The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-04-23
Living Issues.
RELATIONS OF THE WHITES TO THE
BLACKS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

Address Delivered by President Geo. 7. Win
ston, of the North Carolina A. and N. Col
lege, Before The American Academy Of
Social and Political Science, Philadelphia,
Pa, April, Is, 1901.
Since the abolition of slavery a
great change has taken place in the
relations of the whites to the negroes
in the Southern States. This change
has been one not merely of owner
ship and legal authority, but Of per-
sonal interest, of moral influence, of
social and industrial relations.
To-day there is practically n So
cial intercourse between the two
races excepting such as exists be-
tween the negroes and the most de-
graded whites. 1t was far different
in slavery. Then the two races
mingled freely together, not on
terms of social equality, but in very
extented and constant social inter
course. In almost every household
the children of the two races played
and trolicked together, or hunted,
fshed and swan together in the
fields, streams and forests. During
my childhood and boyhood the
greater portion of my play-time was
spent in games and sports with ne
groes. Scarcely any pleasure was so
great to a Southern child as playing
with negroes. In the long summer
evenings we would plaT and rOmp
until bed time in the spacious yard
surrounding the house, or in the
garden or neighbOring fields. / re-
member we'll how the evenings would
fly by, and how my mother would
grant repeated extensions Of time,
"just to play one more game of fox
and geese, or hide the-switch." Some
of the songs that we sang and some
of the games that we played, part
singing, part acting, part dancing,
still linger in my memory and carry
me back to the happiness of child
hood. Always in my childhood mem
cries, especially in happy memories,
/ find associated together my mother,
my home, and the negro slaves. But
the social intercourse between the
races in the South, which vas so
helpful to the blacks, has now prac-
ticaIly ceased. The children of this
generation no longer play and frOlic
together, white ladies no longer visit
negro cabins.
When emancipation came, at the
close of the Civil War, it was under
stood by the average negro to mean
freedom from labor. Freedom, le s.
ure, idleness was now his greatest
pleasure. How delightful it vas to
tell old master now that you had
business in town and couldn't work
to day to leave the pillow and hoe
idle to meet other negroes on the
streets, to spend the day lOafing,
chatting, shouting, often times drink
ing and dancing or q~uarrelling and
fighting. SambO was DOW a gentle
man of leisure, and he enjoyed it to
the full. 1t was easy TO live in the
South. The mild climate and fertile
soil, the abundance of game in forest
and stream, the bOuntiful supply of
wild fruits, the accessibility of for
ests with fire wood free to all, the
open handed generosity and univer-
sal c-arelessness of living made it pos
sible for the average negro to idle
away at least half his time and yet
live in tOlerable comfort.
The national government, to guard
against distress among the negroes
and to prevent oppression by the
whites, neither of which was at all
possible, nov estabi- ed throughout
the South, for the distribution of
food and clothing and the admins
tratiOn of justice between the races,
the Freedman's Bureau. This insti-
tuition was in every respect most IN
to run away from his old masters
corn field and his appeals to work in
order to enjoy the free bounty of the
Federal Government. l knew a negro
TO walk one hundred miles in order
to obtain half Il bushel of corn meal
from the bureau. In the time re
quired he might have earned by
labor four and half bushels, or nine
times what he got by begging. But
the evils of idleness, although great,
would soon have passed away, if the
two had been left alone. The
Southern whites were familiar with
and very tolerant of the negro's
weaknesses and petty vices. They