The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-05-29

OdIOl1lld, III 1OOA , SoF0 80
schools of their own.
cat the breaking out of hostll1t1es
between the North and the South IN
1861 those people, grown up in igno-
rance but quietly cultivating their
little farms, were rudely awakened
by the Confederate authorities con-
scripting them and using them as
laborers to build the immense sand
fertilization at New Inlet, on the
Cape Fear River, known as Fort
Fisher the same Notifications SO Gel
ebrated as having been the scene OF
the greatest naval bombardment OF
the worlds history, as compared
with which an officer who was at Sc
bastopol said:
"'The siege of ~sebastopol as com
pared with the siege at Fort
Fisher was but child's play
1.-THE work was hard, the Croatan
murmured; he then deserted and
fed to the swamps Of his native
heath. The conscripting officers
pursued them. Arresting an old
Indian, they asked him why he de-
serted. He told them that he did
not want to work or fight for a people
who treated him so unjustly that
before 1886 he voted, he went to
school, but since then he had been
deprived of both, and that he would
neither work nor fight for the Con
federacy. And thus it was they
were arrested and deserted. When
at the close of the war many of them
were in hiding, they committed acts
of depreciation, for which they were
properly outlawed, and then arose
the band known as the Henry Berry
Lowery gang. For years they be-
came a terror to the country, and in
the early seventies this band Of In
dams shot down and killed % white
men from first to last among the
wea1thiest, the bravest, and best men
of that country. The leader, Henry
Berry Lowery, was finally killed,
peace and quiet was again restored,
and under the benign influence and
rule of our people, i~naugurated in
the year 1887. they + becoming
good citizens.
''There is still much ignorance and
a strong propensity to violate the
internal ven laws among some
few of them, but it is because they
know not the sinfulness of the viO-
lation of law. They from time i'm
memorial have raised fine fruit and
grain, and have always distilled
brandy and whisky, and, like some
other citizens, they feel that it is an
unjust interference with the natural
rights to prevent them from con-
~verting their waste products into a
salable article. Many of the cases. in
our United States courts for manu-
featuring without license r from
among these people. They T and
have always been a distinct people.
They are true friends, but bitter and
implacable enemies.
"They are brave, but reckless.
They are honest in their dealings.
They are intensely religious. They are
restless, active, and energetic. In
dolence and sloth are not known
among them. They T eager for
education. They T capable of in
tellectual and moral development,
as is attested by some among them.
A number have become successful
merchants. One of them filed the
position of United States Senator
from one of our sister Southern
States. The descendant of another
has become a member of Congress.
"Now, these are the people COM
mended to the kind consideration of
the American Congress. Their school
facilities are poor. By extending
them aid you r giving expression
in substantial form to that noble
sentiment of justice inherent in our
people and which has urged our Gov
eminent to make large apprOpria-
tons for the education and support
of Indian tribes which pass each
session of Congress. No tribe is en-
titled to more at our hands and if
in the providence of God they be ele-
waited by a sound moral and mental
training inaugurated by the Govern
ment, history will yet say that Sir
Walter Raleigh did not plant his
colony in vain, and there will yet
arise some gifted American writer