The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-03-15
A REVIVAL OF SLAVERY.

A REVIVAL OF SLAVERY.
The condition of affairs revealed in
South Carolina, by which the negroes
are virtually being reenslaved, has
called forth severe condemnation
throu ghout the north and calls for a
strong public sentiment which will
demand the handling of many affairs
from national standpoint in way
somewhat different than they have for
some years back. The disfranchise-
ment of the negro in spite of the con-
stitutional provision forbiding the
same by any state is only one of many
schemes which the south is working
upon the black man. Congress at it's
next session ought not only to take
steps looking to the bringing of the
provisions of constitutions in several
southern states which disfranchise the
negro before the supreme court for its
review, especially as to it's grand
father clause, but it should also thor
oughly investigate the conditi on of
affairs said to be existing in South
Carolina and doubtless other states as
we'll and see what if anything can be
done by federal authority to proven
the same. Commenting upon this
virtual revision of slavery the Pioneer
Press says.
1.-The noble Southron began has work
of invalidating the amendment against
slavery some years ago, by greatly
extending the Specification of the word
crime as applied to the acts of
negroes. Pretty nearly everything that
a negro could do, offensive to tastes
and sensibilities or against the inter-
ests of his white neighbor, was quickly
construed as a crime, and by this
process thousands of able bodied col
ored men were deprived of their lib
erty. The next step was to lease
these 'convicts' to work for contractors
on roads, in mines and on private
plantations. Being convicts, the chain
and ball, and the lash, so dear to the
Simon Legree type of Southron, could
be freely used in enforcing the per-
Torrance of involuntary labor. A
stockade guarded by sentinels at night
served to secure the 'lessees' of this
convict labor against loss by run
aways-and the sentinels never hest
tated to intiict the death penalty on
any negro attempting to get away. Of
course the system was found i'm
mensely profitable. But the supply of
state convicts could not, it seems be
kept up even with all the facilities
afforded by complaints judges and
juries for multiplying convictions.
So the custom was introduced of get
ting negroes who couldn't read to ig-
norantly sign contracts binding them
selves to certain amounts and kinds
of service The violation of one of
these contracts was made another
'crime" and stockades full of fresh
laborers were thus procured. Citizens
would also take it on themselves TO
arrest bands Of negroes found playing
craps, or otherwise engaged would
march them to Jail, give bond and
then compel the negroes to work for
them till the next term Of court, per-
haps six months away, when by a
sentence the term could be indefi-
nitely extended.
This system Of compulsory servi
tude has grown to such an extent as
to threaten the gradual practice re-es-
tablishment of slavery over large
areas Add to the leased convict
system and to the other processes of
depriving the negro of his liberty
outright, the practical prohibition of
removals by the blacks, and the ex
clusion Of labor agents seeking to Sc
cure men to work on railroads or on
plantati ons in distant regions where
better wages may be offered, and the
extent to which the freedom of the
negro is impaired is seen to be vastly
greater than is imagined. He has,
where these revivals of the old slave
master spirit have occurred, little OF
no liberty of contract; is forbidden to
seek other fields of opportunity; and
the man who offers him employment
elsewhere is threatened with tar and
feathers of he isn't shot or hanged
outright.
"Verily, there is work to be done
yet before the Spirit of Slavery,
scotched in the sixties shall be actually