The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-04-20
Ollie Wessenger.
THE SOUTHERN NEGRO.

LILLE
No address has been made in the
south in a long time hat has attract
ed so much attention as the n de-
Hvered by Dr. Paul B. Barringer, of
the University of Virginia, and a
most worthy native son of North
Carolina His theme a The
American Negro; His Past and Fu-
ture-" The Messenger has thrice CALL
ed attention to 1t, and has quoted a
paragraph or two from it. He goes
back to show what the negro was.
He shows the character of the negro
in the past in his native home The
ably edited Richmond. Va. Central
Presbyterian, discussing The Negro
in the South" basing it upon DR..
Barringer's instructive discussion We
max a long extract, and it will be
read with interest for it is strictly true.
1t says:
1.-The bringing the negro to America
appeal to be for the white race the
greatest folly of history. American
slavery for two centuries of savage
life, and by teaching it to respect, to
obey, and to work, has given 1t the
discipline that was needfuI. So far as
there was contact with superior classes
of whites there was the response of
loyalty and affection, and in this de-
pendent position of slavery the ne
groes were greatly improved.
Tn. great bulk of the southern ne
groes, however, were not house ser
wants, but field hands; and by far the
greater number were in the black belt,
the extensive section where the ne
gros greatly outnumber the whites,
n in small degree have felt the up
lifting power of contact with Superiors.
With emancipation came citizenship,
politics and equality, and with all this
a come, DR.. Barringer thinks, a
steady and rapid return to savage
conditions. 1t has been attempted to
give to the mass of this African race
but two hundred years removed from
many centuries of savag and cannibal
life, an education altogether unsuited
and injurious. The negroes where few
in number in the midst of white pop
ulations, as is generally true in the
north, and as is true in the more
northern section of the southern states
are still largely influenced n upheld
from utter degradation by their re-
cations to the whites. But in the
greater part of the south, where they
are segregated and left to themselves,
they nave in this second generation
lost many of the benefits of slavery
liz II TeidpSlHS mo d DdTDdrOuS
and avage condition. The state of
things in some sections is such as to
lead to either one or two results, either
that these sections will be forSaken by
the whites, or there will come a race
war that can only end in the exter-
mination of the blacks"
h is clear n easily understood.
In considering the negroes in the
south we keep in mind the very i'm
pOrtant essential distinction The Mes
senger has often presented. There are
wv great classes among the negroes.
They are as different as any two ma
tiOnalities in Europe. The Portuguese
and the Frenchmen are not more I'M
like than the two classes among south
ern negroes. DR.. Barringer points
them out. From the one class come
the respectful, decent, Industrious, So
: Der, worthy people between whom and
the whites there is always a good I'M
~derstanding. From the other class
come the robbers and thieves, the
murderers and rapists, the house
burners and rowdies.
The necessity of denying the right to
vote worst elements as we'll as to the
most ignorant, is apparent to all peo-
pie of sense who understands the real
conditions in the south. The egr
vote-the illiteracy and ignorant-must
be eliminated, and hence forth prevent
it from following the lead of de-
praved white men, who use them to the
positive injury and robbing of the
state, and the oppression of the best
elements among the whites. We can
not doubt hat turning o one-half
of the negro vote in North Carolina,
and thus preventing the rule of ras-
Gals and thieves, will in the end prove
a vast blessing to both races, and re-
store much of the good will between
the races sacrificed by the greedy lust
of office of bad whites using so DAM
-agingly the facile, eager and swift
black voters who do their bidding.
That the negroes must be Chris
TANNED as fast as it is possible to do
so will not be gainsaid by observant.
rejecting people. They need the white
contact and the white teaching. The
Central Presbyterian, with wisdom and
insight:
Among them there is now a vast
amount of so-called religion, in which
there is neither intelligence nor NOR
atty, and a multitude of preachers
who, in large degree, are examples of
evil, and a curse to their people. Be-
yond a doubt there is q vast field here
in our home land for the wisest and
most persistent efforts that Christian
missionaries can make"