The age-herald., 1901-06-27
AIabama's "Blaokest9 County.

AIabama's "Blackest" County.
 Some population figures relative to Lowndes County. just issued from the census office, will astonish people who are not familiar with race conditions in that 'blackest" of all the "black counties of Alabama
 Of the county's total population of S5, 651, only 4.762 are white, leaving 30,SS9 ne- groes, or about seven negroes to one white person. In the county there are but 2,41S white males, of whom about HOO are adults as against 15,192 negro males. Thus eleven hundred men control and dominate s5,651 people. Lowndes being largely a county of large plantations, there are probably not exceeding 75O land- owners within it's bounds.
 The white females in the county num- Der 2,S49, as compared to 15,697 negro fe- males
 Of the 4,762 whites, the one considerable town of Ft. Deposit contains about one- fourth.
 As proof that Lowndes is of the South almost strictly Southern, 1t may be point ed out that there are in the county but twenty-one foreign born persons. seven teen males and four females and but seventy persons native born of foreign born parents, thirty-three males and thir- ty-seven females.
 The seventeen foreign born males are understood to be Jewish and pure Teu- tonic, engaged in the mercantile business.
 All these facts and figures concerning one of the oldest, richest, and most fam ous of all the Blackbelt counties are of startling interest to all Alabamians and to the country at large.
 Eleven hundred white men dominate this great County of Lowndes in every detail, pay practically all the taxes, keeping up | all the schools, and governing the entire | population. Eleven hundred men pay the taxes that keep open for five months in the year the public schools for a negro population of more than 5000. More properly. 1t should be said, the 75C (estimated landowners keep up the schools for the more than 5000 landless thriftless, and irresponsible blacks! A'O NOdhlJ III <1ldOdIIld lSlI III ulOT6 Op- pressive degree than Lowndes the yoke ot negro rule in the days of carpetbagger- negro-bayonet government; and what made that infamy all the harder to bear was the fact that at least three-fourths oi the county had been owned for genera tions by 8 comparatively few landed slave-owning aristocrats. Slave-labor directed by wise and benign gentlemen masters, made that territory, which had | been almost the densest of Southern will | dernesses, to literally blossom as the rose | Travellers in Lowndes today may see | fast vanishing vestiges of the splendid | rose gardens and opulent orchards and | vineyards of the masters that are gone every one of them gone; for not one of the old great ones of that great county still stoops to the things of this earth not one Is there to see 750 of his race practically keeping open schools for edu- eating the children of the 3O,00O descend- ants of the former slaves.
 The county of Lowndes was created by the State Legislature Januray 20, 1880, and named for the great South Caro- | linian. William Lowndes. It's county | seat is Hayneville, so named in honor of that other illustrious South Carolinian, | Robert Young Hayne, who made the | celebrated reply to Webster in the Senate of the United States. The county was settled largely by South Carolinians, and in 1t there are various South Caro- | lima place names, such as Lowndesboro, Mt. Willing, Manack, Sandy Ridge, Call | houn, and so on.