being carried on in inlqulty.
Prosperityi Yes, it is war that
CLOSES over suffering and death and
grief with a coat of prosperity. But II
is nothing but a coat. War always
produces a semblance Of prosperity. tor
armies have to be fed and clothed ana
eouipped. Ships have to be built and
.annon made and thousand Things
collateral to these show activity ana
give employment to labor and TO capt.
tai. This activity began with the Gu
han embroglio and still goes on, bat
in the long run somebody will have TO
foot the money bill The bill for blood
and suffering will never be paid. Who
wants the war but contractors who
are growing rich from their profits?
When | was last in Texas heard
cattle man say he hoped that Russia
and England would get up a fight. Tor
he had 100000 head of cattle that
ant